Hunter's Run

This book is thought provoking in that there is no real hero. There is an anti hero that you can have some respect for and that will have to do. The book held my attention and I am in awe of the authors who had the imagination to write it. Some very interesting twists and turns. I would recommend it to sci fi fans and maybe others that just like a good tale.

i wasn't too excited about this one because three authors had to write it to finish it... how could such a short novel take three authors? but, because g.r.r.m. hasn't finished the next ice and fire book i decided what the heck, i'll try hunter's. i was drawn into the story almost from the beginning. it was a great book. the ending was a little slow for me, but up until the beginning of part 4 i thought it was exciting and well paced. ramon is a great character, and in g.r.r.m. fashion, you end up loving him even though he is a son of a b.

It took me almost an hour to warm up to the characters and the story -- but once I was into it, I was hooked. The story line is surprising and original. The main character is attractive, smart, repulsive, irritating, well-meaning and complex. The book straddles sci-fi and fantasy, with a strong lean toward sci-fi.

Combining the best elements of a human story with the cool effects of sci fi, this is a good example of a story that goes beyond being just another space romp. Great characters and a cool plot twist are worth mentioning.

At first, I didn't think I'd like this book. The characters were mundane, stereotyped, even if they were set in a future time and place. That vision of the future wasn't particularly engaging either.

However, early in the book a surprise about the main character is revealed, and the book becomes lots more interesting. Once that happens, there are many more surprises, lots of good plot twists, which kept my ear glued to my iPod.

I highly recommend this book.

I don't know how much Martin contributed to this book (I haven't read the other two authors), but if he ever finishes his current fantasy series, he might do well as a sci-fi writer. Far from being another space opera, Hunter's Run is written in a gritty, Hemingway-esque style that builds psychological drama on top of simple scenes involving one or two characters. It also includes some aliens who really are rather alien, and the writing's pretty effective for sci-fi.

The story would work a bit better if the protagonist wasn't so unlikable at the outset, or at least had a few more facets to his personality, but, if the reader manages to get past that and a somewhat plodding man-versus-alien sequence, the book rewards with a taut, gripping second half. And the hero does become more empathetic. Not a flawless work of science fiction, but a very good one, and worth checking out if you're a fan of the genre or of George RR Martin.

Great story. Never slows down, never leaves you hanging. Although the ending is not a hanger, I wish they would write a part 2.

It's got everything, well almost.

It's got time travel. It's got aliens. It's got violence. It's got genocide. It's got sex. It's got corruption, It's got a protagonist but it DOESN'T have a hero.

I'll be listening to this again, for sure.

There is a lot of swearing/adult content (i.e. domestic violence is normalized) which makes it unsuitable for younger people, but the lack of sophistication through the middle part of the story makes it too young for most adult readers (i.e. any reasonable adult would not keep trying to solve every problem with violence).

If you've read C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet you'll definitely see in the middle part of the story where at least one of these authors was influenced by that with his "describe the alien and every event in which it is involved with the highest conceivable level of detail" In this 4 hour segment, the descriptions of urination, laughter, or "being a man" is excessive and makes for very tedious listening.

The first couple and the last few hours show there is a decent story line in here with some surprises and an interesting premise. Excluding the middle part, it has a tone similar to Richard Morgan's Market Forces or Thirteen.

If it had consisted of only the first 3 hours and the last 3 hours, I'd have given this story a 4 or 4.5.

This was a great sci-fi story: alien/human - not quite Ursula Le Guin, but interesting from start to finish!