SS Mann Hunt :

Rating:
Summary: Falls short! (Even books can fall under their own weight!)
Review: Brief thoughts:

Chapters 1 and 2 are slow-moving. I actually had decided to quit reading the book-maybe come back to it later. Then I read Chapter 3; I was hooked. Chapter 4 made me feel like I was in the story. Chapter 6 disturbed me....

Brad narrates his adventure in a Brazilian jungle with Kurt and Jim. They search for answers to how and why their fathers disappeared. Was Kurt's father a Nazi? Brad also describes the sex he has with Kurt.

Most of the sex could have been left in the editing room, especially from Chapter 4 (it fits, just much too long) and one sequence in Chapter 6 (which I found a bit juvenile-and completely gross). The story works without the sex....

....until the end. It feels contrived. Either William Maltese painted himself into a corner, or the publishers told him to end it.

My guess is that the story is set in the 1970s, but Brad is telling it in the 1980s or 1990s-sometime after the release of "Jaws" and "First Blood".

Non-sexual part of the story gets 4 stars...some characters do not seem right, and the end does not feel true. Sexual part of the story gets 2 stars. It is mostly unnecessary, and some of it is "perverse" even to me. The sex actually takes away from the adventure story...but then again, it really depends on what each reader is looking for.

Overall Average: 3 stars-high end.


Rating:
Summary: It's a one handed read
Review: If you're a fan of gay erotica, you owe it to yourself to read "SS Mann Hunt" by William Maltese. Maltese has once again shown us how well he can write in this genre. Similar to his "Conspiracy of Ravens" in that the explicit sex scenes are supported by a good story, "SS Mann Hunt" is an excellent blend of both.
We find three men, Brad and Kurt, who are ex lovers from their teenaged years, and Jim, searching for their respective fathers who vanished under mysterious circimstances years before in the South American jungle of Brazil. Complicating the mystery, Kurt Mann's father is suspected of ties to Nazi Germany, in addition to the possible murder of his friends' fathers in the Amazon jungle. If he can, he and Brad hope to rekindle the relationship of their youth without the spectre of those unwanted questions of Kurt's father as obstacles. Although they are all experienced spelunkers, their search leads them into some tight spots involving underground caves, unexpected and sudden flooding, and other surprises.
If the outcome of the relationship between Brad and Kurt is in doubt, their passion for one another not. In true Maltese form, Brad and Kurt show us in explicit detail just how passionate they are, and how they manage to overcome fatigue, jungle heat, imagined (or real) shadowy figures tracking their every move, and their own doubts about the wisdom of their quest, to express their mutual enjoyment of each other. In addition to the frequent scenes of erotica, Maltese's wit finds expression in both the narrative and dialog and keeps the reader enthusiastically along for the ride. Complete with a surprise ending, "SS Mann Hunt" is an excellent exploration into the Brazilian jungle and the land of gay erotica. For those looking for a story that will keep their attention, without being so weighty that they can't enjoy the real purpose of the book, "SS Mann Hunt" is highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: It's a one handed read
Review: If you're a fan of gay erotica, you owe it to yourself to read "SS Mann Hunt" by William Maltese. Maltese has once again shown us how well he can write in this genre. Similar to his "Conspiracy of Ravens" in that the explicit sex scenes are supported by a good story, "SS Mann Hunt" is an excellent blend of both.
We find three men, Brad and Kurt, who are ex lovers from their teenaged years, and Jim, searching for their respective fathers who vanished under mysterious circimstances years before in the South American jungle of Brazil. Complicating the mystery, Kurt Mann's father is suspected of ties to Nazi Germany, in addition to the possible murder of his friends' fathers in the Amazon jungle. If he can, he and Brad hope to rekindle the relationship of their youth without the spectre of those unwanted questions of Kurt's father as obstacles. Although they are all experienced spelunkers, their search leads them into some tight spots involving underground caves, unexpected and sudden flooding, and other surprises.
If the outcome of the relationship between Brad and Kurt is in doubt, their passion for one another not. In true Maltese form, Brad and Kurt show us in explicit detail just how passionate they are, and how they manage to overcome fatigue, jungle heat, imagined (or real) shadowy figures tracking their every move, and their own doubts about the wisdom of their quest, to express their mutual enjoyment of each other. In addition to the frequent scenes of erotica, Maltese's wit finds expression in both the narrative and dialog and keeps the reader enthusiastically along for the ride. Complete with a surprise ending, "SS Mann Hunt" is an excellent exploration into the Brazilian jungle and the land of gay erotica. For those looking for a story that will keep their attention, without being so weighty that they can't enjoy the real purpose of the book, "SS Mann Hunt" is highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Seamlessly combines adventure, romance, and erotica!
Review: William Maltese, best known for hugely popular gay novels like Summer Sweat, When Summer Comes, and the Stud Draqual Mystery Series, offers a gay adventure novel, SS Mann Hunt.

Actually, this first-person narrative seamlessly combines adventure, romance, and erotica. The erotica takes over at times, and even some of the narrator's descriptions of physical surroundings become intensely sexual.

With Brad Lexly and Kurt Mann searching a South American jungle to learn what happened to their fathers, they constantly encounter danger, and have constant encounters with each other. Some might call it pulp fiction, but from an inventive author who can turn phrases in brilliant ways and keep readers turning pages.

Adding to the tension, it looks like Kurt's father-the renowned scientist Sebastian S. Mann-might have been a Nazi war criminal. Twists and turns occur often, but Maltese holds off on the biggest revelations until late in the novel.

Maltese's life sounds like an adventure, so it's no surprise that he excels at writing adventure. Besides authoring over a hundred novels under various names, he has served in the U.S. Army, traveled the globe, and worked with a vast array of publishers. Book lovers will doubtlessly keep hearing his name(s) during talks of many different genres, and I look forward to discovering more of his writing.

Rating:
Summary: FINALLY! NOT N.YC.! NOT L.A.!
Review: Would you believe a major gay book with a narrator from -- are you ready? -- Santa Fe, New Mexico! This from an author, William Maltese, who has made himself an international best-seller of gay "literaure" by writing primarily about blond blue-eyed California surfer-types (CALIFORNIA CREAMIN', SUMMER SWEAT) and/or about New York City's upper crust (his Stud Draqual mystery series).

Granted SS MANN HUNT's Brad Lexly and his fellow gay characters get plopped down, by the author, into the middle of the exotic Brazilian Amazon, but that's in order to provide a plot line far more intricate and involved (and, I think, far more interesting), than the more simplistic plot Maltese provides in his sex-lead novel WHEN SUMMER COMES. Not to say that there isn't plenty of explicit sex in SS MANN HUNT, hot and heavy enough for just about anyone, but it "hangs" on a story, a mystery, and a romance that are complex and exciting above and beyond all of the heavy breathing. The book is a well-worked departure for the author that reminds me of Alex von Mann's SLAVES, except this book has a far more satisfactory conclusion.

Everything about SS MANN HUNT is pretty enjoyable and worth the price, starting with Brad's being a gay from Santa Fe, instead of from New York City, or from Los Angeles, or from San Francisco. The Brazilian locale of the novel is exotic enough, the mystery mysterious enough, the love story romantic enough, to hold your attention. Did I mention how much I personally loved that two of the characers have a romantic homosexual history that's allowed to re-blossom within the hot-house jungle environment but can again go sour at any moment? As for the underlying Nazi (SS-thunderbolts insignia) implications, well I doubt that this particular subject matter will EVER be totally exhuasted by way of providing riveting story-telling material.

It's a great day when a great gay author of Maltese's obvious caliber, stature, and international popularity, along with his publisher, start admitting there are gays who exist in the broad heretofore pretty-much-ignored "hinterland" between the much-ballyhooed metropolitan gay areas of the U.S.'s East and West coasts. And this book deserves success for this reason alone, as well as for all of the other inherent good-read reasons that'll see it become another international classic for its author.

Bravo William!