Rating: 
Summary: Unfortunate Trash
Review: Richard Matheson is the author of one of the few horror classics, I Am Legend, and one of the most astute satires of 50's veneer, Stir of Echoes. Add to that the dozen or so great "Twilight Zone" episodes he wrote, and you have the basis for the cult following he enjoys.
Unfortunately, with this new book, Matheson has besmirched his reputation.
Hunted Past Reason is your basic chase story. Two men on a backpacking trip, one descends progressively into evil and we end up with a "game," where the bad guy is after the good guy, trying to kill him. Wrapped up in this is a metaphysical puzzle about whether there is life after death, and what happens because of the choices we make in this world.
All well and good, if not terribly original. But Matheson chooses to take the low road in his portrayal of the villain, with the most pornographic (yep, Matheson would have been arrested for this stuff in the 50's) and base images imaginable. The frequent use of four letter words and gross sexual commentary grows quickly tiresome, and reads like some fifteen-year-old's first attempt at "adult" storytelling. Or what he imagines is adult these days.
Which is the major disappointment here. Matheson, in his mid-70's, should be better than this. He should be giving us something more than juvi-porn-violence. Using the skills of a writing lifetime, he ought to be trying to reach for something that is great and lasting. Instead, he has merely penned a piece of fast-moving garbage.
If he believes, as his hero in the book, that we have to pay for the "bad" we do in this life with some sort of penance in the next, I'm afraid Matheson's going to be doing some hard time. He has tossed another trashy novel into our midst; we surely did not need any more of them.
There is some sloppy writing, too. ("Doug, let's continue with our hike, he imagined saying to Doug.") He has a character much too young to have been in Vietnam talking about killing people in Vietnam.Matheson also piles on information about backpacking, so it seems like he's just copied a whole backpacking book. It's just clumsy. But I could have lived with all that. What I can't stomach is the story, and the way it's told.
Rating: 
Summary: MATHESON'S WORST BOOK
Review: Richard Matheson, who has written so many good books in the past, disappoints the reader terribly with this one. His marvelous imagination is absent in this tale. Instead, he relies on dumb, drastically overused stereotypes for characters (the pyscho, racist, Vietman veteran vs. the sweet, kind, liberal writer who belives in reincarnation and could never, ever hurt anything or anyone)and a hokey, overused "I'll chase you through the woods and kill you" plotline.
It's obvious why Vietman vets might be disgusted by this book, but Matheson didn't do any favors for the sweet, kind liberal writer types out there, either. The one in this story is so wimpy and outright dumb that it is difficult to find him believable. The writer, who is also the victim, goes along for a three day backpacking trip through a national forest. When his guide, the evil veteran, becomes verbally abusive, the writer meekly puts up with it. After all, how would he find his way out of the forest, he wonders. But, they are on a marked trail at that point in the story, and it is a forest in California, not a jungle in a foreign country. The guy could have easily turned around and returned to the highway they started from.
Matheson throws in a little pornography along the way... He tosses in a murder. He even provides sound advice on the subject of long backpacking trips through the woods.
But it is all pointless, written, it seems, only to fill the pages with something. This is not the Richard Matheson his fans have come to enjoy. If you must read this book, out of loyalty to Matheson, if for no other reason, wait for the paperback. The hardcover just isn't worth the twenty bucks or so.
Rating: 
Summary: Derivative but gripping tale from an old master
Review: The basic premise of this gripping tale is not new ;it stirs elements of the " city slicker in the wilderness " motif of "Deliverance " and the " human prey "theme of both "The Most Dangerous Game " and that neglected masterpiece of 60' s cinema "The Naked Prey "
What its veteran author does with the theme is re-invigorate it and make it new minted and fresh .
Bob , a prosperous screen writer ,happlily married to the lovely Marion and with two bright teenage kids ,conceives the idea of writing a backpacking novel and in the name of research accepts the suggestion of Doug a struggling actor to accompany him on trip into the Sierras
The relationship between the two men deteriorates -Doug is overfond of lecturing on the right and wrong way to go about the camping experience ,and the two men have diametrically opposed views on politics and metaphysical matters .
It becomes apparent that Doug is bitterly jealous of the other man -his marriage ,his children (Doug's own child had killed himself some years earlier and he is divorced )With a career on the skids and apersonal life disfigured by corrosive bitterness
he turns on Bob ,violating him and turning him loose to be hunted throught the forest mtaunting him with tales of how he intends to usurp Bob's plave with Marion It is essentially a two character book for most of its length and the protagonists are well drawn .I am unpersuaded by some aspects of the book -Bob's almost mystic gift with animals and his rescue of a trapped mountain lion are out of place -but minor caeats apart this is splendid stuff .Lean and economical prose and a tart message about the heart of darkness that lies in us all .The experience reveals to Bob that he and Doug are not so different once survival is at issue . Minor gem this one --I enjoyed it enormously
Rating:
Summary: Derivative but gripping tale from an old master
Review: The basic premise of this gripping tale is not new ;it stirs elements of the " city slicker in the wilderness " motif of "Deliverance " and the " human prey "theme of both "The Most Dangerous Game " and that neglected masterpiece of 60' s cinema "The Naked Prey "
What its veteran author does with the theme is re-invigorate it and make it new minted and fresh .
Bob , a prosperous screen writer ,happlily married to the lovely Marion and with two bright teenage kids ,conceives the idea of writing a backpacking novel and in the name of research accepts the suggestion of Doug a struggling actor to accompany him on trip into the Sierras
The relationship between the two men deteriorates -Doug is overfond of lecturing on the right and wrong way to go about the camping experience ,and the two men have diametrically opposed views on politics and metaphysical matters .
It becomes apparent that Doug is bitterly jealous of the other man -his marriage ,his children (Doug's own child had killed himself some years earlier and he is divorced )With a career on the skids and apersonal life disfigured by corrosive bitterness
he turns on Bob ,violating him and turning him loose to be hunted throught the forest mtaunting him with tales of how he intends to usurp Bob's plave with Marion It is essentially a two character book for most of its length and the protagonists are well drawn .I am unpersuaded by some aspects of the book -Bob's almost mystic gift with animals and his rescue of a trapped mountain lion are out of place -but minor caeats apart this is splendid stuff .Lean and economical prose and a tart message about the heart of darkness that lies in us all .The experience reveals to Bob that he and Doug are not so different once survival is at issue . Minor gem this one --I enjoyed it enormously
Rating:
Summary: I Never Thought It Possible....
Review: The title I chose pretty much says it all-I never thought it possible for my favourite authour to have written such a book. I've been reading Matheson since the 50's and have been absolutely enthralled by his magnificent tales over the passing decades ever since. When I saw a brand new novel out,I immediately picked up a copy and packed it away for something to read at night during an up and coming trip to Europe. It took an iron will to resist sneaking even a peak at it in the days before I left,but somehow I managed to hold firm!
At last,after a particularly long and tiring day of tramping about Amsterdam,I lay back on my bed with a contented sigh and reached for the much awaited new Matheson! Finally,after long last,it was time to dive into another great Matheson masterpiece! And then the illusion ended. The more I worked my way into this new book,the more I couldnt believe I was reading anything by my favourite authour. The plot was something thats been done over and over again-the chase of the hero through the woods by the demented killer. Nothing new there,but I could have lived with that. Matheson can make even a shopping list fascinating and irresistable to read! Except that he Didnt here. The story simply progressed from stale and uninteresting into something even worse-Bad. The hero of the story gets graphically sodomized and is unable to even mount a halfway effective resistance-he just takes it. And the story doesnt improve from there-it just gets worse and worse. The writing seems to have come from another authour all together! Richard Matheson simply isnt Capable of writing such a horridly poor novel! But apparently he Has. If I hadnt read it(And I sincerely wish now that I hadnt)I wouldnt have believed it.
If you love Matheson as I do-Please dont read this book. Its an embarrassment and an outright affront to the memory of an authour of the magnificent talent such as "Bid Time Return" or "I am Legend". I never thought that someday I would be writing such a review of Richard Matheson,but here I am doing just such a thing today. I dont want to speculate on a man of such awe-inspiring talent like Matheson's mental powers slipping in his elder age but if this is what his mind is producing today,then perhaps its better for him to quietly retire and refrain from sending out any further horrors such as this dreadful book and let his legions of fans remember him as they Should-a Legend.
Rating:
Summary: A totally predictable retread.
Review: The title says it all, baby! This story is so old that Alfred Hitchcock would call it derivative. Can't understand why this rotten old story was published. Several mispellings in this tale and the strong liberal bent reduced this novel from a strong 2 to a very weak 1. Better luck next time, Dick. Loved your Hell House, though.
Rating:
Summary: A legendary villain
Review: The villain in this book- 'Doug', will have you hating him by the thirteenth page. He is an egomaniacal, bitter power tripper with the goal of making Bob feel as inadequate and worthless as he feels. The guy is just the worst. I read this book in three days, and what kept me going was the tension between the two men. Doug is merciless to Bob- a dark con man who swats Bob around with psychological torture until he tires of the game and then, well, it goes by the numbers. Doug is so messed up, readers are bound to feel a chill of familiarity at his sick behavior- 'Hey, I know someone like that'. I was not impressed with the end of the book. What impressed me was Matheson's loyalty to the technique he used to write the book. He gives voice to the impulsive thoughts in Bob's head even though this story is written in observer perspective. and it works; Bob's monkey mind may chatter redundantly, but that's the way peoples minds are. Mathesons wonderful rendering of the hostile relationship between the two campers is the reason to read this book; that and the way he gives the reader insights about why bad men do the things they do. 'Doug' is the most vile character I've ever come across in a book. Check it out. One more thing: Matheson overuses the word 'wince' and 'wincing' in this book. The word appears almost as much as 'to', 'and', or 'but'.
Rating:
Summary: torture
Review: This book is torturous to read. I have to ask if Matheson is going a bit senile in his old age. For a man who gave us I Am Legend, and Hell House, and Stir of Echos, and a bunch of other brilliant books, his latest releases (such as the reprinted Now You See It) are simply abysmal.
I am about forty pages from the end of this book and am seriouly considering not even finishing it. I've only not finished (excluding some books i hated in high school--The Good Earth anyone?) maybe four books my whole life.
Where to start with why this book is bad. Well, to begin, it's completely rehashed. Our hero spends two days getting chased through the California woods by a man who wants to kill him. And rape him. Can you say Deliverance? Okay, so the book acknowledges that part, as the endorsement even says it's "straight out of Deliverance" or some such nonsense. But come on, it's not even an original twist on the subject. It's the same as that stupid Ice T movie, as a bunch of television episodes from the 80s. The so-called "chase through the forest for your life" game. Secondly, these characters are boring archetypes. The hero who believes in karma practically has the ability to talk to woodland creatures. And the bad guy is just bad for no reason. Oh wait, he's jealous. Yes, that's right, he wants to kill his friend because he's jealous of said friend's success. C'mon, I don't buy it.
On top of that, anyone who's been hiking for a weekend or more knows that the odds of seeing a bear,a mountain lion, another bear, a rattle snake, etc, are slim at best. I'm surprised the hero didn't run into an elf, a goblin, Jimmy Hoffa, Atlantis, or any other elusive noun as well. And the lightning? Please!
And finally, and maybe this is a style opinion, but who actually has arguments with themselves when they're alone ALL DAY LONG! This character does this throughout the whole book:
Yeah right, all of a sudden I'm a champion swimmer, he thought to himself.
"Shut up Hansen, just keep moving."
Once or twice okay, but all the time? Is the character nuts or something?
Well, you get the idea, this book is not only a dissapointment but a complete piece of (insert expletive) from a writer who is otherwise truly gifted. Do yourself a favor and skip it.
Rating: 
Summary: Climbing down the mountain
Review: This book starts off really well with amusing dialogue and lead character thoughts, but then descends into a predictable chase with plenty of false endings. Still, the beginning kept me turning the pages. So, enjoy if you want, or move on to Matheson's earlier works.
Rating:
Summary: Embarrassing
Review: This fellow, Matheson, has really lost it. His talent and his mind. This is just dreadful stuff -- weirdly graphic depictions of sodomy that are unbecoming of a man of Matheson's stature, or advanced age, or both, coupled with a plot line stolen completely from "Deliverance." It is poorly written to boot (e.g., the word "wince" is used about 2,000 times). Caveat emptor.
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