Hunter

Rating:
Summary: Fun, Formulaic Action Read, but Repetitive...
Review: I must admit that Mr. Huggins style is immediately immersive, the pacing lightning fast. I was at first intrigued by the fearless tracker Nathaniel Hunter and his huge wolf Ghost. The action was intense and bloody, the weaponry and the tracking information extensive. But then the story got repetitive. Which made me feel kind of cheated. Overall I enjoyed this novel and the trek across Alaska to kill an enemy that seemed impossible to kill. But the suspense level really wasn't all that high, I had a pretty good idea how this book was gonna turn out. Some of the twists were slightly unexpected, the characters were well developed (especially Hunter and Ghost) and the monster was a true vision of Horror. However, I do have a major problem with characters being thrown into the same situation again and again, only to prevail and fight another day and blah blah blah. The story kept building up to the same climatic scene over and over, just in a different way with a higher and higher body count. It kinda made me question the intelligence level of the elite special forces unit sent to track the creature. But, taken for what it is, an action novel, Hunter does deliver the brainless goods. I must admit I had fun reading this and I daresay, if you're an action fan, you'll enjoy this fast paced book too. You just might get a little irritated toward the end. Overall, a good, quick read, that you will strangely recommend to friends.

Rating:
Summary: Good story...yet...
Review: If books were ranked according to how nasty the villian was, this one would be off the charts. Huggins has created a surprisingly believable genetic-monster "bad guy", that -- wouldn't you know it -- likes to feast on human brains. Of course the beast has the interest of lots of people, including government officials who the author successfully makes the reader loathe. This bloodthirsty superhuman is persued by the best tracker in the world, Nathanial Hunter.

If you've read any of this author's works, for instance CAIN, you'll be at home reading HUNTER. If you are a mother looking for a gift for your young son who likes to read thrillers, skip it. The author, who entered new territory when he included profanity in his last book (the first one he had done outside of the Christian publishing realm), takes things even further with HUNTER -- the "F" word appears several times and our aforementioned protagonist Hunter has a sexual encounter with the only female in his creature-tracking entourage.

On the positive side the book does include a light moral lesson (i.e. it's a bad idea to try to achieve eternal life through scientific experiments), amidst a great deal of action. Further, Huggins writing exudes storytelling. When he wants to create an ominous tone, in one paragraph he does it as well as most bestselling writers do in an entire novel. His word choice and imagery drips with talent.

If you're looking for something "safe", this book isn't it. If you just want a good read, go for it.

Rating:
Summary: ACTION, ACTION, AND MORE ACTION!
Review: Hunter is the first novel I have read by author James Byron Huggins. It was a fast read that jumps off the page like a movie more than anything I have read since Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park (which made it to a movie) or Robert McCammon's The Wolf's Hour (which like Hunter cries out to be developed by Hollywood).

The characters in Hunter are solid. The settings are well done. The pace is like a roller coaster. And the monster is well...a monster!

The only real problems that this novel has are that 565 pages is a bit much for a simple action novel. And yes, sometimes there is such a thing as TOO much action (which is why we went from 5 stars to 4).

Still, if you're a fan of action and horror and prefer to stick to a more "pop" style of writing then HUNTER is a great place to start.

Rating:
Summary: Exciting, exilerating, and fun.
Review: This was a fun book to read. It had action, sorrow, and romance.

But, when I look back now, I see that it was not a very likely scenario. I dont want to give any secrets away about the book, so I'll keep it simple. Hunter is the best tracker in America, he can track anything, and at any time. It starts out with him trying to find a lost boy, it is cold, and the boy is near death. But does he find him? Well of course he does, this is that kind of book where everything good happens, and not many "good" characters die. After that, he is given a mission to find a weird beast that has killed many already. And so on, and so on.

It is a really good book, and I hope you run out and buy it right now. Mr. Huggins is a good author, and I am waiting to read his next novel.

Rating:
Summary: Another beast vs. man story
Review: I've read two other Huggins thrillers ("Cain" and 'Leviathan'), and they're all similar man vs. evil beast stories. Of the three, I would say "Hunter" is the best technically speaking, but "Cain" is the most exciting. Huggins continues to make the same mistakes here as in his other formulaic books, i.e. 1) the same descriptions ("volcanic", "titanic") are used over and over again; 2) the evil scientist is the same charcter as in the other books; 3) the hero is still a haunted superman. Nonetheless, I'm still reading them, so there's obviously something worthwhile, and I think "Hunter" deserves points for straying at least slightly out of the usual formula. While Nathaniel Hunter is a superman character like Thor and Solomon before him, his talent is not innate size and strength like Thor nor superb military training like Solomon. Instead, Hunter is simply a man who grew up in the wilds, and the environment made him the powerful man he is. Ergo, he is the best of the superman charcters. Speaking of which, Huggins is moving in new directions with them. In this book he spends part of the time with Chaney, a U.S. Marshal tracking the bureaucracy behind the requisite beast, and his entertaining pal Brick. And while plenty of no-names get slaughtered by Luther, the beast, we actually get a few named characters with background information who die too, so at least having a name doesn't mean you survive in the end. The supporting charcters are fairly decent, with a Japanese neo-samurai, a very cool female sniper, and a shotgun-mad soldier. They all try to transcend the stereotype boundaries, so kudos for that. The beastie in this is a very nasty critter named Luther. Without supplying details, I'll say he is a perfectly-equipped predator, and the reasons behind him being around are more believable than the same for either Cain or Leviathan. The premise is much better than the other two. There are some other new tricks in this book. There are a wealth of people using different weapons, which adds variety. The action is constant but not set-piece formulaic, and the final encounter in a veritable Golgotha is the best of the three books. Also, this time Huggins adds survival lore instead of mythology and doesn't have any Christian mythos, if that is a reason to buy/not buy this tome. And while some people complain that there is actually sex and profanity (gasp, horror!), it makes the book more realistic. Can you imagine a group of hardened but scared soldiers tramping around Alaska and not cussing? All in all, 'Hunter' was entertaining and an improvement in technical style for Huggins, though I must admit, if you prefer more comic-book style action and excitement, read "Cain" too.

Rating:
Summary: One great read!!
Review: I just finished reading this book and it was awesome, compelling and suspenseful with just the right amount of non-stop action. The characters were well drawn out and you start to care for them to the point where it was so disappointing when they were killed. What can you say about Hunter...I liked him and his wolf. I'd love for Mr Huggins to bring him back again in another novel. This was the firt time I read this author so now I'm going to go back and read his others. I recommend this book to any action fan. I really don't think you'll be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Non-stop Action!
Review: What a ride. This was a very enjoyable read. I love a book with action and this one had plenty. The story was compelling enough to keep you turning the pages. Recommend.

Rating:
Summary: An exhilarating read, with non-stop action
Review: I actually found this book on Amazon, and I thank them very much, because it was a wonderful read that I just couldn't put down. Hunter is a fairly well detailed book, and melds together horror, action, and adventure in a surprisingly entertaining and captivating read.

Nathaniel Hunter had devoted his life to helping others, by using his amazingly well-honed skills as a tracker to find lost hikers, trapped climbers, and even find endangered animals that certain groups were looking to tag and protect. With his huge companion, Ghost, a mostly wild wolf that he cared for as a pup, Hunter had become the most respected tracker in the world.

Hunter is asked to do the US government a favor, by leading a small team into the wilds of Alaska to track down a creature that had destoyed a number of arctic stations, and killed most of the personnel working there. Hunter reluctantly agrees, but soon finds that what he is tracking is not a mere animal or a man, and is definitely not nature's creation (believe me, I didn't give away any crucial plot elements with that one). The book contains some amazing action scenes, most of which seem so real you feel like the creature is breathing down your neck as your eyes move across the page.

Hunter is a horror story with a common idea of a mutant creature on the rampage, but the execution of the idea was beyond my exectations. Even the mutant idea was not typical, because here James Byron Huggins used some genetic manipulation ideas to explain the existence of the creature, and the ideas seem fairly sound as I am somewhat well versed in genetic ideas.

I was a bit reluctant to give this book a 5-star rating because it has a typical horror plot line, but because James Byron Huggins is so good at expanding the plot (and putting a few attempts at insight into what guides man's actions in the book), I had to. This book, like only a few others kept me up for a few too many hours, and I finished the book in about a week [which is no small feat with other engagements I have and the fact that the book is almost 600 pages long (in paperback)].

Rating:
Summary: Even more creature-feature mind candy
Review: Hunter is another of Huggins' action-adventure novels with a nigh-invincible monster tearing up the scene (see Cain, Leviathan). Fortunately, it's also an improvement over the previous books in some respects.
The main character, Hunter, is still a superman of sorts in the vein of other Huggins good guys, but as a gifted tracker and literate man-of-the-wild he's also more human and sympathetic. The posse of soldiers who go with him to hunt a monster destroying Alaskan research centers provides some good character material, including a neosamurai who shares a few introspective moments with Hunter, and a woman sniper with a powerful Barrett rifle. A parallel plot follows a U.S. Marshal and his entertaining pal tracking down the conspiracy side (still the bland rogue government agency) before meeting up with Hunter for the big finale. The action is constant and often creative in its setting, instead of standard movie set pieces. The amount of wilderness lore adds an extra dimension to the story. The monstrous demihuman predator is a departure over previous science-gone-mad monsters, and there's no Christian mythology imbued in the story, making it a more secular adventure, though adding some swearing and sex not found in previous books. The existence of the monster even implies (gasp!) evolution. Though Huggins continues to use the same adjectives over and over and over (i.e. volcanic something), and the bad guy running the conspiracy is the same stereotype, this is a big jump in story-telling skill.

Rating:
Summary: Hunt This One Down
Review: If you're into man vs. monster fiction, this book is for you. Nathaniel Hunter is an intriguing hero. The monster is your typical, run-of-the-mill, science-gone-wrong mutated human. What's fun about the book is the way Hunter tracks the monster. Hunter is a modern day Beowulf searching for his Grendel. Read this for the sheer fun of the chase.