1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Explores some heavy-duty ideas, but gets pretty confusing along the way, October 16, 2007
*Deathhunter* is the third Ian Watson that I've read, the first two being *The Embedding* and *Miracle Visitors,* and it shares some features with his other works. On the one hand, Watson is a brilliant thinker whose novels are filled to the brim with profound questions about the nature of the self and the nature of reality. On the other, because Watson's novels are about profound topics which don't lend themselves to easy envisioning, they tend to become confusing and murky. In this, Watson seems very much like Philip K. Dick.
This book features a society in which the fear of death has been all but completely uprooted. Violent deaths, murder, warfare, etc. have all disappeared and been replaced with a peaceful system of "good deaths" in which the sick and elderly are brought into Houses of Death and guided to their ultimate fate. Religion, with its insistence on survival of death, has been suppressed, as have those art forms that are rooted in death anxiety (i.e., all quality poetry, film, art, etc.).
At the novel's opening, protagonist and death guide Jim Todhunter arrives by monorail at Egremont, one of the cities in this society. Almost immediately he witnesses the unthinkable assassination of the community's resident saint, Norman Harper, by one of the residents of the local House of Death. Though he is tasked with guiding the assassin to a good death, he instead becomes caught up in the assassin's belief that so-called "good deaths" allow strange, red, bat-like creatures from another dimension to steal the souls.
The novel explores this premise, that different forms of death lead to different sorts of afterlives, as the two main characters explore near-death experiences, astral travel, and attempts to cage death itself. While these explorations themselves are quite fascinating, they lead the novel into ever-widening circles of weirdness where the characters, and reality itself, are not quite what they seem.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4.0 out of 5 stars
A creative and offbeat novel that is better than its title suggests, January 9, 2011
In Ian Watson's 1981 novel Deathhunter, western nations have ended war and violence by embracing death rather than fearing it. When it is time to die (as determined by disease or the census office), the designated decedents-to-be report to a House of Death where a death counselor guides them to a peaceful end. Jim Todhunter is a death counselor who is transferred to a new location just before a ceremony will be held to honor the poet who is largely responsible for the public's welcoming acceptance of voluntary death. The poet is scheduled to die but his death does not occur as planned (there's nothing peaceful about it). Todhunter must deal with the aftermath of the poet's death.
Deathhunter is an unfortunate title, conveying a pulpish feel that doesn't do justice to the novel's philosophical and literary ambition. The story jets off in unexpected directions involving out-of-body experiences and the destination of souls. Lest you think that its use of souls makes this a religious tract rather than a novel, be assured that a satisfying twist at the end calls into question everything that transpires earlier in the story. The novel is creative, offbeat, funny (the schmaltzy poetry that the public adores is hilarious) and smart.
When so many science fiction novelists produce epic sagas of interstellar conflict and are busy building worlds and universes, it's worth revisiting the writers who exercised their powerful imaginations on a smaller scale. Watson expanded the genre's boundaries with unconventional novels in the 1970's and 1980's. Deathhunter is one of his more successful efforts. I would give Deathhunter 4 1/2 stars if Amazon made that option available.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not Free SF Reader, September 3, 2007
Deathhunter is set in a society that has abandoned its fear of death. There is money in this, as well as in the prior religions, as a profession of 'death guiding' has sprung up to help people deal with oblivion.
The main character here, a man by the name of Todhunter, is one such professional. However, he has a bit of a different view, and his exploration of this milieu is the thing.
He starts asking philosophical questions like 'hey, what if you do get an afterlife, but only if someone slaughters you first?'. Tricky things like that.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
