Customer Reviews

Hunt Through the Cradle of Fear

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was entertaining enough for what it is - escapism adventure story - but there was something missing in this book compared to the first (which had a different author...though all are known as "Gabriel Hunt"). The story herein was very two dimentional and places where the author could have brought humor or depth into a character or circumstance were avoided at all costs. For instance, one could get very drunk if one reads this book and takes a shot of liquor every time Gabriel's gun runs out of bullets....it happens in every fight and battle. This is perfect to make it into a running gag or a "why don't I ever have enough bullets?" comment or something. Instead five or so pages after the last time, it happens again, and is not used to flavor the story at all.
I stuck with the book only to be surprised to see the words "The End" way before the pages of my book finished. It turns out the real author had permission to submit his own novella...also uninspired. Thus, all in all, I feel cheated. If you have not already, I recommend "Hunt at the Well of Enternity" which is far superior to this...in my humble opinion.

Indiana Jones meets Doc Savage meets "The Librarian". These books should be filed in the "Guys Adventure" section in Barnes & Noble, and they are a throw-back to the old style "Guys" adventure books from the 50's, 60's and 70's.

And that's a good thing!

They are pure escapist entertainment. Gabriel Hunt is a world travelling adventurer who speaks (almost) every language on Earth. Every scientist he meets turns out to be a drop dead gorgeous damsel in distress, needing a long series of rescues that always come a hairs breadth away from death. In this world he never meets a woman who can resist him, or an enemy that can't be subdued by intelligence or buy an old fashioned six-shooter.

His adventures take place in a world where all our urban legends are true, and where ancient treasures, lost worlds, and lost tribes are waiting to be found - one step ahead of an evil Billionaire. Deep philosophy it ain't. But pick up a copy, grab a beer, sit back on the beach, read and be entertained.

I really enjoyed the first book of the series, Hunt at the Well of Eternity. It was no high literature by any stretch of imagination, but it was a very fun, popcorn literature. For what it was trying to be, it was a great success.

So it was with that expectation I picked up the second book.

Unfortunately, I did not find this book nearly as enjoyable as the first book. In fact, I even found it tedious at times. I finished the first book in just over two days. This one took me almost two weeks.

I pin the blame on the author's writing style. The first book was written by James Reasoner, and he had a writing style that was very concise and to the point. He did not waste words on literary embellishments, and simply focused on telling the story, and that led to a very quick and easy read, adding to the sense of momentum to the adventure.

The second book, on the other hand, was written by Charles Ardai, and unfortunately he felt the need to embellish the action with unnecessary detail. For example, when you're tearing off the fare meter from a taxi cab to throw at your pursuers, do we really need to know what increment the meter is counting its fare? Surely Mr. Ardai feels he is bringing the scene more fully to life by describing objects in detail, but all he's really doing is breaking up the action and slowing the story down. Mr. Ardai is actually the creator of the Gabriel Hunt series, but it appears that Mr. Reasoner understood better that the series needs its writing to be fast, focused and streamlined in order to be the action-packed page-turner it wants to be.

This book makes another big blunder, and that is its deceptive length. The story comes to an end at page 217, while the book itself contains 267 pages (not counting the usual preview excerpt to the next book). The remaining 50 pages contain a separate, unrelated novella by Mr. Ardai. There was no indication anywhere else in the book that there would be a "bonus" story until that point, so the ending came very abruptly as I was expecting the story to unfold for 50 more pages. It really did not leave a satisfying impression to finishing the book.

All in all, I am very disappointed with the second installment to the Gabriel Hunt series. It is as if my favorite movie was followed by a subpar sequel by a different director. And despite the fact that the "different director" in this case is actually the series creator, that's exactly what happened.

Author Charles Ardai met his "co-author" Gabriel Hunt at the Yerebatan Sarayi (Sunken Palace) in Istanbul. (No, really -- just read page 144 of Hunt Through the Cradle of Fear.) And I guess they hit it off because Hunt later enlisted Ardai's assistance in chronicling his adventures. ("I would have done it myself, gladly, but I was unfortunately tied up with some matters in Brazil," quips Hunt. "And I do mean tied up.")

Who's Gabriel Hunt? Why, he's only the multimillionaire globe-trotting adventurer (shades of Jim Anthony, but Hunt provides his own wisecracks) -- sort of a modern Indiana Jones (in fact, they may have known each other, as alluded to in Hunt's first book) with up-to-date gadgetry like a cell phone with GPS.

Hunt's adventures are funded by the $100 million Hunt Foundation, paid for with the money of his parents, best-selling religious historians who were lost at sea and are presumed dead. Gabriel also has a brother, Michael, who helps him out on occasion, and a sister, Lucy (whose full name made her relationship with her parents more than a little strained), whom neither of the brothers has seen since their parents' disappearance.

His exploits are scheduled to be written down by a selection of writers skilled at action-oriented stories: James Reasoner, Charles Ardai, Nicholas Kaufmann, Christa Faust, David J. Schow, and Raymond Benson. For the first book in the Hunt chronicles, Hunt at the Well of Eternity, Reasoner was praised by Publishers Weekly as setting the bar for modern adventure "to nosebleed heights," stating also that the pulp-adventure genre had been "smashingly resurrected."

This Ardai-penned adventure continues the quality (not surprising, since Ardai came up with the concept and created the "bible" for the other writers to follow). In Hunt Through the Cradle of Fear, Gabriel hops from Manhattan to Hungary, from Egypt to Greece, and on to Turkey. He answers the riddle of the sphinx, meets a son of Homer, and soars, shoots, and slices his way to a mysterious treasure that is both invaluable and inscrutable, with the deliciously evil Lajos De Groet dogging him every step of the way.

Tongue is planted firmly in cheek with frequent references to how implausible things get, especially at the end when the story loops around to something said at the beginning. It is not only entertaining but informative: every chapter seems to have some educational tidbit to take away. Hunt Through the Cradle of Fear is intelligent and ironic and still every bit a full-blooded adventure novel.

(As a bonus for readers, Hunt asked Ardai to include a separate, unrelated novella. "Nor Idolatry Blind the Eye" is a sort of hard-boiled adventure story that shows Ardai's darker side, with an ending that gets under the fingernails and sinks its teeth into the quick.)

The second entry in Leisure Books' Gabriel Hunt series is as solid as the first ("Hunt At The Well of Eternity") was.

For those who haven't seen the books yet, a summary: Gabriel Hunt is a modern day Indiana Jones, hunting for antiquities the world over and getting dragged from one deadly situation to another ... most of which he escapes by the skin of his teeth (or, literally in this adventure, the skin of his fingertips). Like Jones, Hunt has a favored weapon (an antique Colt handgun believed to have been used by either Wyatt Earp or Bat Masterson ... or maybe both). Like James Tiberius Kirk, Hunt does not believe in the "no win scenario." Like James Bond, Hunt has a woman in every port. And like his (possible cousin?) Ethan Hunt, Gabriel is slick at thinking on his feet and turning a disadvantage to an advantage. Also like all of those characters, Hunt has an honest streak a mile wide and won't put anyone else's life on the line just to save his own.

This particular adventure involves two beautiful linguists as the romantic foils, an uber-rich aesthete / former Olympian fencer as the bad-guy, and a mystery involving the various versions of the Sphinx myths from around the world. The action moves quickly, and if some of the stunts are a tad on the "unbelievable" side ... well, that's the nature of the genre.

This volume also includes a back-up novella, "Nor Idolatry Blind The Eye" by Charles Ardai. All of the Hunt novels appear with the house author name "Gabriel Hunt" on the cover, but Ardai wrote "Cradle of Fear" as well as the back-up story.
The Hunt books are just fun adventure escapism ... highly recommended!

One slight spoilerish complaint: two books in a row, two dead main villains. I know it's early in the series yet, but I'm hoping at some point the creators develop at least one recurring nemesis for Gabriel. Sort of like Belloq was implied to have been a constant foil for Indiana Jones before the events of "Raiders."

This second installment in the adventures of Gabriel Hunt is a winner from start to finish! In the grand pulp tradition, Ardai keeps the action intense and the plot moving. As a modern day Indiana Jones, Hunt's unraveling of the sphinx mystery while dodging bad buys is sure to thrill any fans of the Jones movies.

The mystery itself is interesting and well crafted with enough over the top archeological flights of fancy to captivate any reader.

The pace is very good with cliffhanger endings to almost all of the chapters. The short story tacked on at the end is also good and gives the book even more of a pulp feel as the classic pulp magazines of the Golden Age were always packed with tales featuring a host of heroes. Thus the paperback is kind of like a pulp magazine of yesteryear.

So if you like fast-paced adventure stories with an engaging hero and daring do by the ton, then this book is for you. This reader is anxiously awaiting the next Hunt adventure and hopes there will be many more to come!

A great read. Don't miss it.

Hunt Through The Cradle Of Fear, the second book in the action adventure series, brings back hero Gabriel Hunt in another dangerous quest. Author and creator Charles Ardai takes a more traditional approach to the writing than in the first book, which was penned by novelist James Reasoner. While Ardai attempted to give us more details with this outing, I felt he ended up slowing down the fast pace that was set up in the first book. Although there were more action scenes in the first book, The Cradle Of Fear is still a swift and fun ride.

I did have some other problems with this book. Suspension of disbelief is one thing, but villains racing in vehicles chasing and firing guns as our hero races away on a camel in the wide open desert was stretching it, even for me (the sustained running speed of a camel is 25 MPH). The description of some of the action was also confusing at times and I had to reread passages to understand what exactly was happening with the characters and their proximity to each other. That didn't happen often and most of the time it was smooth sailing with some very enjoyable moments. But in the end, I just was not into this story as much as the first book. However, there was definitely enough action and clever reveals here for me to want to journey with Gabriel Hunt again, especially with the writers that are lined up to take over this character.

The second entry in the new Gabriel Hunt adventure series is less cerebral than the first--though filled with even more action. This time Hunt begins in Manhattan, and on the way to a thunderous conclusion--stops at the foot of Egypt's Sphinx, a Greek seaside village, and through the monsoons of Sri Lanka.
This Hunt adventure is penned by a different author than the first--and astute readers should get a charge from the author and his wife's cameo appearance. There's even a bit of mystery presented in this book that suggests the Hunt family is in for more surprises.
If movie serials ever make a comeback--besides the somewhat tired Indiana Jones franchise, Gabriel Hunt is on the fast track.

Gabriel Hunt stories are essentially updated Doc Savage adventures without Doc Savage's five aides. This was a blend of adventure, thriller and supernatural elements, nicely updated to the present day. Well worth reading.

The Gabriel Hunt books are something I've been waiting for nearly my entire life--books that read like my favorite movie series. (I won't tell you which one, but it also featured a two-fisted, globe-trotting archaeologist who takes on deadly quests for supernatural treasures.)

In the first book, the Hunt was on to find the Well of Eternity... Florida was involved...you figure it out. This time, the ubiquitous Mr. Hunt unravels the Riddle of the Sphinx, and despite the fact that this relatively short novel spends little time in exposition, there's more than enough ancient mystery squeezed in between gun battles and impossible escapes to give this story some heft. Still, one look at the astounding cover art from Glen Orbik should be enough to disabuse you of the notion that this is anything but an homage to old school pulps of the 1930's.

Ancient mysteries are all the rage in the publishing world right now, but something is missing from these erudite quasi-historical thrillers: the thrills! Hunt Through the Cradle of Fear, like its predecessor, closes the action gap handily with twice the adventure in half the pages. I'm eager to where the Hunt will lead next.