Customer Reviews

Hunter

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I devoured this book! The foe is a mutant human monster with horrendous strength and absolutely no conscience, whatsoever. The hero is a tracker who is the best in the world. A sad and lonely man, still Hunter has a soft spot in his heart, especially for lost children. Then we have a strong female secondary character that actually doesn't cry and cower and have to be constantly rescued. Add to that a government conspiracy of blood-chilling proportions and you have a mesmerizing thriller. This book is non-stop action!

Additionally, I especially enjoyed the scenic descriptions of the cold North Pole and Alaskan wilderness. I also was interested in the details of tracking. I felt that that aspect of the story provided useful information I probably otherwise would never have considered.

Gory descriptions of battles with the ferocious monster are liberally scattered throughout the book. Definitely not recommended reading for the overly squeamish. The story flows at a relentless, savage pace. Entertaining fiction! Come; join the hunt if you dare!

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.

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.

Awesome novel, though CAIN was way better! Byron Huggins has sort of written HUNTER while taking the idea previously used in CAIN, besides how many books of his will have gun-totting, meat eating, wolf-petting guys who play the "unwitting hero"?

It was still a good read & a page turner.

Am really happy to note that Sly Stallone is on this project, he deserve to be in a good flick!

ADIOS

After reading the reviews of others about this book I was tempted not to get it. Then I went to Borders and began to read it. I couldn't leave without buying it. Hunter and his beautiful wolf are what I would want protecting my back. Although there is plenty of action and chills, I didn't see the cursing and abundance of sex mentioned in some of the other reviews. Try reading a romance novel for that! Hunter is everything you would want to read if you are looking for a great horror novel. Now I will have to read Huggins other books!

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.

I write quite a lot of reviews cause i read quite a bit. But this is the best book ever. i know i say that a lot but this time its for sure.if u read one book this summer, make it this one. just dont plan on going into the woods anytime soon...

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.

In Hunter, James Byron Huggins creates several outstanding characters. Two stand out, one is the title character, a tracker with out peer. The other is the creature he is tracking, a horror of rogue genetic tinkering. Obviuosly well researched, you come away with not only an enjoyment of a well written thriller, but an understanding of what trackers look for when going after something, be it a lost child or a siberian tiger.

Another bulletproof monster. Another indomitable hero. Both equally improbable. Corny but entertaining.