Jaguar Hunter [Hardcover]

Lucius Shepard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1988

Fourteen of Lucius Shepard's most memorable stories are combined with a previously unanthologized novella, Radiant Green Star, to form a stunning sci-fi collection. In the Nebula Award–winning title story, a poor Honduran hunter is coerced into tracking the forbidden black jaguar of Barrio Carolina.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Shepard seems to know instinctively what too many writers learn only after years of frustration . . . Great storytelling requires great stories AND great writing, substance and style in balance. —Orson Scott Card

ALL of the stories in THE JAGUAR HUNTER are fun to read, but several of them . . . rise toward the Keatsian beauty and truth of the long-enduring. —Michael Bishop

Shepard uses a distinctive auctorial voice and a dab hand with plot and characterization to hook and hold the reader. . . . THE JAGUAR HUNTER is essential reading . . . —Bruce Canwell --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Kerosina Publications Ltd; New edition edition (December 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0948893362
• ISBN-13: 978-0948893360
• Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 5.8 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,547,679 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The 1987 Worl Fantasy Award winner, February 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Jaguar Hunter (Hardcover)

Lucius Shepard is truly a master of the short story and novella form, and this book is proof of it. It's sad to see it out of print, for Shepard's is one of the most challenging voices in fantastic fiction.

Among the tales included, the most astounding is "R&R", which won a Nebula Award. This is a masterpiece that showcases Shepard's main themes: war, magic and the intoxicating jungle. With brief details of SF, mostly it is his interpretation of Latin American magical realism.

After this, the tales I found more haunting are "How the Wind Spoke at Madaket" and "The End of Life as we Know it". The first one, a horror tale about a wind elemental ravaging a town, tells about the impossibility of love when confronting mindless desire. The second one is about a couple on the verge of splitting, finding shamanism in the Guatemalan jungle and changing them and their relationship forever.

The rest of the stories explore different shades of this same mix of magic and exoticism, and not a single one falters: "The Jaguar Hunter", "The Night of White Bairab", "Salvador", "Black Coral", "A Traveller's Tale", "Mengele", "The Man who Painted the Dragon Griaule" and "A Spanish Lesson".

I had read this book years ago in a Spanish translation. Recently, I found an original copy in a big chain bookstore, and snatched it right away. Whatta treasure! If you are lucky enough to find a copy, grab it up. You won't regret doing so.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Never read anything so consistently wistful., January 14, 2003

By 

Christopher Wanko "-C" (Nutley, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Jaguar Hunter (Paperback)

This book is introspective without being maudlin, and I find
myself struggling for a better word than "wistful", but alas,
no cross-referenced OED at my fingertips.

Therefore: I can promise you this, there's not a happy ending in the book, and I found myself at first very disappointed in this growing trend. At some point in the third short story, I realized that he would supply no easy answers, and the converse might prove true: nothing but hard questions from here on.

Stories wrapped up neatly, even with the bad guy winning, aren't a possibility for Shepard. Life is like that sometimes, and the choices that lead you to a place you wish you hadn't visited. But, since you're there, take in the scenery and try to pass on a warning to others...

This is my first formal introduction to Lucius Shepard; it won't be my last meeting with his work, for sure.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Refreshing and Imanginative Collection of Short Stories, January 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Jaguar Hunter (Hardcover)

Lucius Shepard presents us with a wonderful collection of diverse short stories, featuring believable characters in exotic locales. The author's writing style is colorful and poetic,drawing the reader into the story. As is often true with the works of great authors, several of the stories leave their lurking remnants in the mind of the reader, for processing on a deeper level over time. If you are a fan of verse and fiction as well as short stories, you should not pass up this delightful box of chocolates !!