The Soul Eater [Paperback]

Mike Resnick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1992

Bounty hunter Nicobar Lane has traversed a thousand worlds searching for the mythic Dreamwish Beast, but after a close encounter with the creature, his motives turn from money to revenge, and an obsession with his own death. Reprint.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Questar (July 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446363189
• ISBN-13: 978-0446363181
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #889,553 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm Mike Resnick, and I am, according to Locus, the trade paper of the science fiction field, the all-time leading award winner, living or dead, for short science fiction. I find this surprising, because I have always considered myself a novelist; at least, writing novels is how I pay my bills.

To date I've sold 62 science fiction novels (plus one mystery, and nine non-fiction books (all of them about writing or science fiction or both). I've sold upward of 250 stories, and even a couple of screenplays. I've edited more than 40 anthologies, and served stints as the consulting science fiction editor for BenBella Books, and the executive editor for Jim Baen's Universe. I've won 5 Hugos, and been nominated a record 34 times; I've also won a Nebula and other major awards in the USA, France, Poland, Croatia, Spain and Japan, and have been shortlisted for major awards in England, Italy, and Australia. My work has been translated into 26 languages so far.

My daughter, Laura, is also a science fiction and fantasy (and romance, and travel) writer, and won the Campell Award (for Best New Science Fiction Writer) in 1993. I met my wife Carol at the University of Chicago in 1960, married her in 1961, and next year we celebrate our 50th anniversary.

My 2010 books include BLASHPHEMY, a hardcover from Golden Gryphon Press; THE BUSINESS OF SCIENCE FICTION, a trade paperback co-authored with Barry N. Malzberg, from McFarland; and coming in December, THE BUNTLINE SPECIAL, a trade paperback from Pyr. I also created five e-books in 2010, collections of my Hugo-winning and Hugo-nominated stories. I'd tell you what I do in my spare time, but I don't seem to have any. :-)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An oldie but a goodie, August 3, 2008

By 

hrladyship (Las Cruces, NM United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Soul Eater (Mass Market Paperback)

More and more, the shelves in bookstores designated science fiction are being stocked with fantasy books. It's becoming difficult to find many science fiction works. Readers like me have built up a collection over the years and perhaps have not yet read everything in their collection. Or in visiting used book stores, we find older works we haven't seen before or have meant to read and just haven't gotten around to it.

Soul Eater has been in my collection for a while. I can't really say how long. While in school, most of my reading was for research, etc., and I'd gotten way behind in my pleasure reading. Given the quality of this story, that's not a bad thing. When I finally got around to reading it, I found that Resnick had created characters and a situation that are still believable, a more or less "real" science fiction story that is powerful in its telling.

Far in the future, when space travel is an every day event, and Earth is fast becoming a memory, Nicobar Lane, a hunter of all species of creatures, has encountered a very rare creature during one of his trips. It is so unlike anything within his experience that at first he isn't certain that he actually saw it. Even his ship's instruments hardly registered it. But when he sees it again, he seeks out others who might have seen the same thing. Being a hunter, one of his first thoughts is to kill it -- its uniqueness should bring him a good amount of money. But the task proves more difficult than even he could imagine.

Lane becomes so obsessed with killing the creature that he forgets about making money, even about living. He becomes a rogue with only one goal in mind. There must be someone, somewhere who knows how to kill the creature he has come to call the Soul Eater, but which is known by many other names. He must seek out the one person who knows how to build the weapon, then search for the creature one last time. But in the end, who will die and who will live? And at what cost?

SF readers who might have missed this one when it was released in 1981 should think about finding a copy. It's a great read in spite of its small size. If you do, be prepared for an ending that might surprise you, and yet be uncomfortably satisfying.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the best RESNICK book I have ever read, June 9, 2002

By 

K. kohiyama (Tokyo Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Soul Eater (Paperback)

This is not the best Resnick book I have ever read. The curious otherworld interaction between Nicobar Lane and the alien Souleater is typical Resnick. Thought provoking and marcabre. It is difficult to imaging a more currious relationship between bounty hunter(Nicobar) and hunted(Souleater). In the end they seem to come to depend on each other. But not thought provoking enough for Resnick !!!! I like the Oracle or Southsayer by Resnick better. I give it three stars because it is a good read but if you have not read any Resnick books yet, then I recommend the Oracle or Southsayer.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It is one if not the most memorable book I have read., February 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Soul Eater (Paperback)

I was hooked from the start. Captivated as I became ONE with Nicobar Lane as he pursued and spent his life's savings on the Thing he thought was just legend, a myth or some quacked dream. I strongly recommend it.