Customer Reviews

The Soul Eater

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.