From the liner notes this novel was more than twenty years and three authours in the making, and yet it hangs together as a single piece really nicely.

Even though it's a quick read, straight forward adventure tale, it's not just that. There is a lush background ecology and civilization that's lush and interesting, and characters that seem real.

It's hard to say too much without spoiling the plot, so I'll just say it's certainly one of the most unique ways I've seen of providing character development :-)

An enjoyable 3-1/2 stars. ( )

I love GRRM Song of Ice & Fire. This book, got a few chapters in, and never finished. I did not find the main character likable, and was not draw in enough by the story. ( )

Disappointing. Shaky plot, mediocre execution, riddled with contradictions and holes in the plot, cheesy conclusion. The supposed big bad aliens are peripheral, the characters are stereotyped and lack substance. It wasn't wholly awful but I find it hard to remember the good parts apart from the chupacabra and the scenes it appeared in.

Considering that the book was written over a 30(?) year period and had 3 authors, it is not surprising that it sucked ass. ( )

Interesting SF novel, born out of a script written in the late 70s as novella. Gardner Dozois started the project, and it was handed onto GRRM during a writing class. He in turn didn't finish it either and passed it on to the new talent Daniel Abraham in the early 2000s. Although he's got a long way to go to make the impression GRRM has, due to the years it's spent in various drawers, his input is actually at a similar point in his career as their's were. You can't easily tell which parts were written by which author.

The setting (mostly Gardner) is a well imagined world, a far flung colony of Earth's, with humanity used as the expeditionary forces for a less vigourous alien race. All such frontier worlds are fairly rough places, and our hero Ramon feels little remorse when a bar fight gets out of hand and he stabs some foreigner. However it turns out this wasn't just some guy, but an ambassador, and so Ramon decides it might be time for one his periodic prospecting trips out into the wilderness until the heat's died down. The book opens with Ramon emerging from a period of prolonged darkness/unconsciousness quite unsure what has happened to him. He slowly starts piercing back some memories but before he can account for his predicament he' summoned (dragged) before an alien species he's never seen before. With little in the way of preliminaries they inform him, his purpose in existing (a concept Ramon's never previously considered) is to help them find a human who's witnessed their hiding place. They coerce Ramon's help through the application of intense pain, and appoint one of their own to tag along with him in this hunt. Obviously Ramon's initial plans are all about how to escape from his captors, however he soon realises as more memories return to him, that it isn't quite as simple as he's first though, and slowly the prospect of a future starts to loom in his mind and actions.

Owing it's inspiration to Mark Twain, and GRRM's own Fevere dream (worth reading) this is not the story you expect it to be, with considerably deeper undercurrents as all good SF has. There is surprisingly little technology at all, and no exposition, just simple telling of experiences and impressions. The pacing works well, with careful accounting of details, and describing of unusual features but not sufficiently to slow down any of the action. But despite all that it's not exactly gripping, you never quite get a sense of peril or empathy for Ramon, and care little whether or not he will survive or ever catch his quarry. As Ramon knows a bit about the dominant alien species there's little explanation of their motivations or culture, and his interactions with the new ones are very limited.

The afterword describing the writing process is more interesting than is often the case.

Worth reading ( )

To me, the most interesting thing about Huner's Run is how this sci-fi novel came to be. Three writers collaborated across several decades to bring it about.

Gardner Dozois had the idea for a story about a man who wakes up in complete darkness, but thankfully without the overdone amnesia angle. He wanted to explore that theme, but then he got stuck and passed the story along to George R.R. Martin.

Martin added the river-themed escape and pursuit adventure, then returned the ball to Dozois. Not knowing how to proceed, Dozois kept it in his drawer for two decades, until he decided to give a young writer, Daniel Abraham, a chance to wrap it up.

While all this is quite interesting, I can't help but feel that there was a reason it took three decades to complete Hunter's Run. Through and through I had the feeling that more could be done with the original premise, which is not uninteresting. Ramon Espejo, a bad-ass and a mineral prospector, makes a shocking discovery in the wilderness of a recently colonized world of Sao Paolo. A discovery that leaves him running for his life downstream Rio Embudo, back to the city of Nuevo Janeiro, back to civilization, pursued by ... Well, I can't say by whom or by what without spoiling the main twist of the novel, but it's weirder than one would think.

However, I found neither the world building of the Sao Paolo colony (just basically Earth with a slightly more terrifying fauna), nor the main character of Ramon Espejo (a bit of a generic tough guy there), nor the grand river adventure (just not very exciting) too enticing. The best thing thing about Hunter's Run are probably the psychological and philosophical issues raised by the identity crisis of the protagonist. What does it really mean to be YOU, especially in light of another one of YOU existing? Furthermore, what does it mean to be human? Why do we do certain things that we do, like kill other living beings, including other humans? Or whistle? Well, there aren't too many answers in Hunter's Run, but at least it can get you thinking about this.

Of course, if one is the type that enjoys reading about long treks and/or rides across the countryside, with the occasional fight thrown in, that might be an even more appealing reason to read Hunter's Run. ( )