Hunter’s Run by George R. R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, and Daniel Abraham

Hunter’s Run has an interesting evolution, having taken more than 30 years to be completed and published. Three men worked separately and together to bring this sci-fi novel to life.

Synopsis:

The main character, Ramon, left planet earth because he had prospects working to develop a new planet for habitation. He is carried on an alien spaceship to this new planet, 1000 years pass during his trip, and he becomes  a prospector on the new planet when he has arrived. Ramon is a man who is quick to temper and violence, and when he murders a man he is forced to run into the wilderness. Few prospectors or humans have explored the wilderness, there are massive and frightening creatures, there are thousands of animals that haven’t been discovered, and the land has not really been charted. This is when he stumbles upon an alien race hiding from the aliens who brought Ramon to the planet.  This is when Ramon begins an unlikely and psychologically interesting adventure.

The themes:

This novel will surprise and delight the science fiction reader. Using a new twist, the authors explore the idea of identity and how experiences can change and affect the ways that we perceive and interact with our world. This novel intersects the themes of guilt, fear, anger, and redemption to create a tightly woven novel that brings you full circle from beginning to end.

The writing:

These men spent decades pouring thought and care into their writing and story craft. And, to be fair, it is decent writing for the science fiction genre. This is not a literary novel and should not be judged as such. The writing does not become tangential or wander unnecessarily (which is one of my complaints with many science fiction novels). All-in-all I’d recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the science fiction genre. I think it would make a good movie for the Sy-fy channel.

The ending:

Endings are so important. I have to say that I wasn’t thrilled with the ending. It felt abrupt and I wasn’t ready to put the book down (which is probably a compliment). The thing is, the afterword was facing the final page of the novel. This was jarring. While I like afterwords, I think it’s best if they have at least one blank page between them and the final page of the story. This will give the reader a moment to pause, reflect, and digest the story that they’ve just spent hours reading.

George R. R. Martin’s Website

Gardner Dozois doesn’t have a website, but here’s the Wikipedia page about him.

Daniel Abraham’s Website

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury is my hero.

This novel was first published (as a shorter version in Galaxy Magazine) in 1950, before we had the Internet, video games, and satellite television. Some people might even say that this novel was prophetic. We may be in the age of information, but this would more aptly be described as the age of information overload. And too much information results in lots of data but very little contemplation and careful consideration of that data. We fill our days with media of many different sources, and now many people even carry phones that operate as miniature computers, so that they never have to be too far from their beloved information. We have forgotten how to sit on the front porch and chat with our neighbors. We have forgotten how to spend family time other than sitting next to each other watching the TV and eating microwaved dinners. Maybe it’s not quite that bad, but I do know many people whose lives are very similar to what I’ve just described.

Most importantly, we’ve forgotten about the importance for reading. It takes too much time, the classics are hard to understand, reading shouldn’t be work it should be fun, why read when we can just watch a movie?

Bradbury’s vision of people burning books, of not being allowed to read is terrifying because it really does happen. Why does it happen? Because books create lasting impressions, books teach us to think, books teach us diversity, humanity, compassion, and respect. Books are influential. That is why they are burned. But there are always rebels who will risk their lives to preserve artwork, and I’m not talking about books alone. I watched a documentary earlier this year that showed a group of men who strategically walled off a room in a building that housed a voluminous collection of Afghan films. They protected the artwork from being destroyed by the Taliban. Several years ago I was in Cambodia and made a comment about all of the ancient statues whose heads were missing or faces destroyed, my motorbike driver told me that the Thai army had done that damage during the war, but according to my lonely planet that damage was actually done by the Khmer Rouge. I’m more likely to believe that latter after reading Luong Ung’s memoir First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers. Ung explained her first hand accounts of the people’s need to throw away items like prescription eye glasses and jewelry as they were marched from their homes to the labor camps. The soldiers killed anyone who appeared educated before even getting to the labor camps.

The point from my rambling is that Bradbury’s novel may be 59 years old, but it is still just as fresh and contemporary today as it was the day he wrote it. Teaching our children to read is how we teach them to be human. And I absolutely LOVE the fact that he wrote Fahrenheit 451 while sitting in a public library.

Ray Bradbury’s Website