Cliched and one-dimensional but not terrible.

As someone who loves books set in snowy plains and books about unknown monsters, this was right up my street. The inclusion of soldiers hunting said monster was a bonus, after all, who doesn't like Predator?

Unfortunately, while one-dimensional characters work well in a 90-minute movie, they're hard to get excited about in a 19 hour book and this is one of the major failings of this book

Everyone is a total caricature, from the main hero (the A-typical Alpha Male called Hunter who lives off the land, is unshakeable in danger, unbeatable in combat, has giant wolf called Ghost but also cares about kids) to the evil corporate-types.

In addition to this there is a problem with the the description of an early squad leader that the protagonist works with. Now this man is a soldier of Japanese descent and so I would expect him to be referred to as The Captain or Captain Takakora but instead he's referred you repeatedly as "The Japanese" which is, in all honesty, borderline racist.

Now I have been very negative but the description of survival techniques was incredibly interesting including such things as edible plants and trees, the calories available through certain grubs and a very startling way of catching Tigers.

Also, while the characters are very cliched and lack any growth, the story does progress well as more characters are introduced, particularly the evil corporate guy, and the story became more interesting.

What started as a simple run and gun through snowy plains soon became a battle of wits between Hunter and the creature but also more 'terrestrial' dangers.

Thanks to this the latter half of the book did pick up somewhat and, while I was still lacking any love for the cast, I was beginning to root for the good guys towards the end.

As an audiobook, I felt the narrator pretty reliable as far a reading goes. There was a lack of vocal range and they always pronounced the word Human (a word that must be said 100 times in the book) as Uman but overall they did a good job with a rather flat story. I'd like to experience more of their work as I feel, given the right book, they'd be a brilliant narrator.

The question of whether I can recommend this book really depends on whether you like this sort of tale If you grew up loving films like predator and other such mindless action movies, then I guess this might well be right up your street.

I managed to listen all the way through nearly 20 hours and there are only a few parts where it really dragged but I came away having been mildly entertained and certainly not hating the book by any means.

My only complaints remains primarily the cliched style of character and the tasteless use of the term "The Japanese" and so it' an average score for me.

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Excellent Horror

I was hoping this would be good and it was excellent, this is what I was looking for, modern horror that doesn't put the listener to sleep.

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Superb

Enjoyable from beginning to end, with characters you can get emotionally invested with. Will certainly try this authors other books.

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1 person found this helpful

Several Hours Too Long

This got more and more tedious, and frankly became beyond believable. I don’t know who was more pleased when the beast was finally killed - me or Hunter.

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