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A review by amandamlyons
A Hunter Called Night by Tim Waggoner
3.0
I was pretty enthused to read A Hunter Called Night, Tim Waggoner is one of those authors who rides the line between fantasy and horror and usually gives you something unique to read as a result. Night is definitely true to the fantasy meets horror themes of Waggoner's work, This one being something of a late night movie premise like Full Moon Features might make in one of their more fantasy centered films. If you're looking for something with lots of characters, a unique premise, and fairly short length this certainly fits the bill. However, this also means that if you're more of a fan of depth of plot and rich character development you might not be as satisfied as you hoped. This is definitely more of a quick popcorn plot, not necessarily a bad thing if you want something fun and simple, mind you, just not quite what I was hoping for personally.
I like the idea of a mysterious hunter and a group of random folks being pulled into the hunt, but I found myself feeling like maybe I would have gotten more from the resulting book if it had been more fleshed out and the characters had felt more grounded in their identities, particularly with the personality shift that came over them when the blight changed them. Sure, the blight corrupts, but would it so thoroughly change them that they'd become flatter as well as bring out these baser instincts? Would they not have some internal conflicts about this, especially if they were fairly decent people beforehand? We have a bit of this with some of our core characters but not with most of the other characters. It really could have grounded the horror a bit more and helped us to understand the corruption and it's effects. This seemed to be especially true of the male characters, who were more likely to flip into sexual and murderous mode no matter who they were or appeared to be before the night's effects took over. This made sense with some characters, but others made this shift with no regard for who they were and this was disconcerting- in fact, this coupled with some of the female characters being stereotypically bitchy and manipulative made the book more difficult to read.
I would have preferred to know a bit more about the hunt, the world Night and her Harriers come from, and some deeper ideas about why the hunt happens. I'm not entirely certain the ending quite fit the characters as presented either. The reveal and battle could've used a lot more detail to stick the landing for me too. All that being said, I don't think this book is necessarily going to be an issue for everyone. If you want something you can pick up and enjoy in a fairly short amount of time this would be right for you, especially if you're in the mood for something of a B movie.
I like the idea of a mysterious hunter and a group of random folks being pulled into the hunt, but I found myself feeling like maybe I would have gotten more from the resulting book if it had been more fleshed out and the characters had felt more grounded in their identities, particularly with the personality shift that came over them when the blight changed them. Sure, the blight corrupts, but would it so thoroughly change them that they'd become flatter as well as bring out these baser instincts? Would they not have some internal conflicts about this, especially if they were fairly decent people beforehand? We have a bit of this with some of our core characters but not with most of the other characters. It really could have grounded the horror a bit more and helped us to understand the corruption and it's effects. This seemed to be especially true of the male characters, who were more likely to flip into sexual and murderous mode no matter who they were or appeared to be before the night's effects took over. This made sense with some characters, but others made this shift with no regard for who they were and this was disconcerting- in fact, this coupled with some of the female characters being stereotypically bitchy and manipulative made the book more difficult to read.
I would have preferred to know a bit more about the hunt, the world Night and her Harriers come from, and some deeper ideas about why the hunt happens. I'm not entirely certain the ending quite fit the characters as presented either. The reveal and battle could've used a lot more detail to stick the landing for me too. All that being said, I don't think this book is necessarily going to be an issue for everyone. If you want something you can pick up and enjoy in a fairly short amount of time this would be right for you, especially if you're in the mood for something of a B movie.