The Hunters

by Burt Wetanson

Book Overview

In a quiet Montana town, one dusty day is like anotheruntil the boredom is shattered by a mysterious couple promising the answers to people's dreams. The townspeople are more than willing to board a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0872165590
• ISBN13: 9780872165595
• Release Date: January 1979
• Publisher: Playboy Press
• Length: 219 Pages
• Weight: 0.26 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A fun, pulp SF adventure

`The Hunters', with its cover illustration mimicking the poster for `Close Encounters of the Third Kind', is an obvious, but entertaining, effort to cash in on the UFO / Aliens craze of the late 70s: A mysterious couple arrive in the hardscrabble Montana town of Bear Paw and begin posting flyers inviting everyone to a ceremony that promises travel to the stars, enlightenment, true wisdom, and other `Saucer People' clichés. At the ceremony later that day all who attend are reduced to tearful ecstasy by the generosity and friendship of the otherworldly couple. The next morning a sizeable group of townspeople assemble in the town square for their journey to the stars. Sure enough, a strange, futuristic silver bus appears and the alien couple step out and greet everyone. The townspeople board and set off on a short trip to the outskirts of Bear Paw, and the vicinity of a long-abandoned silver mine. Atop a nearby hill, a majestic flying saucer awaits. As the Bear Paw folk joyously approach it, ready for their epochal journey to outer space, something goes very, very wrong. The aliens, it seems, are not here to bring peace and wisdom to mankind; rather, they have much more sinister designs on Homo sapiens.....and it includes lasers, sophisticated electronic `lures', and, of course, campfire.....'cookouts'.... ! `Hunters' is good old pulp SF. No Big Themes here, no nuanced thoughts on the nature of The Other, etc., etc., instead, just a straightforward adventure: can the motley crew of Montana residents escape and outwit the alien hunters ? The narrative runs along rather well, fueled by regular incidents of bloodshed, although the authors have a habit of stopping the action too often in order to have their characters engage in snatches of inane dialogue meant to enhance the reader's empathy for their plight. The cast includes an Indian couple, who deliver scathing lectures about the Palefaces and their depredations of Native Americans; a bickering married couple who seek escape from the drudgery of life; the town alcoholic; an elderly lady with homely spunk; some commune-dwelling hippies who just can't believe the aliens are Bad People; and angry black man Sam Tolliver, who, when not kicking alien butt, gives the grief to Whitey. I won't spoil the book's ending, save to say that it's never clear if the aliens will win, or their human prey. It's not great SF literature, and it's really more of a screenplay adaptation than a genuine novel, but `The Hunters' is a fun, quick read, and filled with sly humor that effectively satirizes the UFO Awe imparted by movies like `Close Encounters'.