Gabriel Hunt

The Gabriel Hunt series, published by Leisure, is the brainchild of Charles Ardai, best known as the creator of the astonishingly wonderful Hard Case Crime imprint. Although each book is supposedly by Gabriel Hunt, who's also the protagonist of these wild and woolly adventures, obviously it's his "co-author" (there are several writers involved in the series) who's responsible. I'm not sure how many of the Gabriel Hunt novels have been published by now -- I think it's four -- but naturally I wanted my introduction to it to be one of Ardai's own offerings.

The series is very obviously modeled on the exploits of Indiana Jones -- perhaps "homage" might be the favoured term. This is both a blessing and a curse. The opening of Through the Cradle of Fear is pure Indie, as our near-superhuman hero craftily and spectacularly manages to escape seemingly certain death, saving not only himself but the scantily clad "romantic interest". Breathless after that, I prepared to find some ballast within the novel to hang onto while I readied myself for the next spectacular. Instead I was given a text that remained relentlessly light and superficial throughout, as if it thought I couldn't be trusted to plough through anything requiring even a scintilla of concentration. The result is a book that's not only immediately forgettable but also not hugely exciting even as one's reading it: without much by way of character creation, plot underpinning or scene setting in between times, the supposedly thrilling passages soon start failing to thrill.

This all probably sounds as if I disliked the book a lot. Not so (although I was mightily pissed off to discover when I got there that the last 45 pages or so of the book were a "bonus" adventure novella unconnected to the rest; had I known this to be so I'd have bought a different book). Hunt and his cohorts are engaging enough, and the froth entertaining enough, that I might well find myself buying another book in the series for a long plane journey, or whatever. But I'd been expecting a white-knuckler and it failed to materialize.
… (mehr)

So, when you look at the cover you know exactly what you are in for. A sort of pulpy action adventure novel with dames and bridges and a hunky protagonist. He punches people, shoots people, and swaggers around as he collects clues and fights the bad guys. It's pretty predictable, and run-of-the-mill.

The writing is acceptable, if uninspired. The characters are okay, but a bit cliched. There is some real mustache twisting and damsel threatening. The most interesting part of the story is when the main character reflects back to some previous adventures involving the esoteric. For the most part, it was kind of boring. Oh, and the hero has a gimmick. It's his gun, and it's not a very good gimmick. It's a pretty unrealistic weapon to take globe trotting. Antique guns are like that.

If you want it quick and predictable with full descriptions of the hero's attire, this is for you.… (mehr)

This feels like a cheap version of Indiana Jones. If you can get past that, and the relatively little character development of the main character, Gabriel Hunt, and read it for what it is, then you just may like this book.

This story is very one dimensional. Like I said, there is little character development, very little scene development. What it is is an action adventure story that starts with page one and the action doesn't stop until the end. Sure, some of the action seems tired, like you've seen it in countless action movies, which is true. But I don't think you'll say this book is boring.… (mehr)