Hunt at Year's End

I haven't read as much as I'd like this year, bowing a bit to the economy. Thankfully I had the first two Gabriel Hunt novels in store, and I'm glad to have closed out the year with them. As writer of my own adventurous C.J. Stone stories and a fan of Naughty Dog's Uncharted games, it was a pretty sure bet I'd like James Reasoner's Hunt at the Well of Eternity and Charles Ardai's Hunt Through the Cradle of Fear.

Reasoner's series opener is a search for the fountain of youth through Mexico's Mayan ruins. As I've set several Stone stories in Mexico, I had a preference for this book. Reasoner, of course, is a prolific pro, getting Hunt into and out of trouble with each chapter. Ardai's book takes Hunt on a quest for a real-life Sphinx. I enjoyed it for its sense of lore and insight into Hunt's background.

Like the Uncharted games and the Indiana Jones movies before them, the Hunt books make almost believable legends that have fascinated us for centuries. We read books like these partly because we want to believe. The hardest thing for me to believe was that a two-fisted hero like Hunt was around today. Then again, this means the Hunt series writers don't have to put up an added period pretense and can blend what happens tomorrow with what may have happened long ago.

I look forward to what the different writers bring to the series.