Disposable Lit Reviews

Charter Books, 1983/1987
184 pp.
ISBN 0-441-57469-6
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When I first saw this series of books in the late ’80’s (I think I picked up the fourth in the series), the packaging was a little misleading. With “Night Hunter” in big letters up top, then a number and a subtitle, it looked (and was apparently meant to look) like a horror-flavored version of the standard men’s adventure franchise. (The back cover’s boilerplate paragraph about revenge-driven Dan Brady, avenger on supernatural evil, strengthened the comparison.)

That impression does an injustice to the series. Not that men’s adventure novels are necessarily bad, but quality seems to be optional in determining their success and longevity. If, on the other hand, the Night Hunter novels represented the median quality level of series adventure novels, then maybe they’d have more respect and not be seen as the male equivalent of bodice rippers.

On the other hand, it’s impossible for a single writer to churn out that much text and keep the quality level high. Look at poor Maxwell Grant, cranking out a Shadow novel every week or two; there’s a reason that they all read like an AI program cobbled them together out of a set of standard cliches. (The Mack Bolan series usually has three or four work-for-hire novelists at work at once to keep up with the monthly publishing schedule. Just imagine Grant muttering, “Bah — luxury! Why, back in my day…”)

The first novel of the series was written in 1983, and it’s pretty much an origin story. Dan Brady, a mild-mannered Brit working at a government installation trying to find evidence of paranormal phenomena, is abruptly attacked in his home by hooded figures. They brutalize his wife in front of him, kidnap her along with their two children, and leave him for dead. He recovers in the hospital, psychically guarded by a woman whose family has already suffered the same fate, and together they try to build a magically safezone out of his house and set about discovering who their assailants are and where their families were taken.

That’s pretty much the plot of the entire novel; further entries take Dan through several adventures as he uncovers a far-reaching occult plot. The series apparently ran through seven entries, which ended at roughly the time that they were given their first paperback publication in the faux-adventure series format. (I’ve not read that far, so I don’t know if it resolves at the end, or if interest eventually ran out.)

Author Robert Faulcon is better known in SF/fantasy circles as Robert Holdstock, author of sleeper favorite Mythago Wood. It’s interesting to watch a novelist accustomed to writing fantasy tackle a contemporary tale, and Faulcon/Holdstock exhibits some of the classic errors; after coming from a genre which is pretty damned forgiving of necessary exposition, he tends to slow his prose down with an overabundance of explanation and background. That, added to the stereotypical “characteristic British formality,” tends to make passages a little stiff and overstuffed.

Nevertheless, it doesn’t sit still; there are attacks, spooks and starts, and ominous portents all through, as Dan and fellow survivor Ellen try to find a way to trace the deadly elemental “Stalker” back to the individual summoning and controlling it before it makes mincemeat out of them.

It’s not the best novel in the world, but given the time it takes to write even a novel of this caliber, I suppose it’s no surprise that once-a-month series adventures rarely approach it.

Nathan Shumate