A Hunger in the Soul
   Mike Resnick
  1998 TOR - A Tom Doherty Assoc Book NY USA
   ISBN: 0312854382


Journalist-adventurer Robert Markham is out to locate the vanished medical legend, Michael Drake. Markham recruits a medically retired desk-bound explorer-guide to lead him.

The fabled Michael Drake has secreted himself away among the natives on a world called Bushveld. This lush & verdant planet is renown for its isolation, its People, the varied & tribal Orange-Eyes & its huge creatures perfect for trophy hunting.

A Hunger in the Soul had a smattering of wry, dry humor at the outset until things began to go awry. Even as the narrater attempts some flabby, indulgent philosophy, the "hero" of this satire (it has to be a satire, surely?) throws his weight around, at one time sounding like the voice of reason & at another time mouthing inanities that made me blush. There's much grumbling & an occasional knee jerk reaction of indignation from the crew, however, Robert Markham gets away, on this his safari, with murder, mayhem & manipulation.

David enjoyed A Hunger in the Soul. He writes:
Mike Resnick has written another charmer; brought to life the old bwanas of the Dark Continent & resurrected the ills done & heroes made.

A good page turner with another world well-wrought & full-bodied. It is a once-again reminder that the human race, as it gains momentum towards its greatness, will carry along its great ills.

I read it with high hopes, ending with the usual feeling of plunder & pillage. I don't give a damn that a hundred billion humans survive because a serum was found for a plague, if the getting of that serum requires the slaughter of innocents, the cheating on one's oath & general foul behaviour of a rich, educated cad. Not a hero in my books & anyone remotely resembling a hero gets summarily wiped out. Apparently heroes don't have self-survival mechanisms.

Nope, I didn't like this one, so I gave it a 1 Teapot listing. Husband, however, gave it 3...

I've too many times played the Indian to my brothers' Cowboys, & everyone knows how that ends. This little book begs the huge question: "Does the end justify the means? Does doing evil validate the overall outcome toward a deeply invested good?"

Mike Resnick's Opus is huge & varied: The Soul Eater; Tales of the Galactic Midway; Tales of the Velvet Comet; Lucifer Jones; The Oracle Trilogy; The Galactic Comedy; The Widowmaker Trilogy & also reviewed Kirinyaga: a Fable of Utopia.
(06/20/99)

Rebecca