Hunt the Hunter

Kris NevilleProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 33K words
Chapters: 4

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Hunt the Hunter by Kris NevilleAuthor: Neville, Kris, 1925-1980,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Mar 13, 2016

Editor's review

Kris Neville was a less prolific but distinctive author in the mid-twentieth-century American science fiction magazine scene. Hunt the Hunter is a public-domain science fiction short story, digitized and made available by Project Gutenberg, offering Chinese readers an accessible entry point into the ecology of the small science fiction magazines that followed the Golden Age. The work is short, with a tight narrative pace, carrying the tension and dystopian suspense common to Cold War-era science fiction; the title itself hints at the narrative pleasure of a reversal between hunter and prey. For readers who want a low-threshold encounter with science fiction in the original English, the language difficulty is moderate, no complex world-building is required, and it can be finished in scattered moments. As a public-domain eBook, it is extremely cheap to obtain and serves as a good sample of what a Project Gutenberg catalog entry looks like. It should be noted that this is a genre story with clear marks of its era, dwelling on atmosphere and cleverness rather than deep character portrayal; readers are advised to approach it as light reading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who want to enter science fiction reading through a short story in the original English
Enthusiasts interested in mid-twentieth-century American science fiction magazine work
Learners who need lightweight English reading material for practice in scattered time
Readers who collect public-domain eBooks and follow the Project Gutenberg catalog

Not a good fit for

Hard science fiction readers expecting a long, grand world-building and complex settings
Literary readers hoping for deep psychological character portrayal
Beginners whose English reading is not yet proficient and who need a Chinese parallel text

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the plot reversal, then go back to see how the title echoes key scenes.
Jot down unfamiliar period expressions as you go and look them up afterward, so as not to break the rhythm.
Read it alongside other Cold War-era science fiction short stories to observe shared period anxieties.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a short story?

It is a science fiction short story, not long, suitable for reading in one sitting or over two or three sessions, with no extensive world-building.

How difficult is the English, and what level is needed?

The overall language difficulty is moderate, with not overly complex syntax; readers with a college English foundation or access to a dictionary should be able to read it smoothly. The main obstacle is the occasional period-specific vocabulary.

Why is this book available for free from Project Gutenberg?

The book has entered the public domain, and Project Gutenberg has prepared it as a free eBook for download, so readers can read it at no cost and without copyright concerns.

Comments

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About the author

Kris Neville Author · American · 1925–1980

Kris Neville (1925–1980) was an American science fiction writer born in Missouri. He began publishing in 1949, and his career spanned several decades. Nine of his works are held in this collection, including General Max Shorter, Voyage to Far N'jurd, New Apples in the Garden, Hunt the Hunter, Shamar's War, Earth Alert!, Fresh Air Fiend, and Moral Equivalent; their subjects often involve space travel, alien-world adventure, and visions of future societies. His early work Bettyann is often regarded as a science fiction classic. Beyond fiction, he long worked as a technical writer on plastics and co-authored a book on epoxy resins. He died in Los Angeles in 1980. Public information about his life and literary career is limited, and researchers tend to approach him through the themes and style of his works.