William R. Burkett, Jr.
Bloodsport (1998)
Reviewed: 1998-04-13

Keith Ramsey is a writer, a journalist, who in his youth was a hunter on his home world and subsequently became a minor celebrity writing about his experiences. After years of the "soft life", he decides to have another go at hunting. Along with his secretary Ball, a floating, spherical cyborg with an attitude problem, he has come to Pondoro to collect a trophy of the local predator, the greer, and write about it. These beasts who put a fear of death into their stalkers are hard to find, harder to kill, and occasionally reverse the roles of hunter and quarry. With a reporter's instinct Ramsey discovers that there is more to the greer than the people on Pondoro think. Suddenly he is drawn into a maelstrom involving unexpected secret identities, galactic power politics, concerted greer attacks, and deadly symbionts.

This novel got a lot of publicity from the fact alone that it is Burkett's second novel after a hiatus of 30 years. It is competently written in a markedly individual style, fast-paced after a somewhat slow start, with a cast of remarkably well-developed characters. The idiosyncratic Ball and the alien greer should prove memorable. A pleasant read.

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