Gabriel Hunt - Hunt at World's End

The action never stops in this fast-paced pulp adventure. HUNT AT WORLD'S END takes its lead from the classic Doc Savage pulps and Indiana Jones films and cranks the action up a few notches. The characters - both heroic and villainous - are fully formed and engaging, and the story is just plain fun. Highly Recommended!

I have read all three of the books in the Gabriel Hunt series and I have found them all to be a blast. At World's End in particular captures the breakneck pace and globe trotting action that proper serial-style adventure heroes deal with on a regular basis. I find myself comparing these books to Indiana Jones simply because I find the Jones adventures to be the benchmark for this sort of thing. Gabriel Hunt is definitely not an Indiana rip-off. Having said that, the stories really do capture the same feeling of excitement and exploration that I found when reading or seeing Indiana in action. The action, riddles, traps, and treasures are all wonderfully produced. I think I read this in about two days. The book is a lot of fun and I cannot wait to read the next installment! If you like Indiana Jones, Arthur Conan Doyle, the Uncharted video games, Tomb Raider, or anything of this sort, I highly recommend you take a trip with Gabriel Hunt!

Full disclosure: I was one of quite a few people who received a free prepublication pdf of this, the third Gabriel Hunt adventure, because I reviewed the earlier books in the series. The book comes out in print at the end of October, so I wanted to get this review up as soon as possible. The third Gabriel Hunt adventure follows the form of the previous two, and tweaks the formula just a little bit. For the first time, we see some scenes from a POV other than Gabriel's. At first it felt out of place, but overall it enhances the story by enabling the author to utilize the classic "bomb under the table" theatrical trick: the characters don't know they're in danger, but the audience does, and so every move the heroes make is made more tense. It works in this book. All of the books have a very cinematic feel, as befits a series that falls so in step with characters like Indiana Jones, and this one moreso than the previous two thanks to the cut-aways to what other characters are doing. Of course, there's a femme whose presence might prove fatal to Gabriel. In this case, she's the niece of a peer of Gabriel's missing parents -- a peer who wants to be the female Gabriel Hunt, in fact. I can't say there was anything particularly different about the development of Gabriel's latest conquest, although I like the character. Over the course of the series, we've met Gabriel's younger siblings, various Hunt Foundation Associates, and at least 5 current or former flames. Most of those females have been sultry, sexy, intelligent and more often than not of volatile temperament. Joyce Wingard is not sultry -- she's intelligent, she's definitely volatile, and she's not afraid to get down and dirty and do the same job Gabriel does. She's less experienced, but has potential and would be a worthy addition to the regular supporting cast. Two other new characters would also be worthy additions to the cast, although one of them is involved in a betrayal that might take a while for Gabriel to bounce back from. So far, the creators of the series have drawn on a variety of world mythologies to craft the ancient artifacts / mysteries Gabriel investigates. Fountain of Youth, the mystery of the sphinx, and now, a Hittite legend involving a gift/weapon from the god Teshub. One of the things that sets this series apart is the emphasis on world cultures instead of "just" Judeo-Christian-based mysteries. This time Gabriel also faces not one but two bad-guys and two interesting subordinates. Don't get your hopes up that most of them are going to be around at the end of the book. If there's any part of the standard formula that I'd enjoy seeing this series shuck, it's the lack of a returning arch-foe for our Mr. Hunt. Another fine entry in what is fast becoming one of my favorite book series.