Judge

After the terrible outing by Carl Bowen's first book in the series, "Vampire", Gherbod Fleming introduces us -- finally -- to the world of the hunters. I enjoyed his more human side of the hunters, showing the flaws and inner demons of each person. My only problem is the horrific copy editing done by Melissa Thorpe... spelling, grammar, etc. If she would have simply read through the manuscript, the problems are obvious and easy to fix. The publisher, White Wolf, needs to hire someone else. But definitely keep Gherbod around.

After promising myself not to follow this series after my review of the fist volume "Vampire," I broke down and ordered this, the next in the series. Why? I have become a fan of Gherbod Fleming and decided that, if anyone could rescue this series from a weak start, Fleming could.I have no idea who Fleming really is. He has chosen as pseudonym the name of one of a pair of 11th century Gherbods one of who was married to queen Mathilde, or was the first Earl of Chester or was the brother-in-law of William de Warren. I have no idea what this has to do with vampires, but apparently it has a lot to do with the British royal line, which was getting a bit complex in those days. Make of it what you will.In any case, "Judge" tells the story of a not particularly appealing automotive executive, Douglas Sands, who is having an affair and planning to leave his wife, who he blames for the death of his son (after all, she was the one who wanted the swimming pool). He is extraordinarily self-indulgent, headstrong, pays no attention to anyone's advice, and in no way resembles a hero. Rather, he is the typical corporate middle manager who you would expect to find reading 'The 60 Minute Sexist.'Sands suddenly discovers that he can see the supernatural and realizes that his mistress is being stalked by a 'something.' In the process of finding out what it was Sands leaps naked from a third story window in pursuit and winds up in the hospital with his secret completely blown. Did I mention that Sands is eternally injuring himself? He winds up living at the house of Albert Tinsley, who is quite a bit more sympathetic. It turns out that Douglas, like Albert, is a 'hunter,' who has special skills for taking out the supernaturally evil.Douglas meets several more hunters, who have been protecting his ex-wife and ex-mistress while Sands falls out of windows and perpetually manages to injure himself. As the action builds, Douglas manages, by sheer thoughtlessness, to cause the deaths of two fellow hunters and the injury of a third. All in the effort to take out a single vampire. You can't really blame just Douglas, it turns out that this is the group's first vampire. And they lack any sense of teamwork. If these guys don't get a lot better at 'hunting' they will never last until Volume 6.If anything makes this book work it is Fleming's writing. He manages to keep up a good pace and some chilling moments. His dialog is crisp and several of the characters are believable. He is clearly the best writer in White Wolf's stable. What White Wolf and Fleming failed to notice is that much of the plot would be comic if it wasn't so ponderously serious. Come to think of it, Volume 1 also has this same problem with pretentious seriousness. If only they had chosen to exploit this vein, this could have been an unusual and inventive book instead of yet another piece of OK vampire fiction.Now that I've inadvertently offended every goth fan in the universe, I'm prepared f

As the first book in the Hunter series that actually deals with Hunters, this book does a great job of showing what it must be like for the poor mortals in a World of Darkness. The Hunters are appropriately mystified, horrified and downright nerve-wracked by the world they thought they knew being turned upside-down by the invasion of the supernatural. The two elements I loved most about the book were: 1) It's scary! Then again, I slept with the light on for a week after reading Salem's Lot, so maybe I've got different standards.... But, I really thought Fleming did a good job of making this spooky. 2) Introducing aspects of the supernatural other than vampires. This book also deals with wraiths and the walking dead. And did I mention it's spooky?All in all, I thought this was a great book and it was great to see the flip side of WoD---take away the blase attitude of 'I'm a vampire, yeah' and politicking and you see what it's like to be an ordinary human in a really scary world.In regards to the other reviewer who said this has no tie to the first book, that's not entirely true. All of the Hunters' stories as to wierdness they've experienced come from things which happened in the first novel.

I have been pretty down on White Wolf fiction; while there have been a few good novels, I consider most only slightly more interesting to read than the owner's manual of my vacuum cleaner. Some of the Vampire clan novels have been especially bad, and turned me off of to fiction based in the World of Darkness for a long time. _Predator and Prey: Judge_ was going to be my final attempt at such fiction - a negative impression being the final vote needed to send me away from the series forever.But _Predator and Prey: Judge_ is GOOD. More than good; one of the best World of Darkness novels I've ever read. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that this is one of the most interesting and enjoyable books that I've read in months, if not years. I started reading it at bedtime and couldn't put it down until after 6:30 AM in the morning. High praise, considering some of the recent books by "name" authors I've read that put me to sleep in 15 minutes. _Predator and Prey: Judge_ is about a Hunter - a human that has recently discovered that the undead walk among the living. This "Hunter," however, is just an ordinary man that doesn't necessarily WANT to know about or "hunt" the supernatural. A lot of the conflict in the novel centers around this aspect: What would a flawed, middle-aged man be able to do against the undead? Would he even care if they didn't directly affect him? What would such knowledge do to a person's life and loved ones? These questions and others get answered throughout the course of the novel in a realistic way - jumping out a third floor window while battling one of these supernatural monsters almost kills him, for instance. There are other subplots throughout the book, of course - other supernatural creatures are met and new Hunters found - and most work together to make it extremely interesting. Still, there are a few flaws and "over the top" experiences, but the majority of the book is excellent (and sometimes extremely creepy). In short, it is a great read!

This book has the first story I ever read about Hunters. The Hunteres are introduced smoothly in the book and it does a great job of showing their human side. It is starts slow and catches up with excitment as the main character realizes something is wrong with him. Definately recommended, but unfortunately the book has no previous ties what so ever to Predator and Prey: Vampire. I hope the author plans to eventually make a bigger theme from this six book series.