Short Take: “The Hunt,” J.H. Dierking

Pros: Gets quite interesting
Cons: Feels a little unbalanced/flat at first
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

J.H. Dierking’s short story The Hunt has us accompany a human named Malcolm on his way to observe a hunt conducted by an alien species. The hunt appears to be highly ritualistic–even though the aliens have advanced technologies, they hunt with spears and similar weapons.

This is a short story, so I can’t really tell you any more about the content without spoiling the story. I will say that at first the aliens seem rather stereotyped (they call Malcolm simply ‘human’ and make constant fun of his small size in comparison to them). The initial description of the planet is also a bit stilted, mixed oddly with the alien’s chatter.

As the story progresses, however, it pulls together nicely and kept my attention. Malcolm turns out to have some personality, as does one of the aliens. As short stories go, I found this one to be worth reading.