The world is a dangerous place for Gene, growing up amongst people who are not like him. All through his childhood his father teaches him to survive, no smiling, no sweating, no standing out. When his father disappears he is left the only human (Heper) in an inhuman world, if he is discovered he will be devoured by his own classmates, class mates who cannot survive in the light, are driven crazy at the thought of human blood and whose physical speed and strength far outweigh his own. Although precarious, Gene remains beneath the radar until he wins a place on the last Heper hunt...

The Hunt is the first in a series of young adult books by Andrew Fukuda, a fact which should have been usefully displayed on the books cover as without the knowledge that more of the story is to come makes the ending abrupt and unsatisfactory.

Fukuda has created a strange world and from the first novel a highly illogical one. The, for want of a better word, "vampires" are in control of the unnamed planet, which may or may not be Earth and have been for some considerable ages. We are not told how the two species developed together or if the vampires overran a human population. Like their literary brothers a Heper can be converted with a bite, but the world is essentially devoid of Hepers, with only a few surviving in hiding and a colony kept as experimental animals. Like the topsy-turvy world of Planet of the Apes, the Hepers are portrayed to the general population as little more than animals, only good for experimentation and eating. The lack of Heper food source means that the vamps don’t actually need Hepers to survive and can eat all manner of raw meat.

Another diversion from traditional vamps is that they have created a society which mimics contemporary America, high schools and all. The scale of the world and its internal logic are confusing. On the one hand the vamps main source of transport is the horse, but they are also able to produce technologically advanced objects like computers, which would require mining, petrochemicals and sophisticated electronics. It’s an odd combination of retro modernity peppered with anachronistic objects.

Nor do we get a good idea of how big this civilisation is. Gene grows up in a relatively large town, but the only two locations in the book are the town and the Heper Institute. Descriptions of the rest of the planet would indicate large expanses of wilderness, so how do they cross these with only horses and where does the plentiful supply of meat come from?

The turning point of the book is when Gene wins the right to be one of a small number of hunters in the last Heper hunt, as the Hepers are human, like Gene, much of the following plot is unfortunately inevitable. By the time he talks to his first Heper it is not a case of what will happen, but how it will play out. The ending of the book, except for the very last line, held few surprises. It is at this point of the book that he is introduced to the concept of having a name, and is the point at which he remembers that he has one. Odd really, as Ashley June, a school acquaintance has a name from her first introduction, a fact never explained in the book.

The story is told from Gene's point of view, so few of the other characters get much in the way of character development. Ashley June, for reasons not divulged here, is the most interesting, only because Fukuda builds as much mystery about her origins and meaning in the overall plot as he does for Gene. Both, apparently, are of interest to, at least, some vampires and Fukuda hints at a bigger game being played, one unknown to Gene and the audience.

The Hunt for all its logical holes, which may be answered in subsequent novels, and infuriating hints at what is happening is none-the-less a well written yarn. Gene is a survivor and thankfully not portrayed as a whiny teen. His predicament drives much of the book's tension, although I did not believe that his rank underpants hadn’t given him away. The first read through was frustrating, as it left much undisclosed. A note on the reprint that this is one of a series would go a long way to explaining why the book is as it is. Still it’s not a bad read if you like your vampire books with a Planet of the Apes flavouring.

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Charles Packer