The Dark Path (Mass Market Paperback)

Drawing on his expert writing techniques -- he has been writing at least that long -- he draws these aliens for us readers with such meticulous care that we experience them exactly as he sees them, full of foreign emotion and consistent motivation. He has not taken leave of his senses. Rather, he employs them with art and skill. His human characters inhabit a world that rings as true as any that a hard-core science fiction reader can find published today. The depth of detail, the intensity of emotion, and complexity of his plots involve the reader so completely that comparison seems ludicrous. While he might have many influences, the prose that Walter Hunt writes is inimitably his own.

The Zor are winged bipeds whose culture blends hard science with a spirituality as real to them as their daily meals. They communicate not just by words, but by gestures whose very meaning is lost on most humans. Over eighty standard years have passed since the Zor Wars (see Mr. Hunt's first novel THE DARK WING), and they are now staunch allies of the human empire. But even as the two species remain at peace, prejudice and distrust lurk among the human population, while confusion and misunderstanding dwell among the zor. Yet this merely serves as the backdrop for THE DARK PATH. The action comes fast and furious, involving a new, perhaps unbeatable threat. And Mr. Hunt leads us on a journey with a female protagonist who redefines the role women should play in our own future.

This is not just an adventure story; it is a saga, an epic. Mr. Hunt captures the essence of Homer's THE ODYSSEY and places it in the distant future, where Faster-Than-Light travel is possible and humans reach out to explore an unknown (and perhaps unknowable) universe. Like THE ODYSSEY, this is a book fraught with implications for today's very real world of political and military turmoil. That makes THE DARK PATH, in my humble opinion, a classic that will endure.

A superbly written book, THE DARK PATH engages our senses with an undeniable, yet totally foreign mysticism. This is not last we'll hear of Walter Hunt. Quite the contrary. This is only the beginning, and I for one wait helplessly hooked for the next installment.

Like "Dark Wing", this is classic space-opera sci-fi of the highest order. The plot is complex and compelling, the characters are well-drawn and sympathetic, and the story is finely crafted and well-paced, combining mystery and action in a way that will keep you in its grip until the final page, and leave you wanting more.

I can't wait to read the next installment!