The Hunter: A Scientific Novel

by Giancarlo Genta

The 24th humankind has become a spacefaring civilization, colonizing the solar system and beyond. While no alien forms of life have yet been encountered in this expansion into space, colonists suddenly encounter machines of alien origin - huge robots able to reproduce themselves. Called replicators by the colonists, they seem to have but a single to destroy all organic life they come in contact with.Since the colonial governments have no means to fight this menace directly, they instead promise huge rewards to whoever destroys a replicator. As a result, the frontier attracts a new kind of adventurers, the Hunters, who work to find and destroy the replicators. Mike Edwards, a skilled young maintenance technician and robotics expert at a faraway outpost, will not only become one of them - but be the very first one to unlock the secret behind the replicators’ origin and mission.  The scientific and technical aspects underlying the plot - in particular space travel, robotics and self-replicating spacecraft - are introduced and discussed by the author in an extensive non-technical appendix.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction

142 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 27, 2013

Reviews

[Horia Calborean · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story was interesting but the dialog was desastrous and the characters actions unbelivable. Maybe he should have sticked only to the second part where the science behind the book is explained.

[James Ronholm · Rating 2 out of 5]

As if it was written by a precocious 14 year old boy. The plotline is reasonable but the male/female interactions are pretty ridiculous and one dimensional.

[Jarek · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book consists of two parts: the actual novel and the explanation of the science behind it.

The fictional part was an easy read, with reasonable plot. Unfortunately the characters were one-dimensional and it was hard to care what happens to any of them.

The non-fiction part was surprisingly boring, any Wikipedia article is written in a more interesting way then this part of the book.

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was quick read I finished it in one night, I took it as a fairly standard sci fi with the tropes of aliens, robots and spaceships. Still nice though.

[Bru82 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice novel with some interesting scenarios about robotics and space travels.
Not a masterpiece, but if you enjoy sci-fi it's a light and legit reading

[Charl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. An interesting, terrifyingly plausible concept, marred by stilted, wooden characters and frequent grammar errors. The science was interesting. The story not so much.

[YardBoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this quick sci-fi read [approx 120 pgs] followed by a short postscript, easily explaining the science: self-replicating robots gone bad. There was even the levity of RGs [RoboGirls] and a love interest. The story was a bit moralistic for me, but a good life lesson nonetheless.