Mike Resnick sure likes a safari. Having been on several, he favors the hunter/safari genre, though he takes such stories in a few new directions. Fair warning: he also loves a parody.
His new collection Dreamwish Beasts and Snarks is sufficiently outré that it requires both an introduction and an editorial conclusion. For my part, I'm interested in the fresh ideas themselves.
- Hunting the Snark deserves a review all its own. This 48-page mini-novella is unique on several fronts. Four filthy rich hunters are getting the first crack at the game on a new planet. In place of "native bearers", we have a baker's dozen alien beings including an expert tracker, plus a pilot and guide (the first person viewpoint), to shepherd the "guests". One member, being well-read, suggests the planet resembles one of Lewis Carroll's fantastic landscapes, from his poem "The Hunting of the Snark." The guide snaps up the name for a mysterious super-predator that has the local lions terrorized. The Snark of this tale is one answer to the question, if a jungle-man were more solitary, bigger than a bear but with all of a feral human's smarts, could "ordinary" hunters cope with him/it?
- Stalking the Unicorn with Gun and Camera parodies a hunting magazine's review of a game species. These unicorns aren't your doe-eyed, submissive sorts, either.
- Two Hunters in Manhattan pits an ancient vampire against one of the author's favorite "alternative history" figures, the younger Theodore Roosevelt, during a stint as NYC Commissioner of Police.
- Safari: 2103 A.D., in the form of diary entries, reminds me of a story that ends, "We listened to the stuffed-up birdies sing." For all I know that is a Resnick story also. In 2103 A.D. any animal weighing over a pound is considered a rarity worth taking expensive safari tours to see and photograph.
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