Brians Hunt (Brians Saga, #5) by Gary Paulsen

Brians Hunt (Brians Saga, #5) Reviews

• 
  Natalie

  First off, note the title of this book. I didn’t realize until I was about 60 pages in or so why the book is called Brian’s Hunt.
  
  For myself, I’m an adult now. I read The Hatchet probably about 20 years ago, most likely when it was still a relatively new book. I was a real bookworm, but due to not having such things like internet and google, my only way of finding out if an author had new books was to go to my local bookstore or library and check.
  
  Therefore it wasn’t until a few years ago I realized Mr. Paulsen was continuing The Hatchet series. I found out about The River, but then learned of the alternative ending to The Hatchet in Brian’s Winter.
  
  The latter book is somewhat connected to this book. And to its predecessor, Brian’s Return.
  
  In this book Brian is continuing his journey to visit the trapper family that helped him in Brian’s Winter.
  
  I have to say I liked this one a little bit better than Brian’s Return. Okay, I admit it. It’s because Brian finds an injured sled dog, and I’m very partial to dogs.
  
  Anyway, with that being said, the finding of this injured animal is connected to everything else in the story, ultimately leading to…Brian’s hunt.
  
  I would caution any parents wanting to get this book for their children to read it first for themselves. Like The Hatchet, there’s nothing more gruesome than nature itself, however, the…situation that Brian finds himself might scare young children. I can’t say more or else it gives away the big climax at the end of the story.
  
  As for the story itself, I want to say, although I can’t be sure, that the writing is slightly different in this one than it was in previous books. I can’t really put my finger on it, except to say I think Mr. Paulsen perhaps interjected into his writing style a more contemporary feel. I shall give an example.
  
  At one point in the book, Brian contemplates shooting a deer. However, he opts not to do so. The dog, alongside him, looks over at him, as if to say, are you going to shoot or what?
  
  Something to this affect. I didn’t’ quote that verbatim, but one gets the idea. To my best recollection, this is first time Mr. Paulsen has done something like this in his books, and in my opinion, I like it very much. Before it seemed Brian was very serious and everything was no-nonsense. Which is as it should be, I suppose, considering his age and the fact that he’s alone in wilderness with just a bow and quiver of arrows. But the tinge of…personality to this unnamed dog was a good touch.
  
  I could say more, but being that it was such a short book I won’t. I will be curious to see if Mr. Paulsen continues Brian’s journey. At first he indicated he wouldn’t, but in this book he says he will stop saying that. So we shall see.
• 
  Jane Stewart

  If you liked the earlier books, read this. It’s pleasant but I wanted it longer with more stuff.
  
  STORY BRIEF:
  This is book 5 in the series. Brian was 13 in the first book “Hatchet” when he survived a plane crash and the Canadian wilderness - alone for 54 days. In book 4, Brian is 15 and returns to the wilderness - with supplies to live there for a while. This book is later in that same trip or the next year. He is now 16. He catches fish and shoots game with a bow and arrow. He discovers an injured dog. He tends the dog’s wounds. The dog becomes his companion. Brian travels to discover where the dog came from and what happened. He learns it was a bear which Brian then hunts.
  
  REVIEWER’S OPINION:
  This wasn’t as good as the earlier books. I listened to all of the earlier books as audiobooks. When I felt this not to be as good, I wondered if the others would have been less good by reading as opposed to listening. I would hope my reaction would be consistent, but there is the possibility that all of these are better “heard” than “read.” I’m not sure. Anyway, this book was very short. It finished too soon. I wanted more. This book didn’t have as many events, things happening, and things I learned as in the earlier books. It was pleasant because I liked being in Brian’s wilderness world, but there was no “wow” the way earlier books were.
  
  OTHER BOOKS:
  The author wrote many books, but the Hatchet series consists of:
  5 stars. Hatchet (read first)
  5 stars. Brian’s Winter (read second or third but I prefer second)
  3 stars. The River (read second or third)
  4 stars. Brian’s Return
  3 stars. Brian’s Hunt
  
  DATA:
  Story length: 103 pages. Swearing language: none. Sexual content: none. Setting: current day Canadian wilderness. Copyright: 2003. Genre: young adult adventure fiction.
• 
  Chantal

  If you liked the books before, you will like this book. Although I sometimes got tired of the mentioning of food all the time in the book. Also the end is different and dramafull, more then the other books in de serie. Good ending to a serie!
  
  
• 
  Carol Bakker

  I'm done reading Gary Paulsen. Done.
  
  It was a mercy that my grandkids were exhausted after Fair week. A mercy the two oldest fell asleep around the fifth chapter. A mercy that I broke covenant and kept reading silently. I read far enough to realize this book was not an appropriate read aloud.
  
  There was a bear attack; there are gruesome details, unspeakable particulars, gut-wrenching awfulness. If you like nightmares, this is your book.
  
  A series that began with Hatchet, an incredible survival story, ends with a whimpering dog. a traumatized orphan, and a boy who glories in isolation.
  
  
• 
  theperksofbeingmarissa ;)

  I enjoyed this book! I definitely found myself wondering alongside Brian about whether or not the bear is good. I liked the author coming to a conclusion that it’s just…a bear lol It seems like such a simple conclusion, but we assign these “bad” behaviors to animals attacking/eating others, but are we as humans really all that different??? We hunt and eat other animals as a way to survive and that bear was doing the same thing!
  
  This book definitely inspires me to read the other books in the series! :)
• 
  Simon

  Concluding the events that began with a plane crash and fight for survival, Gary Paulsen went out with a crazy blow.
  
  Brian was a young kid when he was forced to survive alone in the wildness of Canada four books back, but now in this last installment of his life, he is a much older youth. He even has his eye on a girl. We met her and her family at the ending of the third book, when we see what would have happened if Brian had been left to survive in the winter. He meets an Inuit family and they take him in until he is rescued, then when Brian feels that he just has to go out and be in the wilderness again, he ventures out to see them.
  
  That is where the shocking devastation comes in. Brian encounters the dog, injured and clearly been attacked by something big. When Brian finally makes it to the family home, he finds to his horror the slaughtered remains of the father. The cabin is in ruins, the dogs are dead, the place trashed and ripped apart. Further in the woods Brian finds the remains of the mother.
  
  The children re no where to be seen and Brian fears the worst.
  
  He takes it on himself to find and destroy the beast that did this, which turns out to be a very large bear.
  
  The battle is brutal, bloody and scary, but in the end, Brian defeats the bear and slays it. He then finds the children and goes off with the girl he likes to tell the authorities.
  
  Life will be hard for the children now that they are orphans, but Brain will be there now and things will eventually be okay.
  
  I salute Brian and hope the rest of his life is well lived.
• 
  Nika

  The river and wilderness belong to Brian and his new companion, until he discovers a terrifying scene at a campground nearby his hunting grounds. His closest friend may be in danger, and he is willing to risk his own life in order to protect her.
  
  I have never read a "Brian book" before, although I had read excerpts from Gary Paulsen's various works many times. I liked that Paulsen's style mirrored the situation in the woods--bare-boned and raw.
  
  I recommend this to anyone, especially those kids in my class who really liked reading Hatchet in fifth grade.
• 
  Miriam Knot

  This story was really short! 100 pages vs 140-200 for all the other books! This felt more like a bonus story than a book and I am a little bit disappointed because I believe it could have benefited from another 40 pages. It felt a bit rushed.
  
  However, it was nice to read about Brian again. When I was a child I read the first books and was absolutely intrigued by it for years! Part of that because I couldn’t remember the name of the book and I wanted to reread, and when I finally did I liked it as much as I remembered. Good memories!
• 
  Teague Hannes

  Terrible ending, just the part before "The Hunt" section.
• 
  Jayelee

  Yeeees
• 
  L

  Brian hunts a killer
  
  In
  Brian's Return our hero Brian Robeson bought himself a bunch of cool gear and went off to camp in the Canadian wilderness and to visit his Cree friends the Smallhorns. At the end of
  Brian's Return Brian had paddled within, he thought, about 30 miles of the Smallhorn camp. There he decided he wasn't really ready for humans yet and thought he would spend a little more time wandering around on his lonesome.
  Brian's Hunt begins shortly after that.
  
  A wounded dog shows up unexpectedly at Brian's camp. She is obviously domesticated, making it a mystery why she would have left her humans. She also appears to view Brian as a friend. Her wounds look like the claws of a bear. Brian succors her, and finding that he enjoys the company of a dog, allows her to accompany him. Feeling a sense of urgency he can't explain, he heads post-haste for the Smallhorn camp. There, as the publisher's blurb informs us "horror ... awaits him". He sets out to hunt the killer.
  
  
  Brian's Hunt has the feel of a mystery/thriller. It works well.
  Brian's Return disappointed because nothing much happened.
  Brian's Hunt is perhaps the most action-oriented of all the books of
  Brian's Saga. It is also the most suspenseful.
  
  
  Gary Paulsen ends with an afterword beginning as follows

  I can almost hear the voices: “You said the last Brian book was the last Brian book,” and I did say that. But the response from readers is still profoundly overwhelming, hundreds of letters a day, all wanting more of Brian, and so this book, and I will no longer say that I will write no more about Brian and the north woods….In some way he has become real to many, many people and they want to see more of him and so, and so…we shall see.

  In fact,
  Brian's Hunt contains a clear hook to a sequel. Brian rescues Susan, the daughter of the murdered Smallhorn parents. They exchange addresses and agree to meet up after Brian has done what he needs to do. That meet up doesn't happen in Brian's Hunt. Brian is 16 and Susan 14, so it's easy to imagine that sparks will fly. Alas,
  Paulsen died in 2021 without writing that sequel.
  
  Summing up,
  
  ★★★★★
  Hatchet
  ★★★☆☆
  The River
  ★★★★☆
  Brian's Winter
  ★★★☆☆
  Brian's Return
  ★★★★☆
  Brian's Hunt
  
  A very good middle grade/young adult series altogether.
  
  
  Blog review.
• 
  Josiah

  Interesting. Whereas the previous book of this series, Brian's Return, picks up the story at the end of The River (the first sequel to 1988 Newbery Honoree Hatchet), Brian's Hunt instead follows Brian's Winter, the alternate sequel to Hatchet. Rather than Brian serendipitously releasing a radio signal from the airplane's communicator at the bottom of the lake adjacent to where he was stranded in the Canadian wilderness and subsequently being rescued, he had to bunker down and withstand the ungodly winter of the extreme American north. After making it through the worst of winter, he found refuge with a Cree trapper named David Smallhorn and his family, who contacted the authorities and arranged to reunite Brian with his parents. Whether or not the events of The River and Brian's Return can be finessed to fit with this alternative plot that leads to Brian's Hunt, our now sixteen-year-old protagonist has all the connections and bonus knowledge of the outdoors he accrued in Brian's Winter, and his ties to the Smallhorn family are key to what happens next as he returns to the wilderness life with his parents' consent. After beating the odds to survive his first stint in the wild, Brian has found it difficult to reintegrate with his former life. His instincts are honed to such a sharp edge that he reverts to fight-or-flight response too easily, and that makes him do inappropriate things in urbane society. Brian finds that he's happier living isolated in the woods, at least for periods of time. He's not planning to forsake his parents and modern existence completely, but the new Brian needs plenty of alone time if he's to live up to social expectations when he's back in civilization. The vast Canadian bush is his home now, as much as the house he shares with his mother, and he grows more comfortable with that reality each time he ventures into the forest and reconnects with the part of his soul he left there.
  
  The ability to hunt from a canoe is Brian's decisive advantage over his woodland prey. Birds, fish, moose, and bears mentally register the small, drifting boat as a log, giving Brian opportunity to get a close shot with his bow and arrow. Brian had to develop proper hunting technique right away to survive his first go-round with the wild, and his skills rarely fail him now. More often than not, however, he passes up open shots at large animals that would provide plentiful game, unwilling to kill anything he can't cook and consume before most of the meat spoils. But Brian's focus changes when a big dog seeks him out along the riverbank, badly injured and crying for help. As Brian tends to the Malamute's serious wounds, he tries to figure what could have caused the deep, slashing cuts in the animal's magnificent fur. The nature of the damage points to a wolf or bear, but this dog is clearly domesticated, so why would she have left her master after a ferocious animal hurt her? Wouldn't it make sense to seek treatment from her master for the bloody lacerations she sustained? Every avenue of speculation leads to a dead end for Brian, but his instincts urge him to follow the river immediately in his canoe with the dog, toward the island inhabited by David Smallhorn and his wife and children, to find out if they can shed light on the disquieting mystery. Heading north as quickly as possible, Brian can't shake the dread filling his stomach, the primal apprehension that something awful beyond description awaits up north even as he knows he must go there and confront it.
  
  In the same spirit of unrestricted frontier warfare that defined Brian's Return, Brian's Hunt winds rapidly toward its whirlwind climax, a battle of wilderness savvy between man and beast that both cannot survive. Brian has sought sanctuary in the bush not because he enjoys slaughtering animals for food or in self-defense, but because his kinship with the wild is as natural and sublime as man's reflexive breathing. He doesn't derive any thrill from killing animals, but recognizes that feeding on them is necessary for autonomous sustenance out here away from convenience stores and banks. Killing is sometimes required to stop a predatory threat, as well, or to right a wrong when a savage animal crosses the line and perpetrates violence against humans that can't be ignored or tolerated. Brian understands these rules of nature as well as anyone, but he's also starting to discover a wilderness concept that's new to him: Man, even should he desire to be by himself, needs the company of others. He needs someone to share his thoughts between extended silences, to help bear his existential burden by kindling a fire of friendship to ward off the dismal cold of aloneness as surely as a campfire emits lifesaving heat on deathly winter nights. Without fire, man can't survive long in the bush, but without a friend he can't truly live, and for the first time since his airplane crashed in the wilderness when he was thirteen, Brian feels the benefits of kinship when he takes the injured dog under his wing and they team up to face the horror that chased the dog from home. Their journey will change everything for boy and dog.
  
  The fourth and fifth Brian's Saga novels aren't as captivating as Hatchet, The River, and Brian's Winter, but they make their own valuable contribution to the series. Brian's Return has been described as Henry David Thoreau for the junior set, and there's some of that naturalistic philosophy in Brian's Hunt, the acceptance and espousal of harsh realities about man living as part of nature and the footprint he leaves regardless of how conscientious he is to limit it. Aside from the excitement of the climactic pursuit, Brian's Hunt makes salient points about our need for relationships, the validation we find in the presence of others no matter how much a loner we fancy ourselves. People need each other, there's no getting around that. The question is, what will we do to address that need? I might consider giving Brian's Hunt two and a half stars, and I never tire of being transported by Gary Paulsen to settings of wilderness intrigue beyond anything I've imagined, that can be found right here in our contemporary world. We're better off for having been influenced by Brian's Saga, and I hope the series helps readers discover truths about themselves and the wondrous world surrounding them forever. That's a legacy befitting Gary Paulsen, and I have little doubt it will come to fulfillment.
• 
  Jimmy

  The saga is over and this book hung.
• 
  Jessica

  All my reviews can be found at:
  http://jessicasreadingroom.com
  ~~~~
  This review will appear on my site on May 28, 2021.
  ~~~~
  As a part of May’s prompt for #Diverseathon2021 I listened to the Brian’s Saga series by Gary Paulsen and I have finally reached the last in the series: Brian’s Hunt.
  
  Brian’s Hunt seems to pick up where Brian’s Return left off. This time Brian has a friend with him: He finds a severely injured dog that he takes care of. He begins to worry over the Cree Indian family who he has become friends with. In the ‘what if’ novel Brian’s Winter Brian comes across this family and they ‘rescue’ him and take care of him for several weeks before being able to go home. I still have confusion on if Brian’s Winter is actually not a what if scenario and did actually happen since the next books reference things that happen in that novel.
  
  This is a bit of spoiler, but this novel will not be for the sensitive or younger readers as to what happens to the Cree family. They meet their untimely fate at the hands of a bear and the novel is descriptive in how Brian finds the family. Because of this Brian becomes determined to find the bear and he goes on his hunt.
  
  I did enjoy listening to this series. I do recommend it for teenage boys, as our protagonist is a boy and we don’t get many of those in middle grade/ YA novels. Those novels tend to have female leads. I did not know it was a series until I decided I was going to read Hatchet for Diverseathon, and seeing they were all of a shorter length, I decided to ‘go all out’ and listen to the whole series as all were available through the Libby App. The only thing I was not a ‘fan’ of was the music added to try and enhance the suspenseful parts. I can see how the music would work for some but not others such as myself since I listen to these books while driving and the music was distracting at times.
  
  The Brian’s Saga is recommended!
  
• 
  David jones

  I liked this book. It was OK but it wasn't the greatest mainly because for homework I had to fill out a story map about it. I started it a while ago, when I was first assigned to read a independant reading book around my lexile. And this was it. I picked it because it was my lexile reading range and it was only 100 pages so I thought I could fly through it. I started it, then never got around to reading it, even though I was telling myself to read it. I just wanted to read Stephen King. But I finally picked it up again this morning and it was pretty good. I had read hatchet, but I never read any of the other books that came before Brian's hunt but I knew what was going to happen; he was in the woods and he would be hunting, and find things to survive. And indeed he did. He found a dog and that was his companion throughout half the book. I think the ending was pretty exciting, and it was a fast read, with rather large font, and 100 pages. I thought though that some of the sentences in the book were run-on. For example, one of the sentences near the end of the book was most of a paragraph, following a short sentence, and that was kind of annoying. I do like Gary Paulson as a writer because he is good, and pretty informative about the stuff that you are too find in the woods. All in all it earns a 3/5 stars. Recommended for anybody who has read hatchet, or anybody who likes the works of Gary Paulsen. A fairly light read.
• 
  Lillian

  While the other books of this series mainly focused on Brian’s survival, this book showed his skills and philosophy stronger than the others. His way of life and his thoughts were written in the easy flowing and powerful words of Gary Paulsen, who is one of my all time favorite authors!! I have decided to read the entire five books every year from now on, because they never get boring and remind me to life mindful and in harmony with nature! The action at the end of this book (Brian’s bear hunt) was a little too short in my taste. I would have loved to get a more drawn out picture of Brian and the dog working as a team and maybe the bear attacking Brian twice, once where he was wounded and the second time to finish the kill. I really hope there will be more books in this series. The afterword was promising on that end. Until then, I give praise to the story and the writing style and enjoy this book.
• 
  Ann T

  If you have read the other 4 books, then you must read book 5. Paulsen has kept the integrity of Brian as needed throughout to end the series. While you wouldn't expect one kid to go through so many adventures and dangers, the writing doesn't make you think otherwise or "no-way" this would happen. Paulsen writes this series so well, that you could totally expect it all to happen. Brian, preferring to living on his own in the woods, finds a hurt dog and another adventure begins.
  
  I really love this series and I want my son to read it when he gets to be 12. I would suggest middle grade (12 yo and up) to read as it certainly takes some heavy psychological issues in context. This one has a little more graphic death and scary encounters in it as well. As I finally finished the series, I was happy that I did. I also think I learned something too if I was ever to get lost in the woods.
• 
  Lexi Faith Carlson

  The conclusion of the Hatchet Brian adventure series. Probably one of the best ones, and the saddest. His writing/Grammer and repetitiveness that people complained about in previous books is not there or not as much. You could say he matured his writing by this point.
  The story is short, only 105 pages. I read it in a couple hours. I have no regrets reading this series and enjoyed evey minuet of it.
  I do wish Paulsen would have incorporated more of Brian's Return with maybe some more writing back to his therapist Carl. Just to kinda tie it in more or something.
  I found I was really fond that Brian finding a hurt dog and helped and enjoyed her company, was like "filling a hole he didn't know he had", to quote the book.
  One thing I liked bout this series. Even though it was a true story. It was real, mostly. The senerios we're more realistic.
• 
  Zora

  Terrific read, novella length. (I'd be more of a feral creature like Brian, but for the mosquitoes and biting flies that are acknowledged in these books but not sufficiently described as the peace-wrecking monsters they are.)
  
  Some wonderfully affecting passages about dogs.
• 
  Christy

  The last of the Hatchet series was a good one once again. They are short and sweet with enough to keep you interested and surprised at parts. I’m glad I finally read all of these books. Now I’m ready to recommend them to certain readers in my class.
• 
  Ry

  Shorter than the others in this series but just as good! More intense-bear attack (not too descriptive though) Awesome book!!!!
• 
  Judah Cole

  It was good, and gorry