Softly Walks the Beast

Something is creeping closer and closer. What does it want? Five years after the nuclear holocaust, only fifteen people are alive on Earth. Children, teenagers, and adults have banded together in a small southern town - for love, companionship, and survival. But now the little community is threatened. One by one they are being taken by - something. But what in God's name is it? What does it want? Why does it take the males first? How can the defenseless survivors stop this sickening, silent thing, this thing beyond the imaginable? First published as a paperback, “Softly Walks the Beast” went into three reprints, selling over 50,000 copies and garnering rave reviews by the Los Angeles Times and Publishers Weekly, among others. This end-of-the-world page-turner takes place in the not-too-distant future. The story’s white-knuckle action centers on a dwindling community of smart and resourceful people on a college campus, struggling against the horrible and seemingly unstoppable after-effects of a nuclear war. Contaminated citizens turn into monstrous fungal mutants whose only purpose in life is to spread their disease. How can a small band of individuals in rural Georgia, no matter how determined they are, hope to defend themselves? And what if they can't...?

Something is creeping closer and closer. What does it want? Five years after the nuclear holocaust, only fifteen people are alive on Earth. Children, teenagers, and adults have banded together in a small southern town - for love, companionship, and survival. But now the little community is threatened. One by one they are being taken by - something. But what in God's name is it? What does it want? Why does it take the males first? How can the defenseless survivors stop this sickening, silent thing, this thing beyond the imaginable? First published as a paperback, “Softly Walks the Beast” went into three reprints, selling over 50,000 copies and garnering rave reviews by the Los Angeles Times and Publishers Weekly, among others. This end-of-the-world page-turner takes place in the not-too-distant future. The story’s white-knuckle action centers on a dwindling community of smart and resourceful people on a college campus, struggling against the horrible and seemingly unstoppable after-effects of a nuclear war. Contaminated citizens turn into monstrous fungal mutants whose only purpose in life is to spread their disease. How can a small band of individuals in rural Georgia, no matter how determined they are, hope to defend themselves? And what if they can't...?

In addition to "Softly Walks the Beast," Thomas Hunter has written two screenplays that were made into major motion pictures: "The Human Factor," starring George Kennedy, about terrorism against Americans abroad; and "The Final Countdown," starring Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen, about a giant aircraft carrier that travels back in time. Hunter also had a career as a film actor, starring in a dozen movies while based in Rome, Italy, where he got his start with Dino de Laurentiis in a series of spaghetti westerns. Hunter has recently completed "Memoirs of a Spaghetti Cowboy: Tales of Oddball Luck and Derring-Do." When "Softly Walks the Beast" was first published, the Los Angeles Times wrote: "As spine-tinglers go, 'Beast' is a beauty. Fear keeps pages turning... Hunter seesaws adroitly between eerie moods and the equally unsettling normalcy of a handful of epigoni carrying on daily life. His chapters play like movie scenes, his suspense paced like Hitchcock, his exquisite metaphoric imagery - a baby is born, a tiger swallowtail hatches a rapacious skimmer - evoking Bergman." Publishers Weekly had this to say: "Post-holocaust novels have practically become a new genre, and this is an unusually good, well observed example." Reviews of Hunter's films are also glowing. Time Magazine's description of his most recent: "'The Final Countdown' is as impressive a statement about the value and values of professional fighting men as one could hope to find these days. This realism also lends credibility to the fantastic tale unfolding aboard the mighty ship. ... 'The Final Countdown' is ... adult, intelligent and entertaining." Hunter was born in Savannah, Georgia, and has lived and worked in New York City, Hollywood and Rome, Italy. He is a founding member and former artistic director of the New England Repertory Company. Hunter currently lives in Providence, RI, where he is completing a collection of short stories.