Packy and the pancakes

SPOILER WARNING. THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.

Rusty Wilson is the author of several books about Bigfoot. The books are fiction, but presented as “true” to make them more interesting. Most of them are collections of short stories supposedly told by Wilson's friends and clients. “The Bigfoot Runes”, by contrast, is a novel.

The main character, Packy, is a down-and-out war veteran who by accident gets hold of an ancient manuscript considered sacred (!) by the Bigfeet. Chased by an evil Bigfoot who sold out to human Bigfoot hunters, Packy must take the manuscript to a mysterious location in the mountains known as The Place Where The Sun Lingers, where the Bigfoot Nation gathers for important rituals. On his way, he is aided by friendly Bigfeet and a human Bigfoot contactee. It's interesting to note that Wilson doesn't take any sides in the conflicts over Bigfoot's nature. In the novel, the Bigfoots are animal-like, human-like and paranormal simultaneously! Some legends about Vikings and White Indians have been thrown in. Wilson's running gag about Bigfoot being obsessed with pancakes appears in this novel, too. If the story has a message, it's “libertarian”, atheistic and slightly green.

I can't say “The Bigfoot Runes” thrilled me. Frankly, most of the author's short stories are better than this. You have to be very young or completely infatuated with all things squatchy to really enjoy it. Perhaps a better writer could have done something with the concept, but as it is, it looks more like a rough draft or something written by a high school student. In the end, I only give it two stars.