[A] Hiking Fiend

HIKING FIEND


Here's another written blog that I feel deserves a little more attention than it's getting. Before I begin: A note on vlogs. We WILL do reviews on them. However, vlogs generally involve a bit more of a time investment to watch, and frankly? A lot of them end up boring me, so I've been steering clear of them for the most part. I will, however, attempt to find the best of the best.

Without further ado, though, here's what I feel is probably the most up and coming written blog for a long while.

Eric Jameson is a hiker, who's just moved out into the countryside; a picturesque location outside of a typically cosy American small town.. His passion for hiking takes him to beautiful locations around his new home. Things are going great, until he starts to find animal carcasses, torn apart and left to bleed out. And then, when he starts to hear folk stories of a Wicked Gentleman, things really start to go downhill.

Before I get onto anything else, I just want to talk about the characterization in this. Personally? I feel this is where the blog has short-suited itself. Eric's character is pretty much described in the URL of the blog, and none of the side characters are particularly memorable; each of them working off some very stock character traits. That was the reason that I've been a little reluctant to look at this blog; the characters never really drew me in.

However, that failure is more than made up for by the writing style. It's not often that a gruesome scene can be described in words, but the author manages to have a perfect grasp on his medium. I can overlook a little bit of characterization issues for that.

The multimedia aspect of the blog is quite nice, too; the pictures are stunning, and any sense of distortion in them is subtle. It really sets this blog apart from the rest, I feel; gives it its own unique flavor.

If you haven't checked it out already, I very much suggest that you do. However, the characters themselves don't particularly strike me as entertaining. This is a fault shared by many of the blogs and vlogs; I mean, look at Marble Hornets. For this work to become even better, I kind of feel it should allow us to empathize a little more with its main character.

http://hikingfiend.tumblr.com

~ Sol