Two hours. That’s all Jon Pierce has to stay alive on a dead world where the past still smolders and something relentless is closing in. Every move he makes is tracked, corrected, and answered by a machine that never tires, never hesitates, and never forgets. The terrain offers no safety, the ruins hold no mercy, and the sky itself watches his every mistake. Running is not enough. Hiding is not enough. If he wants to survive, he must outthink something designed to remove uncertainty from the hunt.
But the longer the chase continues, the clearer it becomes that this is no ordinary contest. The rules shift without warning. The hunter adapts. Escape routes vanish. And the people watching from above may have no intention of honoring their promise. As exhaustion sets in and the margin for error disappears, Pierce faces a final stretch where one decision could save him—or end the game on someone else’s terms.
James Rosenquest’s Man-Hunting Robot drops you into a brutal test of endurance and ingenuity, where technology strips away illusion and forces a man to confront exactly what he’s capable of under pressure. The story delivers a relentless pursuit across a ruined pleasure world, pushing its protagonist into a corner where cleverness becomes the only weapon left.
James Rosenquest wrote a small number of science fiction stories that appeared in mid-20th century pulp magazines, including fast-paced tales built around danger, pursuit, and technological menace. Man-Hunting Robot stands as a tight, high-pressure example of that style, placing a single character in a controlled environment and forcing him to respond moment by moment as the situation escalates.
