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novel - Story ID - Man forced to hunt to pay off debts



Searching for a novel that I remember reading in college, but probably published a few years earlier (So the late 80's/early 90's timeframe). Details that I remember:



  • Protagonist was enslaved to pay off debts or sent to prison planet

  • Eventually employed by family monopoly

  • Family plotted against each other for control/influence

  • Job was to hunt a dangerous animal on a specific planet

  • Essentials had to be bought from family (increasing debt)


IIRC the cover was either red or yellow, and had a picture of the protagonist in hunting gear.



Answer




I found your book.


It's a 1985 book called Skinner, saw it in a used book store this weekend.


All the basic facts in your description match. Here's a link to Amazon for the book: https://www.amazon.com/Skinner-Mcenroe-Richard/dp/055324597X


Pic: enter image description here


And I found a synopsis here: http://listverse.com/2008/04/18/top-10-obscure-but-superb-science-fiction-novels/



Anyway, our down-and-out anti-hero protagonist finds himself shipped off to a desert world and deeply in debt. The planet is owned and managed by a “family company” for the production of their one great monopoly… dragonhides. The critters, not real dragons but might as well be, are big nasty reptiles living in the desert sands, and their skins are nearly indestructible. A skinner goes out (with his gear and supplies brought from the company store and increasing his debt, of course) and does his best to kill these beasties without getting killed himself so he can haul the skins back. The company even has a nursery where they hatch and raise baby dragons, and that work is deadly, too. Throw in rival factions within the family controlling the company, and you have a fairly-straightforward adventure that could well have been set in a 1890s coal town. But it isn’t, and the dragon-work is interesting to read. It’ll never be a classic, but Skinner is satisfying genre-stuff.



There ya go!


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