Review: THIS IS A SHORT STORY FROM A VERY GOOD WRITER. You need to check this one out and give it a shot.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 2, 2011
I grew up on the old Science Fiction and Fantasy magazines of the 1940s and 1950s; Fantastic, Amazing Stories, Fantastic Adventures, Galaxy SiFi and a large group of these publications than came and went throughout the years.  These anthologies were published periodically (some often as monthly) and some of the best young writers in this growing genre were featured.  I loved those old short stories.The work being reviewed here is a fantasy short story and I must admit that I had a nostalgic feeling as I read it.  This work is as good as most that were featured in those old periodicals.  And this set me thinking that perhaps these e-readers may be the wave of the future as far as introducing young writers and spotlighting favorite established writers.  There are fewer and fewer printed outlets for work such as this and I am thinking we are missing a lot of good writing because of it.  Perhaps as the Kindle and other e-readers become more popular we will see a regeneration of the short story...anyway, I hope so.Guardian of the Mountain has all of the elements of a great short story; a fantasy story.  Quickly well developed characters, a minimum of words and each of these words must count in the limited format the author has chosen to present his or her work, fast moving plot, suspense (in this case), clear and precise dialog and a rather stunning ending.This is a story of greed; a story of old versus new, a story of betrayal and hopeful redemption...well, maybe.  I loved the way the author depicted every single character in this story, even the "Guardian."  Even after having read this work two times now I am still not real sure who the bad guys were and who the good ones were.  Who was wrong...who was right?  The primary protagonist is not all that loveable to be quite honest, yet he is very human, where as the Guardian is....well, the reader needs to make his or her mind up about that.This is, as others have pointed out, a story you could well tell around campfire.  It is a rather scary story and one that plays with human emotions...greed, love, fear, anger, cowardliness, bravery and the will to survive.  There is also a good deal of shear stupidity involved on a couple of the character's part which has been well done here. I mean to say that had it been me who received the first warning, all you would have seen is my elbows and backside moving away as fast as my short legs would allow.Now I will be honest with you.  The author has obviously published this short story to act as a teaser to try to hook you into purchasing one or more of his books.  I must say that he has used some excellent bait here and has certainly hooked me.  I will be ordering and reading more of his stuff.Don BlankenshipThe Ozarks