Review: 'Everyone's got a little dirty work.'
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 21, 2013
While it is not quite clear form this very short story what dir3ction the author has in mind to take. Simply sampling his writing wares is enough to know that here is a mind that is fertile - and fascinated with the darker side of myth and magic.The tale is basically that of a man with a secretive past who awakens from his bed, saying farewell to his sleeping wife, a chest at bed's end and his son in the neighboring room, to go to the village to fell trees.  He is coaxed by a blacksmith to `do a little dirty work', but our man Draven is disinclined to return to his old ways (we get the idea that he had served in the Mercenary Guild a while back).  But Draven meets a huntsman who encourages him to hear the blacksmith's offer - to provide protection for the Tax Collector who is coming to the village to collect taxes.  Finally convinced, Draven and the huntsman accompany the tax collector on his duties  - and then discover the dirty work of their new trade when robbing blokes encroach on the scene.  The ending is left ajar and we soon see why. The last part of the book is the prologue to a new novel that is on its way - a story that picks up many of the characteristics and ideas and people of the FROM MAN TO MAN story.D.E.M. Emrys seems to want to keep his own identity as shrouded in mystery as the atmosphere he weaves with his story.  And for now that seems appropriate.  At some point we, the readers, are going to need more information.  So far, so good, but everyone's got a little dirty work.... Grady Harp, February 13