Review: Another Hit by Milo James Fowler
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 18, 2013
"Hero for Hire" by the prolific Milo James Fowler is a short story about 27 year old Darrell, still living with his parents. Darrell's big ambition in life was to get a real Samurai sword. After buying one from eBay, our hero quickly grew tired of attacking pumpkins and watermelons. He briefly considered using it on the neighborhood cat that kept leaving mangled sparrows on his front porch. But eventually he decided to run an ad in the paper, offering a "Hero for Hire". It wasn't until sometime after he got his first call that he realized he had no idea what a hero would do! He also realized he had no idea how much a hero would charge for his "services", whatever they may be.Needless to say, his first (and last) case was a comedy of errors. An older woman wanted him to retrieve her laptop computer from two big, ugly guys who just came in and robbed her of it. But when our Hero for Hire showed up, the older woman recognized him as "that dumb kid who lives up the street"; this was because she lived only 5 houses away on the same street he lived on. He struck a classic samurai pose with his sword. The woman was not impressed. She told him to go on home to his mama.With very little description, Milo managed to develop his characters well. I felt as if I knew them personally. His story offers us a brief journey into the under-developed mind of a young man who spent too much time watching cartoons as a child, a young man who still had no idea what he wanted to be when he grew up. The story was clever and cute, with little nuances here and there that lent an air of authenticity to it. It was quite short enough to be read while waiting in line at the bank or the grocery store. I recommend it for people who might be looking for an injection of humor into their fiction. This fun little tale is just the right size to cheer you up, and make your wait in line much more pleasant.