Review: Nice surprise
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 11, 2011
THIS REVIEW ACTUALLY ENCOMPASSES BOOKS I, II AND III...SEE WHY BELOW.The Mountain and the City is a wonderful little surprise, brilliant in its simplicity.  It's a difficult-ish read until you get into the rhythm of the writing style and find out WHY it's written in such a way.It starts out in Book I with the loneliness, desparation, fear and isolation of the main character, and slowly throughout the story and in the continuations of Book II and Book III carries that forward as other "characters" are introduced.I haven't read many books like this, and though initially the character's voice is childlike and vague, we later find out that it's because the character was a child when the Event happened, and has lived alone in the trailer since then. A significant amount of time has passed, and the character has had no adult guidance to learn how to survive, and has learned instead by trial and error.I admit to being thoroughly surprised on several occasions as the story unfolds.  Won't say why, but you'll see for yourself when you read it.  :-)The reason I have not reviewed Book I alone is because I do not believe it should be Book I.  Each book in this story is way too short, novellas, really, and does not stand alone well.  I read all three of these books in a couple of hours last night. Each ends in a cliffhanger, not in a good way, just in an unfinished way.  If all three books were combined into one volume this would be a full and complete volume, and would work much better.That said, I am totally looking forward to Book IV so I can find out where the author plans to take the characters.