Reviewed
by: ?wazithinkin
Genre:
Contemporary Fantasy/Coming of Age/Adventure
Approximate
word count: 130-135,000
words
Availability
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on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes &
Noble, or Smashwords store
Author:
Malcolm
R. Campbell lives in north Georgia and has worked as a corporate
communications director, technical writer, and college journalism
instructor. He now works as a grant writer for museums and other
nonprofit organizations and writes stories.
For
more, visit Campbell’s website.
Description:
“Robert
Adams is a normal teenager who raises tropical fish, makes money
shoveling snow off his neighbors’ sidewalks, gets stuck washing the
breakfast dishes, dreads trying to ask girls out on dates and enjoys
listening to his grandfather’s tall tales about magic and the
western mountains. Yet, Robert is cursed by a raw talent his parents
refuse to talk to him about: his dreams show him what others cannot
see.
When
the family plans a vacation to the Montana high country, Grandfather
Elliott tells Robert there’s more to the trip than his parents’
suspect. The mountains hide a hidden world where people the ailing
old man no longer remembers need help and dangerous tasks remain
unfinished. Thinking that he and his grandfather will visit that
world together, Robert promises to help.
On
the shore of a mountain lake, Robert steps alone through a doorway
into a world at war where magic runs deeper than the glacier-fed
rivers. Grandfather Elliott meant to return to this world before his
health failed him and now Robert must resurrect a long-suppressed
gift to fulfill his promises, uncover old secrets, undo the deeds of
his grandfather's foul betrayer, subdue brutal enemy soldiers in
battle, and survive the trip home.”
Appraisal:
As a
young boy Robert Adams started having prophetic dreams. Traumatized
after seeing the death of a young neighbor girl in a dream and the
next morning actually witnessing her death he vowed to suppress this
curse. With medication and willpower he succeeded for a few years
although it left him feeling empty. On his fifteenth birthday Robert
decided to bring back his dreams, with control and without the
“Seer’s Prayer.” With the help of his Grandfather Elliott, a
dreamspinner, he is making progress.
Grandfather
Elliot grew up around Glacier National Park and has convinced
Elliot’s parents, Katheryn and Laurence, to take a three week
family vacation there this coming summer. Robert is looking forward
to backpacking, hiking, and exploring the area since he and Alice,
his younger sister, have heard many of grandpa’s adventure stories
growing up. As well as folk tales, myths, and legends of other people
lost in the mists of time. Grandpa Elliot has an ulterior motive on
this family vacation though. Three years ago up high in the mountains
things went terribly wrong. Elliot is going to need Roberts help
setting things right again. The problem is grandpa is getting weak
and forgetful, so he enlists the help from a longtime friend and
mountain climbing buddy, to meet them at the lodge during their
vacation.
Mr.
Campbell used his astute and unfettered imagination to weave this
labyrinthine tale full of many different elements seamlessly. The
landscape descriptions are dynamic and beautifully written. The
matter of where Robert goes and the full blown characters that he
meets along the way are all realistically believable. Well, except
for perhaps Garth, the wood elf. But he was pure magic and I enjoyed
his character immensely. Robert finds himself on his own, learning to
navigate this coinciding world, which is exactly like our own, a few
hundred years earlier in time. To do that he has to learn to trust
his dreams and to listen to his intuition on who to trust. This is a
wildly spirited and intelligent adventure story where Robert has to
learn to believe in the energies around him for them to flow through
him. I enjoyed the messages of extended families and the way things
came together at the end. All ages of readers who enjoy mystical
adventures, alternate universes, or epic tales will love this story.
FYI:
The
Sun Singer is book 1 of
Mountain Journeys
Format/Typo
Issues:
I
found a small number of proofing errors.
Rating:
***** Five Stars
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