Genre: Contemporary Fantasy/Coming of Age/Adventure
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.”
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.
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
Reviewed
by:
Approximate
word count: 130-135,000 words
1 comment:
I love all Malcolm Campbell's books and stories. The laconic style and the magic realism really work for me. I find I'm reading with a big grin on my face. Lynne Cantwell's books have the same effect.
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