The Mountain Place of Knowledge

      The mountains can be quite beautiful this time of year. The lower elevations have trees turning gold or, if you live in the southern hemisphere, just budding while the tops might have snow on some of the taller peaks. Right now we are traveling through the Rocky Mountains ( I have pictures that show why the name is so appropriate!) and the beauty is stunning.  While I don't have a book about the Rockies to bring to you today, I do have Marshall Chamberlain's fine book, The Mountain Place of Knowledge.

At Smashwords

• Mountain Place of Knowledge
• By Marshall Chamberlain
• Hardcover: 404 pages
• Publisher: The Grace Publishing Group (June 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974098213
• ISBN-13: 978-0974098210

From Amazon:
     A flash of mysterious blue light brings death to a U.N. official searching for a secret entrance to the inside of a Belizean mountain. Two U.N. scientists investigate, coming into possession of a scepter wielding miraculous powers, uncovering a blue-light source of destruction, and finding the hidden entrance. Inside strange sculpted caverns, bizarre mental prodding guides them to shocking experiences. To protect hi-tech secrets, cooperation is required from Belize, the United Nations, NATO, and the United States. But one nation determines the mountain poses a threat to world order and will take great risks to neutralize the danger.


About the Book:
    Dr. John Henry Morgan, working for U.N. Institute for the Study of Unusual Phenomena (ISUP), is called away from his important work in the Rift Valley of central Africa to study the death of a fellow scientist who was investigating an interesting find in the mountains of South America.  When he finds out the extent of the new find, he asks that Dr. Mary Ellen Rollins join him. The discovery of a diary written before its time in a language well dead about a mysterious healing stick has everyone excited. But before Dr. Morgan can even begin his research into the death of his former colleague or the discovery, the local museum curator makes a deal with the devil without realizing it. Now, not only does the UN and the curator want the power of the knowledge hidden within the mountain, but so do the Chinese, who will stop at little or nothing to get it. 

My Take: 
    Chamberlain does a good job a weaving an engaging story.  The characters are interesting and different from each other, making them more memorable. Even the bad guys and the not so bad guys have reasonable and understandable motivations so they are not simply cutout  figures. The plot tends to be a little straight forward without twists and turns because we do know so much about ALL the characters. But isn't life sometimes like that, straight forward yet still interesting? I enjoyed the writing style itself as it was clean without sections where a reader might say 'huh?' and reread. I wouldn't call the writing crisp but rather like a lazy river in the middle of summer kind of easy drifting with a sense of direction but no sense of urgency about getting there. It is a book that you can slip into and go along for the ride.
   The ending may not be as satisfying as one might hope but it is the first book in a series. Loose ends always lay around to ensnare the readers into the next book and Chamberlain does a good job of leaving just enough loose ends to entice readers into the next story.

Recommendation: I enjoyed reading the story and think it is a good book for anyone who enjoys light science fiction coupled with light special ops intrigue.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/8679