Geminga: Sword of the Shining Path — Melvin Litton

“Very, very interesting...” �" William S. Burroughs

Imagine … a raven on the branch of a fruit tree speaks to you, complimenting you on the song you have just sung. You, Rodger Games, carpenter by day and guitar-player by night, are drawn by the wonder: the how, where, and why of its origins. A dialogue begins. But along with the mystery of the raven arrives the snake, a deadly ‘breath-of-heaven', its assassin partner. The duo once worked for Shining Path, the Peruvian Maoist movement founded by the arch-ideologue, Zalo. Soon the trail leads to the Medellin Cartel and ‘The Center' �" a secret institute staffed by the tutored sons of Mengele and located in the remotest Amazon.

Adjacent to the dialogue appear farm workers and laborers �" Black, White, Indian, and Hispanic �" a young woman of focal beauty named Luana, and a midnight prowler who drives a black Porsche; and always, the ubiquitous digressions of memory. Where will it lead? To what end? Consider: ravens, snakes, and revolutionaries, God, Devil, man, and woman all transformed into a pair of dice … roll 'em...whadaya get? The lucky seven? double-sixes? or snake-eyes? And with what consequence?

The mystery is something of a creation myth. For eventually there is a harvest: the cruel scythe of political terrorism; the blessing of woman, fruit and song, and the promise of a mystical union, for with the harvest is planted the seed of new potential … Geminga.

"Geminga has all the hallmarks of good folklore...succeeds in grabbing your attention from the beginning and investing you in the raven's story." -- Portland Book Review (4 stars)