The MoonQuest: A True Fantasy

Mark David Gerson
LightLines Media (2008)
ISBN 9780979547584
Reviewed by Cathy Yanda for Reader Views (1/08)

Mark David Gerson is a craftsman with words and weaves a very fine tale of four unlikely friends as they come together on a MoonQuest, a journey that will end the domination of a cruel king. Toshar, orphaned at a young age and raised by his grandmother, is destined to be the Elderbard or storyteller of his people. As he dreams, things come to be and advice is given.

Gerson dispenses wonderful life advice, woven amid the prose of the story. In one of Toshar’s dreams in which he speaks with his father, he asks his father to hold him. “His father shakes his head, “Not hand-to-hand as I did once, but heart to heart. Know that as you travel, wherever you travel, my heart holds yours. Draw courage from that, Toshar, and from the heart of all the bards and Elderbards who have ever lived and died in Q’ntana. We all watch you. We all stand with you…Be your strength, no mine, my son…Do what you must. Listen and know – not to my heart but to yours…”

As Toshar and his friends travel they encounter friends and foes alike, often having to determine which is which. They traverse unfamiliar lands and face many dangers. In the end, I’m certain that Toshar’s father, and the other bards and Elderbards, would have been proud of Toshar. The best piece of wisdom Gerson imparts is given to Toshar near the end of the story when he is to be named Elderbard and is questioning this because he is so young to assume such an important role…“The number of years means nothing. It is how you have spent them that has value. It is what they have taught you, what they have earned you, that matters.” This is true for all of us.

“The MoonQuest” is a book for people of all ages except for a brief sexually graphic part of the story that may limit it to older teens and above. Let’s hope that Mark David Gerson brings us along on many more travels with Toshar and his friends.

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