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MWSA Review
The Dragon Soldier’s Good Fortune by Robert Goswitz centers around a wonderful legend throughout Vietnamese history of dragon tattoos protecting against evil spirits. Upon arrival in Vietnam, American soldier, Private Ed Lansky, is asked if he’s a dragon or its prey by the first soldier he meets. Soon he becomes convinced his dragon spirit has magical powers to protect him. Lansky believes he has seen an actual dragon several times when he and his unit are in trouble. During his last week in Nam, an ambush threatens to destroy his entire platoon, but his dragon comes to the rescue. After they make it home, one of Lansky’s best buddies has questions for Ed about the dragon, leading Ed to finally conclude the dragon wasn’t his imagination; it was real!
As a Vietnam veteran, I was moved by the description of events and the reality of how things were for those who served. In summary, the story is realistic enough and an enjoyable read.
The overall story has great potential because the flow of the story is fast-moving and realistic. Unfortunately, much was lost by the writer’s use of verbiage that distracted from the flow and made the reader feel disconnected. However, those occasions when a dictionary was needed only distracted for a short time.
Reviewed by Tom Criser (April 2019)
Author's Synopsis
An ancient king of Vietnam ordered his subjects to cover their arms and thighs with Dragon Tattoos. It was an accepted belief of the times that Dragon Power protected farmers against evil spirits in their rice paddies. A millennium later, Private Ed Lansky faces a different form of evil in those same paddies. As luck would have it, he meets Sergeant Chen, a GI with Dragon Tattoos on his arms. Chen insists Dragon Power is no myth.
ISBN/ASIN: 9781626949539
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle
Review Genre: Fiction—Horror/Fantasy/Sci Fi
Number of Pages: 320