"Original, deftly crafted, memorable, entertaining, thoughtful and thought-provoking, each jewel of a short story comprising "The Lion Communique" is inherently fascinating and showcase author Jim Cherry's genuine flair for narrative driven storytelling and mastery of the short story format." Midwest Book Review

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Jim Cherry is a masterful storyteller! The Lion Communique is a powerful collection of stories that forces the reader to rethink the human condition, written in an entertaining and highly-engaging fashion. Whether the topic is Jim Morrison and his walk with Shamans or a noir look at the contemporary world, Cherry writes with deep knowledge that opens our minds to the questions at the center of our collective hearts and souls. The Lion Communique is a winner! Bob Batchelor, author of Roadhouse Blues: Morrison, The Doors, and the Death Days of the Sixties

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"At the core of Jim Cherry's The Lion Communique lies struggle - the struggle between good and evil, conscience and choice, hope and fear, sin and redemption, faith and reason, memory and the present, fathers and sons. Whether our wars are waged on the battlefield, within families, or in our hearts, our wounds make us who we are. Soldiers or rock stars, hunters, marksmen or madmen, Cherry's characters are wounded warriors all, struggling for resolution. These are stories that will make you think but also feel, care but also question. " - Jack Preston King, Author of A World In Edgewise: Thirteen Sidereal Journeys

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"These thirteen tantalizing tales from the edges of reality, where Ray Bradbury Lane cuts through The Twilight Zone, ignited centers of all-embracing wonderment in my brain that had been dormant since I stopped driving to the desert to stare at the stars." - Douglas Lumsden, author of A Troll Walks into a Bar

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"The Lion Communique is a series of dark short stories.  The writing is often superb, giving perfectly crisp details. I enjoyed lines like, “I pulled out the bayonet with less ferocity than it had gone in with.” On a surface level, it is just describing an event in detail. After additional consideration, the character’s actions are a reflection of their thoughts regarding war: that they don’t share the same excitement about it that they once did. 

 

The stories have a range of locations and times,  from the battlefront of WWI to the savannas of Africa. Some of the other stories also feature historical figures, like Jim Morrison.

 

The book is rife with witty dialogue, and as an example I will share a little bit from the short story The Father’s Son. In it, the son of a famous author works as a safari guide. When a biographer comes to interview him on his father’s life, the son recounts a story his father wrote about him. However, the son notes, in his father’s recounting he superimposed some of his own attributes onto his son. As the son recounts this, he dryly notes “He was both the father and the son,” to which the biographer quips “What about the Holy Ghost?”

 

The climax of this story is their encounter with an elephant, which was the goal of the hunt. The son notices something odd about the elephant’s behavior and says not to shoot. The biographer shoots and misses, thus enraging the elephant. The son then kills the elephant before they are trampled. It is then revealed why the elephant was acting odd; the elephant had a son with him. The adolescent elephant nudges his dead father with his trunk, then cries out in the most heartbreaking paragraph of prose I have read. 

 

Overall, the stories are poignant, witty, and thought-provoking. I would highly recommend this collection of stories. " Leaf Bound Reviews