Review for
Instinct of Survival
by Stan Jankaitis

Joe Bussil is a twenty-year-old novice pilot who sets out on a cross-country flight over the Yukon Mountains in the Northern Territory. When his single-engine plane is downed by a fierce winter storm, Joe is fortunate to survive the crash, but is challenged by life-threatening conditions in the snow-covered mountains. Hoping his "May-Day" call was received prior to the wreck, Joe shelters himself under a plane wing and waits for possible rescue. But unbeknownst to Joe, the plane's antennae broke in the storm and the radio transmission was not quite successful.

Brad Martin and Shelly Capri, twenty-five-year-old Washington state air traffic controllers, are faced with-what Brad thinks-is a distress call for help. But the message is filled with static and not discernable enough for superiors to warrant rescue attempts. Brad becomes obsessed with finding whom the pilot may have been that sent the May-Day call, and the possible location of the downed flight.

Stan Sakie, a father-like figure to orphaned Joe, and Joe's employer at an automotive repair shop, contacts various airports in for any information about Joe. His search, after three years, brings him in contact with Brad and Shelly, and pinpoints a possible location where Joe's flight may have ended. So Brad and Shelly begin what may be a futile search of the area.

One might think, that after three years, Joe would be dead, but Joe amazingly survives from freezing to death, suffering frostbite, dying of hunger or dehydration, smothering under an avalanche, falling over cliffs and facing a polar bear. Like some tall tale, Joe thwarts nature, as his mind becomes so intent on survival, that mentally and physically he changes and adapts to the harsh surroundings. But Joe's altered state is not a guarantee of survival, for him or for "Friend"-a ram-as both, hunted by adversaries of great wit and skill. Can Joe and Friend survive predators? Can Joe survive ongoing bodily changes? Or will their remains nourish the mountains, like melted snow in the springtime?

Stan Jankaitis blends thought-provoking fantasy in his fiction to create an "abominable" adventure tale. Although the main character is highly described, other characters are flat. Description is used much more than dialogue, but the story remains fairly intriguing, considering the protagonist's conflicts with the main antagonist-nature. A tinge of humor helps bring respite to the serious content, formatted as RTF file, that when read, reads like a long short story. INSTINCT OF SURVIVAL kept me interested, but I was disappointed in the lack of novel structure and character development. In my opinion, the ending is one that-although a good twist and not expected-could have been left out, and a scene before that used instead, making a more unusual and believable ending. I lukewarmly recommend INSTINCT OF SURVIVAL to people interested in tall tales and mountain myths, and for those people who don't expect a Jack London, Alaskan adventure type novel.

~ Patricia Spork/eBook Reviews Weekly
Publisher/Editor, Writers Graphic Image
http://www.writersgraphicimage.com/

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