The Tamga

Short Story by Maura McHugh

Originally published in Shroud

Freely available Pseudopod version read by Cheyenne Wright

A Russian shaman and his shaman-in-training nephew must retrieve the stolen soul dolls of their ancestors and put to rest the angry guardian spirit known as the Tamga. Set in modern times, but in a small, extremely rural community, we get a fun combination of the past and the present.

Although I'm not factoring it into the score of the story, I will say that I wasn't a big fan of the narration on this one. Not that the voice was bad, but it seemed a tad over-acted and over-dramatic to me sometimes.

Overall a predictable, action driven story with an interesting setting, but nothing that struck me as deep or particularly suspenseful. The twist at the climax was a bit sudden and unfair, but it was then resolved by dumb, but predictable, luck. Thus the balance of unfair happenstance was preserved. The setting alone was not enough to make up for the flaws, but it wasn't too bad. 2.5 out of 5.