This a beautifully written novella about a man's friendship with a lioness. The descriptive nature of the scenes and coverage of topics such as friendship, love and prejudice made for a great read. ( )

Malaika is a wonderful short story about an American searching to find the answers to questions in his life by seeking solitude in the African Serengeti. He is befriended by a lioness, with whom he is able to communicate by telepathy. But the prejudices of humans and the lionesses own pride attempt to thwart this most unlikely of friendships. This leads to a conclusion that is both tragic and life changing.
A simple story beautifully told. ( )

For some reason, I expected more from this story. Maybe I was just drawn in by the cover art. In any case, the story, about a man befriended by a lioness, didn't satisfy me. It wasn't a particularly new concept, and ended just as one would expect. The human protagonist changes very little, and to be frank, I never got very interested in him. A number of resonances and metaphors are set up, but I found I just didn't much care.

I did like the concept - friendship with a lioness despite outside pressures - but there wasn't much more there. I was disappointed that the story didn't really go anywhere. With some minor exceptions, Heerling does capture the feeling of East Africa with some accuracy, which was nice.

The language somewhat ponderous, especially in the prologue. Even within those few pages, I wondered whether I'd make it through the book, and was pleased to find it quite short. The prose improved with the main story, but never reached the level of fluidity that would have allowed me to ignore it completely.

All in all, moderately interesting, but never really engaging story. ( )

For some reason, I expected more from this story. Maybe I was just drawn in by the cover art. In any case, the story, about a man befriended by a lioness, didn't satisfy me. It wasn't a particularly new concept, and ended just as one would expect. The human protagonist changes very little, and to be frank, I never got very interested in him. A number of resonances and metaphors are set up, but I found I just didn't much care.

I did like the concept - friendship with a lioness despite outside pressures - but there wasn't much more there. I was disappointed that the story didn't really go anywhere. With some minor exceptions, Heerling does capture the feeling of East Africa with some accuracy, which was nice.

The language somewhat ponderous, especially in the prologue. Even within those few pages, I wondered whether I'd make it through the book, and was pleased to find it quite short. The prose improved with the main story, but never reached the level of fluidity that would have allowed me to ignore it completely.

All in all, moderately interesting, but never really engaging story. ( )

Malaika is a heartwarming story about pain and suffering being a natural inescapable cycle of life and its parallelism to man’s habitual nature. You know better but find yourself rooting for the fantastical and impossible relationship between man and animal to conquer over the doomed realism of man’s fear and constant need for dominance. I love how Van Heerling prefaced this story by showing the appreciation of diversity and what different cultures have to offer a small African village as well as the grand American metropolis. For a younger generation, I’d say this book is...nice. Other than your basic themes of friendship, love and loss, and the nature of man, I was selfishly disappointed at the lack of deeper subtextual reflection for the more mature audience. ( )