Pueros has done it again. Our most prolific writer (375 chapters and/or stories to date) has produced one of his best yet. Mountain Flower drops us into the Ottoman Empire as we follow the life of one of the Black harem eunuchs from childhood to old age.

In addition to a great story, we learn more about the Ottomans than most of us are likely to have known before. While this is a bit outside my own area of expertise, I could find nothing that I was even suspicious about. It all seems historically and culturally accurate.

The story is posted in two long parts – 125 pages in my 12-point, narrow margin printout! I read it in one very long sitting, not getting to bed until nearly 2 am. While the story is broken into 80 brief chapters, I was hooked and unable to resist reading “just one more.”

I will also never be able to look at one of the flowers in my yard in the same way ever again….

Mountain Flower, part 1 (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/O/ea_82538ottomans.htm)

Mountain Flower, part 2 (http://www.eunuch.org/Alpha/O/ea_74124ottomans.htm)

I thank Jesus for his kind words about my 'The Mountain Flower'.

I can also assure him and other readers that the bulk of the background history is accurate, as I'm sure can be verified by reference to the likes of Google or Wikipedia.

One exception, though, might occur when historical sources provide different descriptions of the same incident or whatever and I have therefore been forced to opt for what I considered to be the most likely to be true. I could, of course, have chosen incorrectly.

Another exception arises when I have had to use personal conjecture to fill in the gaps in historical record.

PUEROS

I have to thank you for this story. I'm not too educated in this era, and I admit to being kinda bogged down in parts, but the sheer effort and quality involved make it deserving of more feedback. I do love to read about times long gone, though, and you kept the story moving enough to keep even a pulp-fiction reader like me entertained!

Thanks for your work, Pueros!

Superb, facinating, masterpiece...........