This cheered me up no end as I rarely get a sale or review of this book. What also amazed me was my also-boughts for this novel – my other six books!
I must be doing something right – but the review…
‘Hoping to dare for the GIFT OF PROPHECY!
2 February 2019
This is a book full of intrigue, changing alliances, death and destruction, survival, rampages, peace, love and tranquillity in an unrecognisable land.
It took me a little while to get the gist of what was happening within and the relationships between the different characters with there unique personalities and the overall encompassing dynamics due to the plot twists, once these where established in my head I was transported into a whole new dimension of epic proportions.
The nearest I have come to this quality of creating an alternate realm in the readers eye has to be the writing of Stephen Donaldson (The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever) who was likened to JRR Tolkein for creativity. Definate dystopian story that I’d definitely return to again!’
Now, JRR Tolkein and Stephen Donaldson are two of my favourite authors, and building worlds is something at which they both excel, so I was particularly chuffed to have this story compared to theirs. I wondered if there were any other similarities – after all, they say there are only a handful of different stories, just a million different ways to tell them.
I suppose Abe could be identified as the Gandalf figure – an enigmatic wanderer of indeterminate age who has his own agendum, and keeps his cards close to his chest, but cares deeply for his friends. Raphel is probably the nearest I have to a Frodo figure – the person who has to overcome his fears to become his inner hero. The quest for the ring in Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings could, indeed, have a mirror here in Velik’s search for the Gift of prophecy. Velik is certainly an evil, Sauron-type figure, and Velik’s ‘Chosen’, Alaric, and his band of murderous marauders act like Sauron’s Orcs. Kiya could be said to epitomise the ring – carrying as she does, within her, the Gift, and the allusions to the rising of Hitler in the inter-war period of Tolkein’s writing could compare to the battle for our Earth we all need to face that are made apparent in Where Hope Dares.
Interesting comparisons, and a similar basic scenario, but a totally different adventure. So maybe, if you loved The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, you’ll enjoy Where Hope Dares.
Rebecca Bryn 