BLOGWORDS – Saturday 14 December 2019 – TUESDAY REVIEWS-DAY-on-SATURDAY – BOOK REVIEW – THE GATHERING DARK by BRETT ARMSTRONG
TUESDAY REVIEWS-DAY-on-SATURDAY – BOOK REVIEW – THE GATHERING DARK by BRETT ARMSTRONG
THE BLURB
Jason is an expert at running from his past. But when it catches up, he finds himself hiding in a peculiar inn listening to a tale from centuries past.
The story is Anargen’s, a teen who is pulled from all he loves to follow his oaths of loyalty to the fabled King of the Realms. Together with his mentor, Cinaed, he rides north on a special quest to mediate peace talks between ancient foes—the men of Ecthelowall and the dwarfs of Ordumair. Nothing goes as planned. Many on both sides of the dispute despise Anargen’s Order. Worse, an arcane evil has returned to the North. This “Grey Scourge” seeks to ruin the peace talks and ensure a lost treasure held by the dwarfs is never found by those for whom it is meant.
As Anargen’s story unfolds, Jason begins to wonder whether it is truly just a fable. He soon finds himself drawn into the conflict Anargen faced. A battle which has shaped and can destroy his world.
THE AUTHOR
From an early age, Brett Armstrong had a love for literature and history. At age nine, he combined the two for his first time in a short story set in the last days of the Aztec Empire. After that, writing’s role in his life waxed and waned periodically, always a dream on the horizon, till he reached college. At West Virginia University, he entered the Computer Engineering program and spent two years pursuing that degree before an opportunity to take a creative writing class, for fun, came along. It was so enjoyable, he took another and in that course he discovered two things. The first was the plot for a short story called Destitutio Quod Remissio, which the others students really seemed to love. The second, he realized he absolutely loved writing. For him, it was like the proverbial light bulb coming on. In the years since, describing that epiphany has been difficult for him, but he found the words of 1924 Olympian Eric Liddell are the most eloquent expression for it: “God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.” God gave Brett a passion for writing, and so feels His pleasure when writing.
After a few years passed, Brett got his Computer Engineering degree, but also completed a minor in each of his real passions: history and creative writing. In 2013, he began graduate school to earn an MA in Creative Writing. During that time he completed the novelization of Destitutio Quod Remissio and entered the 2013-2014 CrossBooks Writing Contest, which won the contest’s grand prize. As of March 2015, Brett completed his MA and is presently employed in the West Virginia Division of Infectious Disease Epidemiology as a programmer analyst.
Brett lives in Saint Albans, West Virginia, with his beautiful wife, Shelly. In the summer the pair gardens together, and each day Brett continues writing his next novel.
MY REVIEW
I love when Biblical Truths are wrapped in a well-told story! Even more so when it’s written for teens and adolescents.
The characters were well represented, authentic in their struggles with their journey and in their squabbles with each other. The 14th century setting was rugged and crude. At first the narrative at the beginning threw me, but as the story developed and the narrator appeared in “interludes,” it made more sense. The innkeeper was a mysterious character, and the twist at the end was a surprise!
It did seem that this entire story was a journey that never arrived at a destination. But sometimes the journey IS the destination. What the boys learned as they traveled, the profound allegory to Biblical Truth, makes this story a great read for its audience.
ROBIN’S FEATHERS
FOUR FEATHERS
I received a complimentary copy of this book, but was under no obligation to read the book or to post a review. I offer my review of my own free will. The opinions expressed in my review are my honest thoughts and reaction to this book.
