In Ron Fritsch’s four
Promised Valley novels, prehistoric farmers inhabit a fertile river valley they
believe their gods promised them in return for their good behavior and
obedience. Their enemies, hunters roaming the mostly barren hills beyond the
mountains enclosing the valley, believe their gods gave it to them.
Promised Valley
Rebellion, the first book in
the Promised Valley series, is a story of forbidden love. The farmers’ king
refuses to allow the marriage of the coming-of-age prince to the daughter of
the farmer who saved the king’s life in the last war with the hunters. Her
brother decides he has to help his sister and the prince, his boyhood friend,
correct the flagrant injustice.
That decision leads
them and their allies into a youthful rebellion against the king and his
officials, who rule the kingdom from their bluff-top town. The far more
numerous farmers in the villages below, who despise the officials but not the
king, and who admire the prince, are in a position to determine whether the
rebels will succeed or face execution for treason.
Kirkus says “the story encourages the reader
to ponder the universal elements of the tale” and calls the prehistoric world
of the novel a “strange, primitive world that feels winningly real.”
The US Review of
Books says the novel “is a
good tale that feels real, with a strong promise and a good twist at the end,”
and a “good book to read by the fire in wintertime.”
Promised Valley
Rebellion is the winner of the
gold medal in the Literary Fiction category of the 2010 eLit Awards competition.
Promised Valley
Rebellion is the first-place
winner in the Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Fiction category of the 2011 National Indie Excellence Awards competition.
Promised Valley
Rebellion is the winner of the
silver medal in the Historical Fiction category, and a finalist in the General
Fiction category, of the 2011 Readers Favorite awards
competition.