There Comes A Prophet Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway

Welcome to my stop of the There Comes A Prophet blog tour! To follow the rest of tour, click here for the tour schedule. Today at my stop, I will be doing a review, thanks to Xpresso Book Tours for organising and Double Dragon Publishing for providing me with a hardcopy of the book. There will also be a giveaway of one hardcopy of There Comes A Prophet by David Litwack for US followers, or one ecopy of the book for International follows. So yes, there's something for everyone! :) Enjoy!

There Comes A Prophet by David Litwack

Publication date: July 9th 2012
by Double Dragon Publishing
Genre: YA Dystopian

Synopsis:
Who among us will cast aside a comfortable existence and risk death to follow a dream?

A world kept peaceful for a thousand years by the magic of the ruling vicars. But a threat lurks from a violent past. Wizards from the darkness have hidden their sorcery in a place called the keep and left a trail of clues that have never been solved.

Nathaniel has grown up longing for more but unwilling to challenge the vicars. Until his friend Thomas is taken for a teaching, the mysterious coming-of-age ritual. Thomas returns but with his dreams ripped away. When Orah is taken next, Nathaniel tries to rescue her and ends up in the prisons of Temple City. There he meets the first keeper of the ancient clues. But when he seeks the keep, what he finds is not magic at all.

If he reveals the truth, the words of the book of light might come to pass:

“If there comes among you a prophet saying ‘Let us return to the darkness,’ you shall stone him, because he has sought to thrust you away from the light.”

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15745772-there-comes-a-prophet

Purchase: 

--Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/There-Comes-A-Prophet-ebook/dp/B008RCQE1C/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1353118684&sr=1-1

--Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/there-comes-a-prophet-david-litwack/1112205972?ean=9781554049967

--The Book Depository: http://www.bookdepository.com/There-Comes-Prophet-David-Litwack/9781771150149?a_aid=xreads

Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43girNzSFsw&feature=player_embedded

AUTHOR BIO
The urge to write first struck when working on a newsletter at a youth encampment in the woods of northern Maine. It may have been the night when lightning flashed at sunset followed by northern lights rippling after dark. Or maybe it was the newsletter's editor, a girl with eyes the color of the ocean. But he was inspired to write about the blurry line between reality and the fantastic.

Using two fingers and lots of white-out, he religiously typed five pages a day throughout college and well into his twenties. Then life intervened. He paused to raise two sons and pursue a career, in the process becoming a well-known entrepreneur in the software industry, founding several successful companies. When he found time again to daydream, the urge to write returned. There Comes a Prophet is his first  novel in this new stage of life.

David and his wife split their time between Cape Cod, Florida and anywhere else that catches their fancy. He no longer limits himself to five pages a day and is thankful every keystroke for the invention of the word processor.

Author Links:
David's Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

My review:

Rating: 3 stars

The first reason There Comes A Prophet caught my attention was its sci-fi genre. I’ve always liked the science fiction with the authors’ wide imaginations while founding on at least limited science and technology of the present world. There Comes A Prophet presents an entirely different world combined with a touch of fantasy. Religion plays an important role of indulging the reader to fall into the world it is set in. People in this book worships “Light” and “Dark” instead of any particular god. Light is represented by the Keep temple who is supposed to provide protection and resources for its people. Vicars are introduced as ambassadors of religion travelling to all parts of the world to oversea believers.

One theme I found very true and outstanding is that even good beginnings lead by good intentions can result in corruption and evil overtime. The development of modern day bureaucracy corruption is reflected upon the power-hungry vicars who do not keep the best intentions for their people at heart. However, exactly what happens I will not disclose here so you can read and find out yourself. But our three brave main characters realise that something was amiss in supposedly peaceful reign of the temple. The determination to find the truth leads them on an adventure away from home.

The three best friends Nathaniel, Orah and Thomas are three characters I admire and felt close to heart. I could connect with the characters rather well and they remind me slightly of my friends and I. They helped each other and held their friendship true through many impossible situations and believed in each other. Their bravery and hunger for knowledge and truth is something worth admiring. Not many people will deal in justice when they should and the three best friends’ journey to find truth also felt like a journey for justice to me. Each of these three characters is unique and different from each other. Nathaniel is the dreamer of the three, he has wonderful ideas and the occasion explosive realizations. He is a good mediator between Orah and Thomas. Orah is the smart one who is observant and full of wisdom. She seemed older than her age and has the most caution even though she is the youngest of the three. On the other hand, initially Thomas seems to be not such a bright young man, more thick in the head and focused on his immediate wants and needs. He seems so young, bordering on childish. He is the trouble-maker. Though Orah helped him with school and other things as they were growing up, sometimes she is exasperated with him. All three characters grow through the story and build up qualities they did not initially have. Thomas especially, changes a lot with the course of the plot. The Nathaniel, Orah and Thomas at the end of the book is not who I’ve meet in the first few pages. Me, as the reader also grow with the characters and gain more values and qualities by the end of the book.

The setting of Little Pond as a backward country-side town without modern technology and the laidback style of living is beautiful and surreal. The plot moved a quite a fast pace, keeping the reader interested. The author did a very job at concealing the mystery until the end, stringing the reader along, curious and wanting. Overall, the story was intriguing and full of vivid imagination and action.

However, it was a bit hard for me to get into the story in the beginning and took me quite a while to get use to the writing style. Litwack can pay more attention to the details and expand the descriptions of actions, surrounding and characters at many places. For example, I like to imagine the characters in my head as I read, yet it was hard for me to imagine Orah until quite a while into the book. Although I can connect to the story and its characters relatively well, I still feel like there is a glass wall in between the actions and me. I couldn’t quite be in the story myself. These little things added together affected my rating of the book.

Overall, this book is entertaining and full of wisdom. I would recommend it to all sci-fi fans who don’t mind a bit of a lapse on the romance department. A very good debut novel.

a Rafflecopter giveaway