Rant & Rave- The Prophesy by Phil Asmundson

 Hi Everyone!

I'm here with my spoiler-free Rant & Rave for The Prophesy by Phil Asmundson.  This is the first book in the Tuar Tums Trilogy, and the first book I'm Reviewing for Paper Raven Books!

The Tuar Tums trilogy combines mystery, fantasy, and science fiction. With a basis in southwestern Native American myths, the book follows Alexa and her friends as they attempt to discover what happened to her father.  Jeff, Alexa's father, was a treasure hunter who went missing exploring the desert for treasure twelve years ago.  Early in the book, her father returns, with some notable medical anomalies, prompting Alexa, her best friend Sharon, and her boyfriend Jack, to solve the mystery of where her father has been the last 12 years.

Lets get to the raving:

I think this book had a good balance between time spent on information that is pertinent to the plot, and time spent on parts that are intended for character development or relationship-building.  The book starts out slower, with the reader getting to know Alexa's private life and her unique voice.  This beginning has just enough mystery to keep the reader interested in getting answers.  After this, the book shifts into solving the mystery with a longer plot-heavy section.  Finally, the book jumps into an ending of self discovery and recognition of the antagonists for the trilogy, with an excellent balance between plot-driven and character-driven parts.  Like all stories, the author is tasked with fitting in both plot and character development.  Phil Asmundson does a great job of making sure neither outweighs the other.   Additionally, he ensures that there is more development of both types to be done in the rest of the trilogy.  

Normally, I don't like when a book switches between perspectives with no discernable pattern.  However, The Prophesy utilizes this technique well, ensuring that the reader has just the right amount of information, even when the characters individually don't. That being said, there are parts where it took a few sentences to pick up on which perspective you were reading from, forcing the reader to restart the section after discovering the point of view.  This is particularly common through the last hundred pages or so, when all the characters are in different parts of the desert and scenery differs very little (at least to a northerner like me).

I find that some books in a series end at a point where there is either a concrete conclusion or no conclusion at all.  The Prophesy does an excellent job of concluding in a manner that is both satisfying in a small way, and unsatisfying enough for the reader to want to continue the series.  This is hard to explain without spoilers, but I'm sure other series-readers will understand what I mean by that. 

I love that the book uses real Native American legends as its basis, and the respect it shows for Native American characters, often portraying them as wise and noble! The Tuar Tums are the Hill People in Native American lore, and this book revamps their story, giving it a science fiction twist in addition to its fantastical one. I do wish the original lore was included in the story, perhaps as a poem in the beginning of the book or in parts as a chapter heading. 

This is a short one- the language is easy-to-read and the story doesn't involve too much thinking.  There is very little multilayer plot introduced in this book, although there might be more in the following two novels as it digs deeper into the science fiction side of things.   

Now to the ranting:

By far, the most frustrating thing about this book was how unrealistic the relationships seem.  This may very well be just me and my experiences, but there seems to be a lot of gestures and behaviors that don't seem authentic in The Prophesy.  Some spoiler-free examples include Alexa blowing kisses at everyone and anyone, Jack kissing an old woman he barely knows on the cheek, and Alexa and Jack's entire relationship.  Alexa and Jack get together, after a few brief conversations, with no history, and instantly move into the comfortable stage of a relationship that typically comes much later.  It feels completely rushed and unnatural.  While Alexa's relationship with Sharon is more on point, it still feels abnormal at points throughout the book. 

Another thing I disliked in this book was that there were some grammatical errors.  I understand that things sometimes get missed in the editing stage, and I would only mention this if there were several errors.  The nature of the errors in The Prophesy ranged from missing periods to missing entire words. While I realize that this is a little nitpicky, I felt like some of the errors were significant enough to slow the reader down, and therefore are worthy of mention.

Finally (and again, I'm being nitpicky), the book describes the Richter Scale as ending at ten.  While it's true that the most powerful earthquake has only clocked in at about an 8.9, the scale is logarithmic with no end. I understand not wanting to go into elaborate scientific details as it would take away from the story, but I firmly believe that, at the very least, the information given needs to be true.  Plus, in this case, one additional sentence or even a restructure of the current sentence could give the same dire sense using information that is actually accurate. 

So those ae my thoughts on the first book of the Tuar Tums Trilogy, The Prophesy, by Phil Asmundson.  Up next will be Vita Nostra, by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko, translated by Julia Meitov Hersey.  So far its been interesting and mysterious, so I can't wait to share it with everyone!

As always, feel free to read along and to share your thoughts in the comments!

Dana