Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Straight Reading from the Library: The Lords of Prophecy by Michael Rothman


Goddess Fish Promotions sent this book to me as part of a book tour--it's the final book of a series that began with Heirs of Prophecy and continued through Tools of Prophecy. The author will be giving one lucky commenter a $50 Amazon gift card--you can earn more chances to win, plus read some more reviews of the book, by seeing the stops here:   http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/01/review-tour-lords-of-prophecy-by.html


READ THE BLURB



The Riverton brothers have completed their training, and despite their own personal skills, they worry about the forces arrayed against them. Knowing the barrier that's kept the people of Trimoria safe for over five centuries is weakening, the brothers ready their ragtag army of humans, dwarves, and elves for battle. 

In the meantime, on the other side of the ancient barrier, a growing army of demons have readied themselves for the final battle against the people of Trimoria. 

As the barrier weakens, Ryan is struck by bouts of debilitating madness. As the barrier crumbles, so does the hope of Trimoria's citizens. 





READ THE REVIEW

The boys (who truly were boys in the first book) have grown and matured to be leaders in their new world. They have found love; they have discovered powers within themselves; and they have been preparing to fight a battle of good and evil.

This is the fastest paced book of Mr. Rothman's series. It's good to visit with old friends and to tie up loose ends-- and the final battle scene will steal your breath away. I don't want to say too much, because I don't want to reveal spoilers, but --it's a battle and you never know who might live or die.

Lords of Prophecy can be read as a stand-alone book, however I recommend you start at the beginning of the series. The character development displayed through the three books is amazing.  To see how he takes squabbling brothers to end up with leaders of Trimoria is amazing.

The YA readers at the library have been enjoying the first two volumes--and they are eagerly waiting on this third installment as well.

Mr. Rothman, I'm looking to see what else you have in store for us now that Aaron and Ryan have fulfilled their roles in prophecy. It will be interesting to see what new troubles pop up in Trimoria and how the Riverton family will face the challenges.

MEET THE AUTHOR

I've been writing throughout my career as an engineer, however my writing had been relegated to technical books and technical magazine articles. Heck, you might even find a couple of those musty tomes still for sale if you look hard enough.

With my foray into epic fantasy, I've shed the shackles of technical writing and created novels that I hope will be attractive to a much wider audience.

I've always admired truly epic tales. You know the ones I mean. The book you crack open, wander through and utterly get immersed in. The story takes you on twists and turns you never expected, run into dead-ends that make you wheel your arms backward to prevent you from falling into an endless abyss. By the time you reach what you think is the end, you've read hundreds of pages and realize the end is really only the beginning of the story.

You close the book and wonder out loud. "Do I have the next book? Is it out yet?"

My goal when I started writing the first book (HEIRS OF PROPHECY) that involved the Riverton family was to make a story that would allow a younger audience access to such a tale. Since then, a second book (TOOLS OF PROPHECY) was released, and now I introduce the third book in the series with LORDS OF PROPHECY. 

As to my other writing activities, I've completed another as of yet unreleased novel in the Prophecies series, and they are scheduled to be released as soon as - well, as soon as the paperwork on them is complete, and the lawyers nod their heads up and down.

I hope you enjoy the novel.

In the meantime, if you want to see my ramblings, I lurk at the following social media portals:

Twitter - @MichaelARothman
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/MichaelARothman
Blog - http://michaelarothman.com/

14 comments:

  1. What genres do you like to explore in the future?

    lyra.lucky7 AT gmail DOT com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for your kind review. If possible, I would love it of you could post the review on Amazon so others could also stumble into it. I will check for comments here that I will reply to as needed.

    As far as genres I am working on, there is another title I expect to be release that acts as a prequel to this series. It is titled PRINCESS INTERRUPTED, and highlights the life of Arabelle, a character in the current series, but one with sufficient backstory that I think people will enjoy learning about a spunky self sufficient princess and how and why she's learned to be what she oftentimes refers to herself as (a princess with claws).

    I have a new series which I am in the midst of writing. It is based in this world (Earth), but oddly enough - without giving too much away, you will find the Prophecies series links to this story fairly seamlessly and I promise that this won't be the last you hear of the Rivertons. In fact, I just wrote a scene where the main character in the new series stumbles into a cave and discovers a long-ago abandoned backpack with Jared Riverton's drivers license/wallet.

    My tales are intended to be largely safe for school and library consumption. However the next series of books have protagonists that are a bit older (18).

    Hope everyone enjoys the tales.... ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Librarian Judith. I like your review and specifically how you mention your YA readers. I'm at a community college and we have a popular YA section. We tend to have more female readers and they check out a lot of "urban fiction." I'd like something that will appeal to our young male readers. I also like the idea of getting some independent publications into their hands--although they're sometimes harder to acquire through our normal acquisition sources.
    catherinelee100 at gmail dot com
    @capefearlibn

    ReplyDelete
  4. Catherine Lee, the title that is the subject of this review should release its hardcopy editions (both paperback and hardcover) sometime in April I’ve been told. I’d be very interested in hearing if for some reason they aren’t available through the standard distribution channels.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love series that show wonderful character development! They are the ones that really stick with you, that keep you thinking about them weeks after you're done :)

    andralynn7 AT gmail DOT com

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your new project sounds good as well, how do you go about creating characters?

    moonsurfer123 AT gmail DOT com

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great review, sounds like a good read.

    Kit3247(at)aol(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  8. How did you do your research for your book?

    shadowrunner1987(at)gmail(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  9. I know this must be a wonderful series. I know a YA who is anxious to read this last book.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Lots of the creative process is black magic I’m afraid. I can truly say that the inspiration for Ryan and Aaron (two main characters in the Prophecies series) were from my own kids. Personalities are borrowed, sometimes augmented, and that’s for the characters that are based on people I know. For some of the others - I personally don’t know any dragons, but needless to say, I have what my kindergarten teacher used to call “an active imagination”. Given that, I can sort of apply personalities that I feel are appropriate, and use that black magic of the creative process to see where it takes me.

    Regarding the search for my books. Many people might think of fantasy as not requiring research, but that isn’t really the case. If I borrow certain things from the real world (e.g. poison ivy) it would make sense to have it somewhat similar to the real-life thing. For instance, in the book I’m working on, I have the following dialog:

    “You weren’t a girl scout were you? Notice how the leaves are clustered in three’s? My dad used to tell me ‘Leaves of three, leave them be.’ This is poison ivy.”

    So for those of you who didn’t know how to identify poison ivy in real life, I can assure you that the above saying is valid and if you say leaves clustered in threes growing on a vine - I’d avoid it unless you like to itch. If you enjoy itching and blisters and other things of that nature, then be my guest.

    So the amount of research varies, but encyclopedias and my own real life experiences are very handy.

    ReplyDelete
  11. The research makes a story richer I always feel.

    marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks for the honest review!

    vitajex(at)aol(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  13. I agree, the ending kept me at the edge of my seat, not knowing who would live and die

    ReplyDelete