Darkness is on the rise in Aeld Gowan, and all that stands in its way is the unlikely hero Morumus, a bookish young monk with a gift for languages and a haunted past. Jeremiah Montgomery packs the first installment in his debut series full of adventure, dread, and dark conspiracy. The Dark Harvest Trilogy will delight fans of fantasy and medieval history buffs alike, keeping them up way past bedtime.
"Buy stock in Eveready battery if you decide to read Jeremiah Montgomery's books. Historic fantasy at its best. It transports readers into another world, a world where the forces of evil lay siege to truth and everything worth living for. Montgomery writes fantasy like he's been there, fantasy that may be more intensely relevant to current realities than it first appears. An imaginative warning against the relentless scheme of the enemy to erode truth and leave a barren hulk in its wake."
The Scarlet Bishop is an excellent follow-up to The Dark Faith. The story line draws in a number of different characters and plots, weaving them together into a wonderful spell. The religious and political controversies that were introduced, or perhaps only hinted at, in the first novel, come into full play here. The setting is a lightly disguised medieval England, and the novel rings the changes on the situations that faced the various peoples of England in the early medieval period. There are two primary problems. The first is political, and revolves around the problems caused by a number of different tribes and rulers in a relatively small space. The second is religious/theological, with the New Faith edging out the Old, and the Old seeking to subvert and conquer the New. This latter controversy is particularly well-handled, dealing with it at both the corporate and personal levels. Most fantasies drawing on medieval Europe for their sources turn the religious conflicts into just another political conflict. Montgomery does an excellent job of making it clear that, while politics may get involved, the confrontation of religions is still fundamentally theological. All in all, a very enjoyable read. I look forward to the next installment.