In a time long before our own, two very different societies of people uneasily cohabit a mountainous land. In the lowlands, the people live an agricultural lifestyle in the fertile valley that their legends say was awarded to them by the gods. The people of the hills live as hunter-gatherers, foraging what resources they can from the harsh terrain. In both societies, the punishment for crossing the boundaries that separate them is a traitor’s death.
Morning Sun, prince of the valley people, is coming of age with his lifelong friends, Blue Sky and Rose Leaf. As their minds and bodies mature, the innocent simplicity of their childhood relationships has blossomed into a complex emotional web, and they struggle to cope with new feelings and remain true to themselves and to each other.
Morning Sun and Rose Leaf want to marry, but their parents inexplicably refuse to bless the union. Blue Sky is determined to find out why even as he and Morning Sun are separated from their families and each other and obliged to live in defensive encampments at the kingdom’s edge. Little does he realize that the truth will jeopardize his friends, his honor, and everything else he holds dear.
The sociopolitical framework of author Ron Fritsch’s invented demi-utopia in Promised Valley Rebellion appears to be an idealized hybrid of nature-based indigenous societies and the strict hierarchy of the feudal system. In this fictional realm (which is never actually named in the book) the population is ruled by two branches of power: the deputies, whose responsibility it is to enforce the law; and the tellers, whose function is to serve as conduits of the gods’ knowledge, preserving oral traditions, settling disputes, and offering practical and spiritual guidance. Tellers are the only ones who can track the days and seasons and tell the farmers when to plant and harvest their crops, an absolutely fundamental contribution to the agricultural society in which they live. Also unique about the tellers is that they “go with” those of their own gender, unlike the townspeople who are mostly farmers and who live solitary or heterosexual lifestyles.
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1 - Ron Fritsch
Karen, no author could ask for a more thoughtful reading and review of a book. You clearly see and describe what I'm attempting to do. I'm deeply grateful.