The air smelled pure, like the day Earth was born. No sins of man or demon tainted it.
Both, the cover and the description, although fitting the story, reveal nothing of the turmoil and the fight for survival of the entire worlds at that I realized I “took part” with interest. And here I must add that, although without insisting about the true meaning of Apocalypse, the author introduces its correct, canonical term, that of revelation, disclosure, discovery and of the final victory of God over evil and not the figurative sense, but well spread, of the end of the world. To avoid any doubt, all of the fantastic elements that could get religious connotations are at a level that match the generalized principles of any religion. Although messages are plenty, if you want to see them, Thoeba is not a Sunday sermon. From another point of view, even if the story is aided here and there by the fantastic elements, the author does not abuse of them, and so, the "realism" of the events wins extra points.
The Prologue, despite its tragicness, opens the door to many opportunities for the story to develop so that the reader who expects a simple fantasy, a romance will see how much he was wrong. If the story begins with a miraculous rescue and the beginning of a relationship, God works in mysterious ways, these will only serve to augment and stress the importance of the choices necessary to be made in the fight to come.
Oh, and what battle will come! A battle in which the author is careful to not give any guarantee about who will survive and so all of the characters are always in danger of making the ultimate sacrifice. The race against time enjoys extreme situations, unexpected, twists, characters’ ingenuity and tenacity, an optimum quantity and “quality” of the grotesque and gore. I think that even the male readers will not have much to criticize.
The main characters are varied, appealing, and each of them brings a significant contribution to the course of the events. The relationships between them gradually evolve. Although somewhat stereotypical: the computer genius, the one with military training, the sarcastic and rebellious daughter, the innocent good boy and the hero with special mission, once again, the author manages to create the characters in a way that makes you relate to them and to not say that you read this before. Donna Milward is not afraid, and well she does, to put her heroes in "humane" even embarrassing situations, situation that will emphasize, punctuate their limitations, the stakes of the battle and the absurdity of human nature.
A different kind of a fallen angel, a whirlpool of lost and found feelings, faith and hope, suspense and an alert pace without idle, death moments, but with intense ones, a fantastical version of Creationism, and the possibility of saving your soul, gore and guns, sacred or not, all are intertwined in a story whose pages fly imperceptibly and reaffirms the words of the President Thomas Whitmore’s character: "We will not go quietly into the night!" We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive!” (Independence Day – the movie)
Read Thoeba and see if this time the humanity manages to survive and what will be the fate of our heroes. I liked it.
About the author:
Donna Milward lives in Edmonton, Alberta in a tiny house with a huge yard. She’s been writing all her life, but decided to put writing on hold to get ‘a real job’ as a meatcutter and build a future with her beloved troll, Dan and her cats Freya, and Spartacus Jones.
Twelve years later, an invitation to a Romance Writer’s Conference in Washington D.C. led not only to new friends and new knowledge, but to the inspiration to write again. Thoeba was completed the following year.
Donna likes to mix her fascination with reincarnation and all things paranormal with her love of mythology in her work, and has even written her own myth ‘The Sacred Truth” (on earthtothoeba.blogspot.com) as the lore behind Thoeba and future novels to come.
Donna enjoys fishing, gardening and canning. Despite these hobbies, she much prefers city life.
The book sounds great would love to read it! Thank you for this chance!
ReplyDeleteI'm very excited to read this book! Thanks for the giveaway :)
ReplyDeleteWow! Thanks for the fantastic review! I thin it's my favorite I've read yet. Thanks for taking the tim. I really appreciate it. <3
ReplyDeleteDonna Milward
Great review :D
ReplyDelete@D - Thank you, I really like your book
ReplyDelete@all - Thank you