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A review of The Sky of Peleg

by Twelve

Unique Fantasy Book Written by the Reviewer

Reviewed by: Twelve
About Twelve

The Sky of Peleg The problem with writing a review about my own book, 'The Sky of Peleg', is that it is quite easy for me to write TOO much. However, as my book will surely be interpreted and understood in different ways, I'm happy to be able to have the opportunity to describe it properly.

'The Sky of Peleg' is most certainly under the genre of fantasy. However, I also try to include an interesting romance, a rising adventure, spiritual thought, and religious commentary. It is fantasy because it takes place in a imaginative world I call "Peleg". It is a romance because the main character, Sky, is a young man both seeking and tempted by love. It is an adventure, because I bring my characters into new cities, make them face interesting foes, and bring the tale to a thrilling climax. Spiritual thought is abundant in this book, as I seek to describe what lies in the hearts, souls, and minds of humanity. It is a religious commentary, because I try my best to allude to the various hypocrisies and falsehoods found in modern day religions.

The text is broken up into first person, present points of views of many characters. I purposely attempt to write in this odd way to be different; so much of today's fantasy is written in first or third-person-past, and I simply say, "Why?". While first and third-person-past has the advantage of sounding more like a recorded tale, I believe that first-person-present can potentially be more thrilling in works of adventure and fantasy. If someone is describing a life or death situation that happenED, logic says that they will survive it. If someone is describing a life or death situation that is happenING, there is the added thrill that nobody, including the narrator, knows if this someone will make it out alive.

I've noticed that, for some reason, many works in the fantasy genre lack characters of a different skin color than white. I do not know why that is, though there is no particular reason why this is a fault. Once again, I say "Why?". It might be true that the average readers of fantasy are young white men, and so authors want to write to their audience. However, I am a black man who reads fantasy, and I know that there are others. Why couldn't there be a fantasy book where the main character is dark-skinned? Although it is true that the inner values of a person are more important than anything on the outside, for many youthful readers it is nice to read of a hero that looks like them. It is nice to read of a world, even a fantasy world, where the citizens of a land are as colorful and as different as reality suggests. And in reality, God has made many kinds of people in this world, with different skin colors. It is a beautiful thing, and I try to include such variety with the characters in my book.

The third original idea in this book has to do with the hero, Sky. I tried to stay away from the typical type of fantasy tale, where a young hero has to find a mighty weapon, or group of weapons, to save the world. Sky isn't particularly interested in saving the world, and his weapons are not physical. In the tale, Sky was born with the ability to see into the the souls of others, that place where the spirit, heart, and mind meet. The source of his powers are a mystery, but Sky has discovered how to direct and use them to confront the hidden evil in others. From this basis, I tried to make very unique and interesting action sequences involving humans and monsters.

And yes, I love monsters.

'The Sky of Peleg' is an experiment, an attempt to do something different in a genre where many works sound the same. I look up to writers such as Michael Moorcock and Robert Holdstock, who are also currently writing unique and original fantasy, with examples to be found in their books 'The Dreamthief's Daughter' and 'Celtika', respectively. 'The Sky of Peleg' is my first, and hopefully not the last, novel.

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Copyright © by Twelve, 2003

Reviewed by Twelve :
-- The House of Death - by Paul Doherty
-- The Sigma Protocol - by Robert Ludlum
-- AKIRA, Volume 1 - by Katsuhiro Otomo
-- Valhalla Rising - by Clive Cussler
-- Warrior Class - by Dale Brown
-- The Dreamthief's Daughter - by Michael Moorcock
-- Jupiter - by Ben Bova
-- Celtika - by Robert Holdstock
-- Knots and Crosses - by Ian Rankin
-- The Dragonbone Chair - by Tad Williams
-- Corpse Candle - by Paul Doherty
-- Flood Tide - by Clive Cussler
-- Samurai! - by Saburo Sakai
-- The Sky of Peleg - by Twelve
-- Disclosure - by Michael Crichton
-- Pawn of Prophecy - by David Eddings









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