Author’s Corner Book Review by T.L. Gray
Novel by Jeff Suwak
Publisher: Vabella Publishing Expected Release Date: Summer 2013 Words/Genre: 18,000/Fantasy About the Book: From the time he was a young boy, Gabriel Aterias knew he was destined to rise from the peasantry and become the Holy Knight of the Church of Dunrabian. By the time he was twenty four years old, he had already led the Church’s armies to greater victories than any other man in history. Yet, his greatest feat still lay ahead of him. Beyond the elemental barrier of the Tempest Gate lurks the demon Elezear. An evil older than the world itself, it nearly eradicated the human race once before. For five hundred years, the people of the Five Kingdoms have slept uneasily, praying that the creature would not escape the walls of storm that confined it. Gabriel vows to destroy the demon. His quest will take him far beyond the borders of civilization, across the ocean, and into unimaginable darkness. What he will soon discover is that the greatest danger in his quest to save the world may very well be the loss of his own soul. Review: Most people like a story about a valiant knight setting out on a noble quest to protect the lowly citizens from an evil force, whether it’s in the form of a human enemy or a supernatural creature. If you wanted to go even further, people really love a story where a common boy grows up to change his stars, or his destiny, to be the one who rises above his station and saves the day. For generations, children have flocked to sit at the feet of great story-tellers, imagining themselves becoming like those old heroes of lore, from rock-slinging giant-killers to pulling magical swords from solid stone. Things were no different for Gabriel Aterias, a lowly boy hidden beneath the muck and mud of a pig farm. He did what all boys his age usually do, 62
West Georgia Living
Sept./Oct. 2013
he (a nobody - with a nothing future) imagined himself as the hero of the story. But unlike most boys, Gabriel believed it. I envy this character, because he holds so tightly to his dream that he dedicates his life to making it a reality; a wish-fulfillment. In doing so, he becomes a narrow-minded, driven, arrogant man… and thus our knight turns into someone not very likable. So, what do you do when you stumble upon a story where the protagonist is an arrogant fool? With Beyond the Tempest Gate, my suggestion would be to keep reading because in this particular case, the end justifies the means. I asked author Jeff Suwak what one thing he’d like readers to take away after reading “Beyond the Tempest Gate” and this was his reply: “I’ve always enjoyed stories that retained a sense of mystery and left room for reader interpretation. To