Where do you go when the storms come and your paradise rebels?
On a cold and rainy September afternoon, Father Elijah Jonas convinced his followers to abandon the purgatory that was Earth and travel on faith to a new world. Now, forty years after the most important event in human history no one left on Earth witnessed, the descendants of those who followed Elijah have built a remarkable life. From farms to stables to the mundane of the day, life has been fruitful. But, like many things in life and society, what lies under the surface threatens the future.
As natural disasters and wild dangers claim the human residents on the planet Tishbe, relationships strain, families are torn apart and allegiances are tested. For Miriam Michaels, granddaughter of the eldest elder and man responsible for the societal mores and traditions the community follows, the future is found in the unknown. For young Micah, a scribe-in-training, the present is a confusing array of love and hate with few answers to the myriad of questions which emerge daily. And for Miriam’s cousin, Joel, an engineer determined to follow in the footsteps of his mentors, it is the past which holds answers.
For all of them, the journey from their normal life into the unknown will test the strength and resolve of the community and strain relationships, threatening to destroy the grand vision Father Elijah and his followers had for the future of mankind. In sunshine they were born and in shadow they will pass, but not until they can build the life each of them imagine on a planet far from paradise.
It doesn't get easier.
In this second installment of an SF series, colonists on an alien world face unexpected perils.
Wretlind’s sequel, following Out of Due Season (2022), is set on the alien world of Tishbe, to which a fugitive group of the 241 followers of Father Elijah Jonas had fled when he led them away from the violent shambles of Earth. Life had been hard but predictable in their settlement, the City of Nod, for the ensuing 39 years, but as this installment opens, that seems to be changing. Lake beds that have been dry for decades (the colony usually only gets about 10 inches of rain a year) begin to fill with water, and caves seem to be inhabited by vicious alien entities the colonists haven’t seen before. These alterations split the settlement elders, some of whom believe they’re harbingers of a planetary “Shift” while others dismiss their significance. Caught in these rifts—and in the broader changes engulfing their new world—is the engrossing book’s core cast of vivid characters: “clumsy and weak” apprentice scribe Micah Victor; budding engineer Joel Page; reluctant medic Christina Grigsby; 20-year-old Miriam Michaels, who’s been thrust unexpectedly into the status of family matriarch; and a handful of others. When this group embarks on a journey across the unknown regions of this world, it unearths clues to a deeper mystery than any of the colony’s elders ever imagined. Wretlind does a skillful job of interweaving the personal conflicts of his young main characters with the marvels they find (and the dangers they face) as they explore Tishbe’s wildlands in search of answers about the Shift. And Tishbe itself, “a fantastical world with wonders yet to be discovered,” is deftly delineated and will keep readers turning the pages.
An engaging, personality-driven tale with detailed SF worldbuilding.
