Promised Valley War by Ron Fritsch

My final book for this month's reviews is called "Promised Valley War" and it is also by Ron Fritsch. In this story two among a tribe of prehistoric peoples become both aware and curious about their “eternal” enemies, and while trying to treat them as their equals, set the stage for yet another horrifying war. 

Promised Valley War is the second in Ron Fritsch’s Promised Valley four-novel series, in which prehistoric farmers inhabit a fertile river valley they believe their gods promised them in return for their good behavior and obedience. Their enemies, hunters roaming the mostly barren hills beyond the mountains enclosing the valley, believe their gods gave it to them. In the first book in the series, Promised Valley Rebellion, the farmers’ king refused to allow the marriage of the coming-of-age prince to the daughter of the farmer who’d saved the king’s life in the last war with the hunters. The daughter’s outspoken brother decided he had to help his sister and the prince, his boyhood friend, correct the flagrant injustice. That decision led them and their youthful allies into a rebellion against the king and his officials who ruled the kingdom from their bluff-top town. The far more numerous farmers in the villages below, who despised the highest officials but not the king, and who admired the prince, were in a position to determine whether the rebels would succeed or face execution for treason. 

This book is a rare glimpse into a fascinating prehistoric world where anything and everything can happen, and does. It is a book to make you consider universal questions about humanity and this primitive world feels strangely real and memorable. It is the story’s prehistoric setting that provides the basis for the intellectual question which binds the Promised Valley books together: “Could civilization and history, with their countless heaven-sanctioned wars and genocides, have begun differently?”

About the Author

Ron Fritsch grew up in rural northern Illinois. His father and mother were hard-working tenant farmers who loved to read. He obtained a bachelor’s degree with honors from the University of Illinois (major: history; minor: English literature) and a law degree cum laude from Harvard Law School.

 

Ron became a public-service attorney representing indigent and disabled adults and abused and neglected children. All during his life as a lawyer, he spent most of his time writing arguments on behalf of his clients, in the trial courts as well as the higher appeals courts. For many years now, he has lived in Chicago. Find him on Facebook. or email him at ronfritsch@promisedvalley.com.