Sunday, February 17, 2013

PROSSIA BLOG TOUR STOP DAY SEVEN

I am happy to be a part of the Prossia blog tour! This tour is hosted by The Masquerade Crew and runs until the 18th.

Confession, I'm a sucker for an interesting book cover. The cover of Prossia caught my eye. It turns out the author is a talented graphic artist and therefore does his own artwork. Neat, right? Another ensnaring detail is Prossia does not revolve around humans. In fact, there are no humans at all in the story. Intriguing. As a huge sci-fi fan, I was officially hooked from the beginning.

About the Book

“Where Were You When You Had To Grow Up?”
 


Cover Artwork by Raphyel
 
Goodreads Description:         

"A teenage alien girl might endanger her comrades in-arms due to an unknown secret she keeps while fighting in a galactic war. Herself."

Where were you, when you had to grow up?

For a seventeen-year-old Goolian named Aly, it was on another planet called Argutas, a world where she had to "adjust" in order to fit her new surroundings. Daydreaming got replaced with nightmares. Sparring got replaced with killing. Singing to adoring crowds in her father's store turned into shouting for cover. This is what fighting in the war has given Aly, ever since her tribe was drafted. This is the sacrifice she makes while defending galactic order against the Cyogen.

However, there's a danger lurking right among the allies and friends Aly has sworn to protect. It's worse than any Cyogen weaponry, or any being known in the galaxy. It's wrath has the potential of crumbling enemy forces, and bringing allied troops to their knees.

That danger is Aly, herself, and the best part is this: she doesn't even know it. The people she trusts the most are secretly monitoring her condition on the battlefield, and there's no telling what they might be willing to do if Aly accidentally unleashes the power that might jeopardize the safety of everyone around her. Then again, these are the same family and friends who are oblivious to the role they play in an even larger conspiracy blinding the entire known world.



Prossia Excerpt

Aly - Artwork by Raphyel
         Aly came to an hour later. She was still left in the mud along with a good number of twenty-five others. As wide awake as she was, she didn’t bother getting up. Her pride and will were too severely damaged to do so.
        Small drips of water started to splatter on her face, and a great streak of light flew from above. Her eyes winced as a great boom came seconds later. This event never happened on Gooliun. Its atmosphere was cloaked with its own moisture, and the dew from the ground came from the earth itself. She was taught about these natural activities on other planets in her earlier classes back in home. She had pictured the sight of water actually falling from the sky in her dreams, but it was a reality on this strange far off world.
        All the same, the Young One remained motionless as the falling water turned harder. Before she knew it, she was in the middle of a downpour. The sound of it was so peaceful, but the feeling it gave made her heavy. She thought about how far away she was from home again, and just how much she wanted to go back. She heard the prancing of footsteps arriving moments later. She could tell it was Gruago by the lightness in them. How humiliating it would be to have him see her in such a demeaning state. She still refused to move, however.

Awesome Prossia Artwork by Raphyel

         The blue-eyed Ufrian wore a simple Ufrian robe with a hooded cloak to cover his head as he checked body and body for his young Goolian friend. He eventually saw the back of a blue-tentacle female lying motionless in the mud. He approached the motionless body figuring he’d have to shake it awake, but it gave a sigh before he could kneel down and shake her shoulder. Gruago figured he’d cross his arms instead so he wouldn’t agitate the ticking time bomb.
        “So there you are,” he proclaimed. “Looks like you had a blast today, huh?”
        He tried to chuckle, but Aly’s silence made Gruago clear his throat instead. A good moment of silence passed by until the lad finally gave a deep sigh.
        Sigh, come now, Alytchai,” Gruago insisted. “I know you’re disappointed in yourself. But look around you.”
        The Goolian didn’t bother moving, but Gruago continued on with his point.
        “You’re not the only one who got their face kicked into the mud. Now stop beating yourself up, and pipe up. It’s almost evening.”
        Aly finally acknowledged the Ufrian’s presence by twitching an ear towards his direction. All the same, she didn’t bother moving anything else.
        “Look up at the sky, Gruago,” she said.
        The Goolian’s voice carried a dull tone to it, but the Ufrian answered the Young One’s request. Water smacked him in the face relentlessly.
        “Um, yeah,” Gruago said while trying to wipe his face. “Care to tell me what I’m looking for?”

Awesome Prossia Artwork by Raphyel
        Aly rolled onto her back so she could stare into  the dense gray clouds. The sky lit up momentarily as another hideous streak of light spouted out. She waited for the boom to go by before she explained herself.
        “This is what you call ‘rain’, isn’t it?” she politely asked. “And those violent white streaks are built up amounts of electricity called lightning, right?”
        Gruago finally looked back down at the Goolian.
        “There’s a terrible boom that comes after the lightning,” the mastra said. “It’s called thunder, and the reason it comes after the lightning is because its only sound . . . and it’s far too slow to match the speed of the lightning.”
        Gruago wiped his nose, sniffed, and shivered a little. He squatted down and drew a frowned face in the mud, but still didn’t say a word as he listened to his friend.
        “When we were on that trail outside of the capital back home, I tried Gruago,” she explained. “I tried to catch up as hard as I could . . . but I still didn’t make it before I fell back into the dirt.”
        The Ufrian blew a mouth full of air for having to be in this uncomfortable moment.
        “We’re thunder,” she concluded. “I’m thunder, and no matter how hard I try, I won’t ever catch up. I mean look at me. I can’t even control my being like the others. I’ve always been the thunder, but there’s no strength to back it up. It’s only talk, a useless sense of intimidation to the real threat that passed by seconds ago.”
        “You don’t give yourself enough credit,” Gruago said as he shook his head.
       “Credit for what, Ufrian?” the mastra demanded. “I never even wanted to be here in the first place. Truth‘s Grace, my best friend at least saw this as a noble task . . .‘What worth am I?”
        “Okay, Mastra. That’s really great and all—” Gruago said while trying to make Aly sit up.
        “Now just wait a seco—” she started to say.
             “YOU just wait a second,” Gruago snapped back as he 
Aly - Artwork by Raphyel
let Aly go. “If you’re gonna be a lil’ baby and  moan about
how cruel the world is to you, fine.  But it’s not like you’re the only one in this galaxy who doesn’t want to be here. So knock yourself out, feel sorry for yourself, and ask for some pity from others.”
        The Goolian looked away and rubbed her arm, with her feelings hurt.   






My Review

        I love the premise of the book. The story’s tagline is catchy as well. Where were you when you had to grow up?

          Aly (Alytchai) is forced to face the realities of war overnight. At seventeen-years-old, Aly finds herself drafted to a war on an unknown planet. Worse yet, Aly is not like her fellow Goolian. Aly sees her difference as a weakness and overcompensates by excelling in hand-to-hand combat and mastering weapons. Still, her obvious difference on top of battling teenagehood is no easy thing. Along the way, she’ll wage a complex, internal war while learning to exist on a new planet (Aly experiencing rain for the first time is one of my favorite scenes). She’ll develop new friendships and nourish familiar ones.

          Surrounded by danger, Aly is unaware she poses the greatest threat of all. Will she unravel the layers of mystery that have shadowed her entire life and discover the truth about herself before it is too late? For the sake of the galaxy, she must. Aly coming into her own is a beautiful process to witness.

         Yes, there were some drawbacks. There were issues with grammar, pesky repetitiveness and general flow. At times, these issues pulled me away from the story. Yet I finished the book and happily so. The positives by far outweigh any negatives. I found myself caring about Aly and the supporting characters. The unpredictable ending caught me by surprise. I hope we can all look forward to more of Aly’s world in the future.
  
          In conclusion, Prossia was definitely a worthwhile read. After another scrubbing and polishing, the novel has every opportunity to go from worthwhile to out of this world. 

I give Prossia 3.5 out of 5 spaceships.



Badges for Prossia


 

  

About the Author


Raphyel Montez Jordan grew up in a household sensitive to the creative arts. As a child, his hobbies were drawing favorite cartoon and video game characters while making illustrated stories. This passion for art never left and followed him all the way up to his high school and college years.

It wasn’t until college when he underwent a personal “renaissance” of sorts that
Jordan
took his interest in writing to another level. When he was 19, he started writing a novel for fun, taking inspiration from the constant exposure of different ideas and cultures that college showed him while staying true to the values he grew up to embrace. However, when the “signs of the times” influenced the story and the characters to spawn into universes of their own, he figured he might possibly be on to something.

As he studied graphic design at
Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Georgia, Jordan
also used his electives to study sciences like Astronomy, Psychology, and Biology in order enhance the reading experience in his story. He eventually made it a goal to have the story published after he graduated, and dubbed the goal “Operation Prosia,” the very same project that would develop into his first published book, “Prossia.”

Even though his novel is not necessarily a religious book,
Jordan
utilizes his Christian faith by urging people to encourage, not condemn, in his story. Best known for ending his PSFC newsletters with “Unity Within Diversity,” he hopes “Prossia’s” success will inspire people to consider and support the positive outlook in the difference human kind can share, whether it be race, religion, or any other cultural difference.


LINKS



You can stalk Raphyel here:



Prossia Facebook Page

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Buy Prossia here:





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Thanks for visiting!
~Layla

4 comments:

  1. This was a great post and I liked your review a lot :) Thanks so much for being a part of the tour Layla!

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    1. Thank you for organizing the tour! I enjoyed participating!

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  2. Jumping On Diantha's bandwagon, I have to say your review made me feel nice and blubbly inside. :P

    I do hate it when I hear about the bad editing done, so a newer edition, with a new cover, will be coming out later this year.

    I'm thrilled to hear you enjoyed the overall story and Aly's transition, especially since I wanted "Prossia" to be very character-driven. I hope you keep following this adventure, especially when we'll see how Aly's childhood was this November! Thank you!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Raphyel!

      It was an honor to be a part of the Prossia tour! I truly am a fan of both your book and artwork. Definitely, I will keep following and look forward to more of your works.

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