River's Child 

By: Mark Daniel Seiler
Illustrated By: Leslie M. Browning
Publisher: Owl House Books
Publication Date: April 2018
ISBN: 978-1-947003-39-2
Reviewed By: Kristi Eldridge
Review Date: February 2018

In this futuristic apocalyptic world, author Mark Daniel Siler creates a place that expands the imagination, with adventure that reminded me of Lord of the Rings. The fight to save humanity is spread over years of struggle, loss, and heartache, but the main characters Simone and Mavin will defy all odds hoping to save the remaining people of the world.

When Mavin was a young boy growing up in New Mexico, he never thought that simple plant seeds would be so incredibly important. Now, in a world that is constantly being hammered by severe weather from ice storms to hurricanes, it has become vital to protect the world's food source. After taking advice from his college mentor, Mavin makes the decision to work for a plant at the northernmost part of the world that works in developing ways to keep these seeds viable for future generations.  In the last few months, Mavin could not help but feel that his superiors had been hiding something important from their employees, but whenever questioned they would quickly change the subject.

One morning when Mavin shows up to work and no one is there, he knows something must have gone terribly wrong. His fears are amplified when he realizes the plant has locked down and he is not able to manually open any doors.  He is trapped with no way to communicate with the outside world, and as days turn to months his dread is heightened even more. Without any knowledge of how much time has passed, Mavin goes into a deep depression until one day a group of women amazingly get into the plant.

These women tell Marvin they have a mission to retrieve seeds from this place and take them back to their city to help feed their starving population. Even though Mavin knows exactly the seeds they are talking about he is weary of these unusual strangers, as they seem to be intelligent but also have no knowledge of modern science. As they travel together with the seeds in tow, Mavin becomes more aware that the world he knew once is gone.  How will he find his place in this new world that seems to be intent on keeping him detained? For in this new world women run the country, while men and their opinions are given little to no respect at all.

This book was an absolutely wonderful read, and even with all of the books out now with an apocalyptic theme, this book still kept my interest. I thought it was fascinating that the author took the characters through an adventure that took place over years and years, which is why this story reminded me a little bit of Lord of the Rings. Just the sheer long and epic story that these courageous characters went through was amazing, and had me hooked from the first page.

Quill says: An incredibly original story of epic proportions!