This Apocalyptic fantasy places the teenaged protagonist, Daphne, in a down and out small Wyoming town. Upon her arrival from Detroit, from where she flees to escape abusive and horrific experiences, mysterious trumpets that only she can hear welcome her.  In the months that she lives with her aunt, uncle and pregnant cousin, a variety of strange occurrences all point to an epic change: either of a brave new world in the making or the end of the one as it exists there in Carbon County.  Of special significance is Daphne discovering oil on her uncle’s land.

Signs of the impending rapture include strange nightmares that haunt Owen, Daphne’s love interest, the mysterious trumpets that only Daphne can hear, and carved tablets that tell the prophecy: tablets that reveal their meaning to Daphne over the course of the book.

Biblical references abound in this story with the Children of God (the devote citizens of the town) setting themselves against the Children of the Earth (the hippy “evil cult”) who are committed to protecting the earth from the ravages of oil drilling.

The strength of this novel lies in the author’s drawing of her characters. The reader is introduced to a varied cast of believable secondary characters, several of whom are teenagers.  The story is told in a rotating third person point of view.

Mature themes include attempted incest, murder in self-defense, teen pregnancy, a verbally and emotionally abusive boyfriend, sexual references, teen drinking. premature childbirth and a stillborn baby, and verbal abuse and shaming by a minister. None of these sex / attempted incest / murder scenes are very graphic, but the the childbirth / stillborn baby scene is realistic. The verbal abuse scenes are also realistic and harsh.

While stereotypes abound, and although parts of the plot are fairly predictable, End Times: The Prophet Emerges makes for a good first book in this End Times series. It ends with a cliffhanger, ensuring that readers will be waiting for the sequel.  

This dark fantasy is about Daphne, the child of Lucifer and the demon Lilith, and her half-brother Obie. Obie is in love and is going to abandon his family, his job and his home in Hell for the girl he loves. When Lilith tells Daphne that Obie is in danger, Daphne sets off to rescue him. But she has little of the knowledge or skill necessary to navigate Earth and help her brother. She has nothing but her connection to a boy who might be the last one who saw Obie.

Daphne has always been sheltered. On this quest, she must learn self-reliance, perseverance, and most of all trust – who she can and can’t trust. She must navigate the politics of both Hell and the angels on Earth who are determine to destroy all demons. The reader can see the growing changes in Daphne through her first person chapters; the boy who is helping her appears more distant in his third person narrative. The motivation of characters is complex, as is the setting. This detailed story is intriguing and hard to put down.

Siobhan lives in Canada, a Canada in an alternate world where dragons and people compete for living space, food and fuel. The fossil fuels people depend on are the food that sustains the dragons. Owen, a dragon-slayer-in-training, and his family of dragon slayers move to Siobhan’s small town and life changes for everyone. Siobhan is musically talented but not very outgoing. When Owen’s family asks her to become his bard, she is thrown into a world about which she knows much less than she thought.

The world building in this debut novel was detailed but not intrusive; you don’t have to keep track of intricate worlds and maps and politics to follow the story. But it is the relationships that make this story. Siobhan and Owen become friends; there is no deep romance here. Family relationships are strong realistic. Even the secondary characters are well-drawn. Owen, Siobhan, their parents and friends all have to decide what they are willing to sacrifice to keep their land free and safe; their actions and decisions make for powerful reading. Readers who love the Brotherband Chronicles and the newer United States of Asgard series will enjoy this book.