Promised Valley Rebellion, the first book in the Promised Valley series of four novels by Ron Fritsch, is a story of forbidden love. The farmers' king refuses to allow the marriage of the coming-of-age prince to the daughter of the farmer who saved the king's life in the last war with the hunters. Her brother decides he has to help his sister and the prince, his boyhood friend, correct the flagrant injustice.That decision leads them and their allies into a youthful rebellion against the king and his officials, who rule the kingdom from their bluff-top town. The far more numerous farmers in the villages below, who despise the officials but not the king, and who admire the prince, are in a position to determine whether the rebels will succeed or face execution for treason.Kirkus Indie Reviews: "The story is very likely as old as human civilization. It encourages the reader to ponder the universal elements of the tale. A strange, primitive world that feels winningly real."Feathered Quill Book Reviews: "Promised Valley Rebellion explores human differences in many forms-physical, psychological, and cultural-with keen insight and tasteful honesty. Fritsch develops his characters with sensitivity and depth, and their youthful optimism and enthusiasm ring so genuine that only the most cold-hearted reader could resist rooting for them. Shining through the simple but expressive prose is an underlying affection for the human condition: vulnerable, frequently confused, but always capable of great heroism and love. This is ambitious fiction, at once entertaining and bursting with thought-provoking allegory."The US Review of Books: "Fritsch's is a good tale that feels real, with a strong promise and a good twist at the end. A good book to read by the fire in wintertime, Fritsch presents us with a primitive society, in the manner of Jean Auel's books, but with much more compassionate characters."Reader Views: "You'll enjoy Promised Valley Rebellion if you like in-depth characters, a mystery that's not easily solved, and a subtle twist that could change everything."Promised Valley Rebellion was the winner of the gold medal in the Literary Fiction category of the 2010 eLit Awards competition, the first-place winner in the Gay and Lesbian and Transgender Fiction category of the 2011 National Indie Excellence Awards competition, and the winner of the silver medal in the Historical Fiction category, as well as a finalist in the General Fiction category, of the 2011 Readers Favorite Awards competition. Ron Fritsch has published a four-book series of Promised Valley novels: Promised Valley Rebellion, Promised Valley War, Promised Valley Conspiracy and Promised Valley Peace. The novels have won a number of awards and highly favorable reviews. The series is complete.In the epic Promised Valley adventure, 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.Both sides, though, value individuals who partner with persons of their own gender. Because they have no children to raise, they take leadership positions, especially in times of war.The four Promised Valley novels ask whether civilization and history, with their countless heaven-sanctioned wars and genocides, could've begun differently.The individuals who live, struggle, revel, die and survive in the novels confront fundamental questions:How factual are the stories their ancestors handed down to them?Despite those stories, are they and their enemies equal human beings who deserve to be treated as such?Are their gods-who appear to be the same deities for the farmers as well as the hunters, even as they exhort both of their supposedly favored peoples to kill the other-truly benevolent gods?Or do their gods, outside of those ancestral stories that might not be true, simply not e
