I have always loved Christian fiction books. Whether it is the fictional universe of The LORD of the Rings by Tolkien, The Circle Series by Ted Dekker, the Frank Peretti novels, or The Chronciles of Narnia by C.S Lewis, Christian fiction captures my heart. My first book was a work of Christian fiction. This novel, Chains of Gwyndorr, is book number one in a series titled The Poison Tree Path Chronicles. The author is a friend of mine from South Africa. I met her at an international writers’ conference, and we exchanged novels.
The book centres around a conflict between two classes of people- the Parashis and the Highborns. The Parashis, also called the lowborns, are a subservient group of people living in abject poverty adjacent to a wealthy and privileged group of people known as the highborns. The Parashis are slaves owing to their land being invaded and colonised by the highborns. The latter destroyed the heritage of the former by carrying out an extensive destruction of the native’s magic books, history records, and cultural artefacts. This was etched in their history as The Great Purge. The highborns justified this purge by claiming to be cleansing the land from the evil of the Parashi. The Great Purge manages to outlaw the use of Parashi magic rocks, the practice of alchemy, and the use of any Parashi traditions to advance life.
However, there are some remaining traces of the Parashi magic found in the Riftwine forest- a thick greenery that kills those who enter it. The Riftwine grows extensivel,y and both the Parashi and the highborns fear it. After hundreds of years, the highborns manage to rewrite history and justify enslaving the Parashis by dehumanising their faith, their history, and their practices. The Parashis cannot intermarry with the highborns. They only keep odd jobs and are kept from leaving circles of poverty. The Parashis are also banned from learning to read and write. But there is a silent growing resistance. One underground Parashi school is being run to emancipate the children by teaching them to read and write. Meanwhile, some Parashi slumdwellers are finding ways to sneak out of the land to join an alleged secret army of liberated Parashis that is growing in a secret magical domain.
At the centre of all of this is a highborn girl called Shara who falls in love with a Parashi called Nicho. Unbeknownst to Shara, her marriage has been planned already. She is pledged to be married, against her wishes, to a wicked young lord Maldor, whose father rules the town. Meanwhile, an experienced monk called Andreo is serving the religious order of highborns. Andreo is intrigued by the Parashi way of life. It leads him to discover the truths hidden by the highborns’ ancestors and the magic of the Parashis that is now termed as mythical. Andreo, Shara, and Nicho soon find themselves united by their rebellion to the establishment. Their courage to follow the truth leads to an awakening of the old Parashi magic and the full resistance of the highborns’ brutal wrath.
