Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Don't be a Fool! Read RBWood's Prodigal's Foole

I was privileged a few months ago to beta read Prodigal’s Foole for RB Wood and offer humble and meager comments.  I am thrilled to now say, it was a joy to read the final version and remember how much I loved this book. This may very well be the shortest book review I have written or ever will write.

Prodigal’s Foole is a wonderful weave of plot and character, past and present, personal and real demons. Ten years ago, Symon Bryson was part of an experimental group of “gifted” students in a secret Catholic program based in Boston. They were to be part of the army of magic practitioners trained to defend this world from the denizens of the Shadow-world, commonly thought of as Hell. But something went horribly wrong on their first real mission. Symon rejects his calling and flees to Dublin and he hopes a normal life of anonymity. When their mentor is kidnapped by a demon, Symon and his fellow mages must reunite to save Monsignor Charles.  In doing so, old scores must be settled and wounds healed. Symon must face his own personal demons of doubt and fear to become the leader and powerful mage he is destined to be.

This summary does poor justice to the amazing world-building and complex character development that RB Wood has accomplished in Prodigal’s Foole. Symon Bryson is a snarky wounded soul and his friends, Father Peter, Bill, Aaron, Eden, Eve and Janice are no less complex.  Each supposedly secondary character is sufficiently developed that I want RB to write at least one novel with them as central characters.  The tertiary and extra characters are equally well drawn and I look forward to their return, as well.  And Symon just has to keep going until he and the rest of the crew saves the world from damnation.

Mechanically this is a premier book. It rivals and exceeds book I have seen published by big houses and big authors. As a writer, who knows that you don’t catch everything yourself, I want the name and email address of his editor. I look forward to the next book in what I believe will be a long running series.

Bravo, RB on a job well done. Prodigal’s Foole gets




In my humble opinion, you would be a foole to not buy and read this book and then anxiously await future volumes in this saga. To obtain your copy of this magnificent book visit RB Wood's website for links and details.