The First Knight Shaman

De: R. Roderick Rowe

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Magical Realism. Shamanism. Post-apocalyptic survival. Coming of age. Found Family. All of that and more in a short adventure in future Oregon after the great Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes have ravaged the west.

Meet Rodney, a seven year old boy who can see the spirits of the dead. Meet Justin, a mostly-absent father who still wishes the best for his son. Meet AJ, the bridge between them and commander of the militia forces sent to liberate the community of Sutherlin from their evil overlords.

There are three ages in the World of Paradigm Lost. The Founder's Age holds the Apocrypha of the Knight Shamans. The Age of Jamari holds the books of the life and times of Jamari Shaman. The Age of the Church of Jamari holds the tales of the formation of a church based on the miracles of Jamari.

From the San Francisco Book Review: 4 out-of-Five Stars

The First Knight Shaman is the first book in R. Rodrick Rowe’s Apocrypha of the Knights Shamans. Rowe’s novella is a post-apocalyptic LGBTQ fantasy set in the forested slopes of western Oregon. The catalysts to Rowe’s apocalypse are unique to the genre but are very real. Using both geography and the current political climate, Rowe is able to develop a realistic setting. The social and civil unrest caused by the Orange One’s presidency and the Great Quakes of 2040 brought about unrest and war between neighboring villages and tribes. And after January 20th, 2025, Rowe looks like the shamans he writes about. As post-apocalyptic tales go, Rowe’s scenario is realistic with a plot that hints at the fantastical. Using real places that exist in today’s maps adds to the realism.

Rowe has blended the dystopian ideas of Octavia Butler, the world-building of Terry Brooks, and the coming-of-age writings of David S. Slayton into a fantastical story all his own. Join Rodney Knight as he becomes The First Knight Shaman.

During Jamari's time (2115 CE), the Knight Shamans were the glue that held the Elk Creek Tribe together.

In Justice's time a thousand years later, the Knight Shamans were a forbidden myth from the far distant past. More fable than reality.

In the beginning (2052 CE), the Knight Shaman was Mystic, prophet, and wise man who could heal with a touch.

Before the beginning there was the boy becoming a man becoming a legend.

In the Pacific Northwest of 2042 CE, those who survived the great quakes of 2040 war with each other for survival.

When the nearby towns of Yoncalla and Drain attack the Elk Creek Tribe at their Milltown Hill Village stronghold, the unacknowledged son of Founder Justin Earl Knight discovers an unwanted ability to interact with the spirits of the recently departed.

Rodney learns of his shamanistic talent when a treasured mentor dies in the opening days of the Elk Creek War and the departing spirit of that young man comes to visit him. Then, ten years later, when he is seventeen, other neighboring villages attack and he must put his skill to work for his tribe during the Second Elk Creek War.

The budding community had only just begun to form their culture when the cataclysm happened. Then the near constant warfare stressed that culture beyond tolerance. What will the Elk Creek Tribe look like when the troubles finally settle ... if they ever do subside.

Rodney suffers through his earliest years of angst and rebellion as he enters into young adulthood still bitter over his father's many rejections. Even so, his tribe needs the intervention of their only shaman in the Other Worlds for their very survival.