The Kingdom of Valernia was a pleasant and prosperous land, but then the Star fell. It had blazed through the sky like an angry god, and things began to change after that. People fell ill. Animals were born deformed. The doomsayers were proclaiming the coming of Eidentijd-the final conflict of the gods in which the world would collapse back into its primordial chaos. Prince Jarvis was not ready for the end of the world. He only wanted to see things put to rights. An honor-bound man, he only wanted to do his duty and help his land through these days of turmoil. But duties were hard to discern in these troubled times, and following them would lead him down paths he could have never imagined.
His nephew, Ivor, the prince regent, knew little of the demands of duty. He saw the power unleashed by the star as the seed from which he could grow an empire the likes of which the world had not seen for centuries, and he would do whatever he had to in order to obtain it.
Ivor's daughter, the Princess Alana, had her own peculiar ideas about power, but they had little to do with the Fallen Star. Her vision would pull the country in a very different direction, but it could also end up pulling it apart.
And then there were those who connected the Star to an obscure goddess: Rani. She was known as the one who punishes mortals by giving them what they want, and her gifts always carried a double edge.
Set against a background of love, relationship, and honor, the story of Starfall begins with The Best of Dark and Bright, a tale of the tension between duty and freedom, between emotions and will, and between the opportunities that power gives and its ever-present temptations. The story continues in At One Stride Comes the Dark and concludes with Through the Mists of Fear.
About the Author: Timothy Crutcher is Professor of Church History and Theology at Southern Nazarene University in Bethany, Oklahoma. He grew up moving around the country (the son of a doctor with wanderlust) and also lived internationally in Belgium and Kenya. He is married to Dr. Rhonda Crutcher and has three beautiful and amazing children: Andrew, Alex, and Elizabeth. He lives just outside of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. When he's not working on academic articles or books, he tries to find time to pursue his fiction hobby and has recently released his first novel.
