Promo text
A primitive world. An ancient starship. A deadly countdown.
When a mysterious object appears in the night sky, Ernst-a restless teen from a primitive tribe—volunteers to seek counsel from the wizards across the sea. With his fiery friend Enna, he embarks on a journey that will unravel everything he thought he knew about his world and himself. As an unswerving starship hurtles toward the planet, forces he doesn’t know how to control awaken inside him.
Divine Children blends epic adventure, layered mystery, and a rich world of sci-fi wonder with a classic fantasy spirit. Readers will be swept away in this imaginative tale of destiny and discovery.
Tropes
Kiss me, I'm virtual Bradford has a dangerous crush on a computer.
Two sides of the same coin The hero and villain love the same divine being, but for vastly different reasons.
Abstinence despite the odds The male main character and the female main character are volatile, impulsive teenagers spending huge amounts of unsupervised time together (they’re nude half the time) and yet they don’t progress past kissing.
Biblical location allegory There are places resembling the Garden of Eden, Old Testament villages that are candidates for smiting, and Noah’s Ark.
Guilt complex The book opens with the main character witnessing a bloody fight. Then shortly after he kills a man in self-defense. And then he spends much of the rest of the book guilt-ridden, like violence is something never seen in his society.
Friends to lovers Ernst and Enna. Although for a while I was worried they were siblings and didn’t know it.
Kicking the dog Huxley Bradford. This guy even beats up people on his own side.
Chosen one Ernst.
Fated mates Ernst and Enna. It’s a good thing they like each other because…
Space pilgrims The Noah’s-ark like spaceship is full of people seeking a new life.
Superpower oops A bad guy attacks Ernst, and he has to use his poorly-controlled superpowers.
Reckless friend Enna. She’s always getting Ernst into trouble.
Sci-fi writers have no sense of scale Inverted. Most sci-fi stories make it easy to go from one part of the galaxy to another, but in this story world, it accurately takes thousands of years.
Deus ex machina This trope is present in a strangely literal sense here. The god they’re worshiping actually is a machine.