Looming Thunderheads is a 165,000-word Fantasy novel.
The story was originally intended to be the first volume of The Redemption Saga, and it explores the particular means by which several characters, separately and differently, find redemption.
Although I have decided to restructure the Redemption series, I plan to slice pieces out of Looming Thunderheads and use them in the newly imagined series. I still love so many parts of this book, and I will work hard to keep as much of it as I can.
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Looming Thunderheads comprises the stories of seven people set against a backdrop of deep mythology and history and a world-wide conflict. Two protagonists, Quorin and Ensor, are each paired with an antagonist, Ivnar and Pah-Tukh respectively. Two other characters, Dindriad and Mellian, serve as additional facets on both the exploration of Redemption and upon the arc of events within the story. The final character, Li'Arin, intersects the narrative, and his story serves as commentary on all the others: his is the broader view, the examination of purpose and theme carried out through his exploration of myth and legend. Nonetheless, as each point of view character has their own narrative arc and redemption, all of the stories together feed into one another so that while each seems a separate story, they all rely on one another, as each character impacts all the others in ways they may never know, and the final dramatic resolution coincides. Knowing some of the inherent problems with a multiple-viewpoint narrative, I tried to construct the unfolding of each character’s story so that they inform and reflect on one another, in both theme and story.
Looming Thunderheads stands on its own as a single novel, but at the same time sets the foundation for The Redemption Saga. It is a study of redemption and the search for meaning and purpose in life. Interweaving stories explore religion and cultural identity, good and evil, myth and history, devotion and bigotry, and it takes place in a world with a broad cultural and physical landscape.
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I completed the first draft of what was at the time titled Gathering Thunderheads in July 2008, but I was dissatisfied with the structure of the story. Beginning in January 2009, I rewrote it (as Looming Thunderheads) to fit a more cohesive structure and completed that major revision in October, 2009. In January 2013 I went over the manuscript to adjust a few chapters and narrative details that I was dissatisfied with before at last deciding that I would restructure the entire series.