It’s funny how inspiration struck for The Vision of the Quest. I had mentioned to my husband that I’d love to write a book similar to C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia. It was a deep desire of my heart, and through this process, I’ve come to realize just how powerful our words are. What we hope for, believe in faith, and speak aloud can manifest.
One night, my nine-year-old daughter Meghan woke up excited and full of energy. She exclaimed, ‘Mom, I had this awesome dream about a mother named Liana and her three kids—Alicia, Roger, and Emily! In the dream, Liana’s car broke down in front of a large mansion, where a bald-headed butler greeted them at the door. There was also an evil man named Sir Bronze Pierce, dressed all in black!
The amazing thing is, I never shared my heart’s desire with my daughter, but the Lord, who knows all things, gave my daughter Meghan the beginning of an adventurous story. That’s where it all began. From there, I give God all the credit, for I could not have completed The Vision of the Quest without Him.
Liana, a widowed mother of Alicia and Emily, is in a desperate situation. After her car breaks down on a desolate road, she feels lucky to have her daughter’s friend Roger with them. As they begin a trek to seek help, Liana has no idea that she, her daughters, and Roger are all about to embark on the adventure of their lives. After the group finally reaches the vast doors of a mansion in the middle of nowhere, they are greeted by an eerie butler, who leads them to Sir Bronze Pierce, the master of the mansion who soon captivates Liana with his charming personality. Roger and the rest of the group are slowly drawn, one-by-one, through a portal into a different time, where they are soon thrust into a battle with a wicked warlord whose ultimate goal is complete domination. It is up to Alicia, Roger, and Emily to bring back harmony and peace to these strange kingdoms. As the three young people seek the help of the king’s court — a loyal Griffin, a powerhouse rock man, and other valiant warriors– they must unite against the forces of a warlord intent on destroying anyone who stands in his way.
Praise:
“During the late hours of the night, Roger woke up abruptly. He thought he was dreaming; an evil presence drew him out of his bed and into the hallway. He walked through all kinds of twists and turns and stopped suddenly in front of a door needing a repainting…In the center was a narrow slide with a small opening. ‘Look and see! Look and see!’ the voices called him out and urged him on. Bit-by-bit, Roger looked into the slot…” So begins a suspenseful, page-turning, dark fantasy read in the spirit of work like Terry Brooks, Stephen King, Gary Dauberman, and even the author’s literary inspiration, C.S. Lewis, who shares the author’s faith.
What Kimberly Cole does not have in terms of out-and-out, one hundred percent originality, she more than makes up for in terms of overall ideological presentation, characterization, and rich, immersive worldbuilding. You really feel like you’re experiencing a fast-paced fever dream if you delve into the text. There really is this sense of total, emotive immersion in the stakes at play, likely coming from the decidedly personal origins of the work. Cole herself clearly has decided to make this her passion project. The choices feel as much informed by superb storytelling technique, as they do by Cole’s unique vision. Cole herself states the following: “(The Vision of the Quest) was a test for me to write. At times, I struggled to tell my story…pushing on always, faith pulled me through to my goal. This book is special to me because I was talking with my husband sharing how I would love to write a book like Narnia with three children…The next morning my daughter, Meghan, had awoken from her sleep. She came to me excited saying, ‘Mom, I had an awesome dream with three children and their mother stranded on a dark road. I came to a mansion and knocked on a door when a butler answered’. She said there was an evil man named Sir Bronze Pierce and then I had taken the story from there. I could not have completed this book first without God’s help and my husband’s support.”
Indeed, Sir Bronze Pierce is one of the juiciest dark fantasy villains to grace the pages of a work like this in some time. He has this kind of dramatic, old-fashioned menace that at once retains a good sense of fun, while not shying away from what the narrative needs to be. I’m a big fan of a good, scary villain to raise the stakes for our heroes and heroines, and Sir Bronze Pierce is no exception to this. Again, this kind of quality likely comes from the work being intensely personal for Cole. Core aspects of the narrative are inspired by Cole’s daughter’s dreams, which adds a poetic and innocent quality to even the darker aspects of the story, and necessarily menacing scenes. The Christian element is also intriguing. More often than not, popular genre work with Christian themes tends to lean into distinctly paranormal, if not paranormal horror stories. Seeing something appealing to a wide audience with Christian themes is compelling, and a bit different from the usual, pantheistic nature of fantasy. — Cyrus Rhodes
The Vision of the Quest is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Ewings Publishing LLC.
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