Book Review: Prophecy Trilogy: Portal by Liz Bullard

I read Bullard’s Prophecy Trilogy: Portal recently and am better off for having done so. It was the first novel I’ve read on Kindle Vella – more about that later. Let’s talk Tabatha.

Almost as soon as you read her name, you learn that she’s the Chosen One. Eli was sent to find her and fetch her, and he did. She’s not quite sure she believes it but is eventually convinced to give it a shot.

Portal plops you down in the middle of Tabatha’s story. She’s already gone with Eli through the portal to his planet to help save that universe from catastrophe. She realizes that she has a lot of things to learn, such as why she’s the Chosen One, and what she can bring to the fight. As far as she knows, she’s just a normal person with normal problems, and no particular ability to save her own world, much less someone else’s. So far this is Hero’s Journey 101 – Bullard even refers to the Hero’s Journey aspect on the cover of the Vella addition. Now comes the twist.

What Eli neglected to mention, or, perhaps didn’t anticipate, was the changes that would happen while he was away looking for the Chosen One. It’s been a minute, and life at home has changed.

Talia, Eli’s butt-kicking wife, is not happy with the length of his absence. It turns out to be somewhat more lengthy than the average trip to Hero-Mart – years longer. That introduces an interesting conflict dynamic that Bullard plays well. There’s just the right blend of support and disbelief at play. 

Tabatha is a believable reluctant, and somewhat confused, Hero who grapples nicely with the “well, it seemed like a reasonable idea on Earth” conundrum. I had lots of questions that made me want answers and more of Bullard’s writing.

I don’t normally talk about covers, but like this one and found it intriguing. A lot is promised and delivered through this cover.

This is fantasy, not sci-fi, so there’s no Feral rating for the science. The story comes in at a very nice 8. Magical realism and elemental magic. Check it out.

Here’s where it gets more intriguing. Kindle Vella. Bullard serialized this via Vella. Now, she’s declared it complete and is free to rewrite/revise/republish. She has done so, and now I find that I’m looking forward to reading the completed trilogy in a more traditional format. I’ve already pre-ordered the first book: New Moon. It’s available on Amazon here. Bullard is also the host of eReads Podcast. She’s had some outstanding guests. Check it out via her website. My favorite episode, Writing with Inspiration is here.

I was torn by my Kindle Vella experience. It serializes a story, breaking it up into quickly digestible chunks. I read it all on my browser – that was my problem. I was in the midst of my trip to Kwaj and spent long periods of time without internet. Since Vella did not allow me to download the content, once the airline called last chance for boarding, I was stuck. (Okay, I know that I could have paid for internet on the plane, but I was tired and I am cheap.)

I’ll be interested in seeing how Bullard changed the tale between versions. Keenly so, as Vella is how I plan to release Book 3 of the Spark Chronicles. 

One of the things I really enjoyed was the ability to give Bullard feedback between segments. That’s valuable to an author. She also had polls attached to some of the segments. Sadly, by the time I read the Vella version, those polls had closed. That would be another good tool for authors.

At the moment, Vella is inhabited almost exclusively by “romance” (lots of erotica), sci fi, and fantasy. The medium has promise, so I’m sure that will change. As an experimental control, I started one of the top rated series. Oh, my. Now I know what a reverse harem is, and that “romance” fiction is not really what I imagined it to be.

Bunny Girl Senpai is not currently on Vella. Anime remains a very visual genre, but I see no reason Vella couldn’t serialize it as well.