In the only surviving part of the earth sits the post-apocalyptic West-African kingdom of Nayja. In the only place where humans still exist lives four tribes, the Kingfishers, the Ammirians, the Rowans and the Arnazuris but one tribe is dominant and must remain so.Seventeen-year-old Genesis Romunda is one of the elite hunters of Black Forest, the Arnazuri community where there is no electricity … electricity except for solar-powered lamps sent from the capital, King’s Forest.
Genesis the only hunter not joining the rebellion that is stirring thanks to the rebel Hawks, is distraught that her father believes in the rebellion. Why join a stupid rebellion when you know you have no chance? Why believe in prophetic songs of Griots when you know they are merely fairy tales?
When she is chosen by the Central Royal Council as one of the first females to ever attend Promenade, the elite university at the capital, everything changes as her world is turned upside down.
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This is book one of the Forestborn series and follows the main character Genesis Romunda, a member of the Arnazuris tribe, known as hunters. There are only four tribes left in existence, in the only part of the world to survive after an apocalyptic event, the West-African kingdom=m of Nayja. The four tribes are the Kingfishers, the Ammirians, the Rowans and the Arnazuris. One tribe is dominant, using an ancient scroll with the laws written on it, which show the Kingfishers can rule the kingdom for sixty years at a time, another two ten years and lower, and then the Arnazuris tribe cannot ever rule and have never had a king or queen, according to the history of the kingdom, as everyone alive now has been taught. Genesis is an elite hunter and soon finds herself the only hunter, as all the others join a rebellion group against the royalty, calling themselves Hawks.
Their tribe has a huge quota of animals still to be hunted down, at least twenty antelope and only a day to do so, all for the folks in the capital King’s Forest, with the tribe themselves only getting the scraps of all they hunt. After finding out the quota still to be hunted, when dropping off her first antelope, she runs home for more supplies, but gets stopped by her father. He tells her that the community leaders have placed a strike order stopping anymore hunting. Her father agrees with the Hawks and wants to join them as well. Genesis lives with her parents and her eleven year old brother Prince and is only seventeen, so normally would not go against her father’s orders. But she thinks that the Hawks are placing people in danger and that the King will punish them for rebelling. If the capital don’t get their supply quota, then the whole tribe will suffer. She rushes out to continue hunting, but after killing a few animals, feels like someone is watching or following her.
It turns out to be Remington, a good friend and former elite hunter, until he joined the Hawks and refused to hunt anymore. She gets in a fist fight with him when she refuses to listen to him or stop hunting and his superior strength allows him to get her tied up and knocked out. When she wakes up, she finds herself surrounded by Royal Guards and about to be attacked, until one of the officers tells them to stop. Since she is tied up, it is obvious she is not one of the rebellion! They take her back to her home, but she gets to see the horrific sight of dead bodies, innocent villagers and members of the Hawk rebellion, all laid out around the village. She can’t see the body of her best friend Remington, but believes he is dead since he was with her, and his sister has been killed for being disrespectful. She recognizes quite a few of the dead and is completely shocked. She gets a visitor with a message the next day, stating she has been chosen as one of the first females to be allowed to attend Promenade, a special training programme and university normally for the elite. At first she is thrilled and overwhelmed, but soon finds her and the two other girls on the programme are ignored in the male oriented Kingfisher capital.
A simple time keeping error, leads to her breaking what seems like a simple rule of the capital, but leads to her being taken prisoner and being sentenced to death! All according to the ancient scroll and the king’s rule. The present king Henry has recently taken over from his father, with rumours of him having poisoned his father to be able to take over before the last of their tribes sixty year reign, so he can change the laws and ensure their tribe is the only one that can rule in the future. Only a message from the king’s younger brother Jason Fisher, saying he will help her, is of any hope for her future. The prison guards want favours for food or water and she has only a week until her execution will take place. The life pf extreme privileges being enjoyed by those in the capital and the male only orientated hierarchy ruling the kingdom, is a complete change to the basics she is used to in her community, where they don’t even have electricity.
Genesis will soon find herself an ally in her wish to get out of jail, but this will lead to lots of secret meetings where she will be shown the reality of her Arnazuris ancestry and the truths that the current ruling tribe have tried to keep hidden for centuries. She will find herself back on the run and this time realising that the stories the elders of the tribe would tell are true and that the prophecy of a future king from their tribe is coming soon, which could be a threat to the royal family. Lots of action and shocking discoveries of the differences between her tribe and the others, especially those living and working in the capital and the King himself. The messages the Hawks were telling people had more truth in them than Genesis ever realised and the treatment of their tribe by all the ruling tribes has been shocking. The king will do everything he can to continue to be the ruler of the whole kingdom. Killing innocent children because of a fear of an ancient prophecy, is just one of the steps he is willing to take for ultimate power! Genesis will have a key role to play in passing on the knowledge she was shown by Jason. I can’t wait to see what happens in the next book Storms of the Forest, whether her tribe and the rebels will survive and if lost ones will be reunited with or not. War could be coming if they can’t a peaceful resolution or the prophecy is coming true. I received an ARC copy of the book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.