I Am A Harvester Of Light by Sarah Tsomides

I was born into a society, a village close to the forest; a conservative one indeed, the death of my parents when I was young left me with questions about the traditions and beliefs fostered by the Forest Council.

Light and darkness represents two different things for the inhabitants of the village where I live; light is represented by good and darkness as evil. The definition does not sound as easy as you would think. There seems to be more to the evil and good side!

My parents were swallowed by darkness and neither did I know that more tragedy was on its way. A tragedy which I could or maybe would handle. If you are reading this; then be afraid of the dark henceforth and as for the light hold on to it wisely but with logical reasoning.

We have the harvesters of light and the shadowers all wrestling for survival, identity in a society fostered by class, gullibility, oral tradition, secrecy, and thirst for power. But one thing remains for certain- I am a harvester of light

This story was so imaginative and fun for me to read. I picked it up not sure what to expect as it wasn't especially to long, more like a novella. But from the beginning to the end the plot unravels at a perfect pace and by the end I was just wanting to learn more about the characters, their lives and this world. It was way to short in my opinion and something that I will definitely read again.

The main character is not introduced to the reader until a couple of chapters in. We are learning about the world and what happened to the parents and that they live with the grandmother, but not until quite a ways in do we even get introduced that indeed Lumiere is the name of the boy telling the story. In a way I found it frustrating and was wondering if I would ever be told. And I have never experienced that kind of confusion before, and I liked having something new presented to me in such a way.

Lumiere is a harvester of light. He gets sent out on errands to bring back light to the village as they have to have to live in constant light because in the dark are were the Shadowers live. If the village were ever to fall into darkness they would all disappear and/or be killed by the mysterious Shadowers.

There is also a continuing storyline of continuation of life. If a Shadower dies, then the next baby born is believed to be born to take it's place. The same is for the harvester's as well.

I was very impressed by the determination and intelligence of Lumiere. 14 or 15 years of age he really does drive the story forward with his experiences of harvesting light and the adventures and discoveries that he finds during his work day. It is one particular day that starts a chain of events that just may change the world as he knows it.

I can see so much potential in this story to be stretched out into a series of books. I loved the idea behind the world building and the ideas of dark vs evil and what may lie beyond the forest. A opening to imagine the inside lives of several of the characters that barely get touched on. The sister, the parents, grandmother and council members. All have an appeal to them that if fully developed and given past presents and futures in a more detailed and fully fleshed novel or series is one that I would love to read.