Presenting Author - Mark Frost

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

Name of the author: Mark Frost
Main genre: fantasy, science fiction, adventure, fiction
Main audience: young adult on
Main books: The Paladin Prophecy (3 books), Twin Peaks (2 books), The List of Seven (2 books)
Short summary of the author: I encountered the books of Mark Frost, specifically The Paladin Prophecy books, when I was looking for something to read along the line of Hunger Games -- not exactly dystopia but it is in a way? Anyway, The Paladin Prophecy came up on a search and I checked it out from the library. Wow. I don't know anything about Mark Frost, himself, except through this one series of books. Goodreads, oddly enough, doesn't have a write-up on him?

On the back of The Paladin Prophecy (which I ended up buying) is

Mark Frost studied directing and playwriting at Carnegie Mellon University. He partnered with David Lynch to create and executive-produce the groundbreaking television series Twin Peaks. Frost cowrote the screenplays for the films Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. He is also the New York Times bestselling author of eight previous books, including The List of Seven, The Second Objective, The Greatest Game Ever Played and The Match.

My library has this for a write-up on Mark Frost:

Mark Frost is a novelist, television/film writer, director, and producer. Frost is the son of actor Warren Frost, brother of writer Scott Frost and actress Lindsay Frost. He studied acting, directing, and playwriting at Carnegie Mellon. <p> Frost worked on the TV shows Hill Street Blues (as a writer), Twin Peaks (as a co-creator, writer, and co-executive producer with David Lynch) and On the Air (as a co-creator, writer, and co-executive producer with David Lynch). He received an Emmy nomination in 1984 for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for Hill Street Blues. He received 2 Emmy nominations in 1990 for Twin Peaks. <p> Mark Frost published his first novel, The List of Seven, in 1993. His other published works include The Six Messiahs (1996), Before I Wake (1997 under the pseudonym Eric Bowman), The Greatest Game Ever Played (2002), The Match (2007) and The Palladin Prophecy Series. He provided the story for Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer that was released in 2007. Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier was published in 2017.

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

Title of the book: The Paladin Prophecy
Author: Mark Frost
Series: The Paladin Prophecy
Genres: fiction, adventure, young adult, science fiction, magic, fantasy
Short summary of the story:

Welcome to the United States in this world as it is, and find out about some things of which you are not aware of as happening. Will is a high school student who is careful to be 'average' and whose parents move regularly with their jobs. He never has settled down in any one place -- and then one day, he ends up moving across the country and ending up in a school filled with people like himself. They are, in general, as un-average as himself, and he finds this to be both comfortable and challenging. He finds out more about himself, and his heritage, and about others who have similar talents and abilities but prefer to put them to aphotic (without light) purposes.

The story is tightly written and fast-paced. The only difficulty that I had with it is that there was obviously more that had to happen and the book ended RIGHT THERE. So I had to get the sequel, Alliance, to continue on with 'what happens next'.

Goodreads write-up:

Will West is careful to live life under the radar. At his parents' insistence, he's made sure to get mediocre grades and to stay in the middle of the pack on his cross-country team. Then Will slips up, accidentally scoring off the charts on a nationwide exam.
Now Will is being courted by an exclusive prep school . . . and is being followed by men driving black sedans. When Will suddenly loses his parents, he must flee to the school. There he begins to explore all that he's capable of--physical and mental feats that should be impossible--and learns that his abilities are connected to a struggle between titanic forces that has lasted for millennia.
Co-creator of the groundbreaking television series Twin Peaks, Mark Frost brings his unique vision to this sophisticated adventure, which combines mystery, heart-pounding action, and the supernatural.

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

Title of the book: Alliance
Author: Mark Frost
Series: The Paladin Prophecy (Book 2 of 3)
Genres: fiction, adventure, young adult, science fiction, magic, fantasy
Short summary of the story:We find out more about the people who are known as the Knights of Charlemagne and more mysteries crop up. This, to me, was an interim book, and with a lot of information about the people in it, and background information but not so much advance on plot. The abilities of our heroes and heroines develop to an even greater degree, as well as showing signs of the decisions and choices they have made.The cover of the book has 'Find Your Power. Choose Your Side.' and that is what a lot of the book covers. We do, however, find signs of a previously unknown civilization (although I wonder how 'civil' they were) and other things which simply add to the informations with which the book is crammed.

Goodreads has this to say about Alliance:

Readers of I Am Number Four, The Maze Runner, and Legend will love this sophisticated adventure series by the cocreator of the groundbreaking television show Twin Peaks, with its unique combination of mystery, heart-pounding action, and the supernatural.

After exposing the sinister underground society of students known as the Knights of Charlemagne, Will West stays at the Center over the summer to explore his newly developing physical and mental abilities. Meanwhile, his roommates investigate the Knights' shadowy purpose and discover unsettling information about their own backgrounds. Will and his friends must quickly figure out what's going on and separate friend from foe as they prepare for the coming fight.

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

Title of the book: Rogue
Author: Mark Frost
Series: The Paladin Prophecy (Book 3 of 3)
Genres: fiction, adventure, young adult, science fiction, magic, fantasy
Short summary of the story:So now a lot of the bits and pieces of the mysteries and conundrums posed in Alliance come to the fore and are explained and/or resolved. Yes! On the back cover of my copy is "You Don't Always Have to Play by the Rules". This is a very good indication of the storyline -- albeit they didn't say, on that back cover, that the rules are made by a bunch of insane, power-hungry and aphotic kinds of creatures (called the Makers) who have somehow managed (through appliance of temptations of money, grandeur, eternal life, psychic powers, etc etc) to turn some of the two-leggers into their minions (some of whom are called The Knights of Charlemagne, or just 'Knights' for short). The two-leggers, of course, don't think they are controlled by the 'creatures', but that they are in control. But in the meantime, our small squad of people who are wanting to rescue the dead guy (yes, I said dead guy - that's Dave - don't worry if you read the book you'll understand) manage to get themselves into trouble but, because of their own developing abilities, are able to rescue the dead guy and get out (mostly) alive. A lot of the action happens a 'place' of time/no time - the Never-Was; one could say present and past but it is a bit more like between time and no-time (but which ends up being in the past even though it was only supposed to be a couple of seconds according to one of the 'minions' ). There are still things to resolve, and I wish there would be another book or set of books to continue the story, but ... well done.

Goodreads says this about Rogue:

The third and final instalment of the epic Paladin series by Mark Frost, the screenwriter of Fantastic Four and co-creator of Twin Peaks.

Will West is playing a dangerous game. Months after uncovering the sinister Paladin Prophecy plot, he continues to work with the mastermind behind the project – none other than his own grandfather, Franklin Greenwood. Will cooperates in order to keep his friends safe. But are they really secure in the hands of a madman?

Thrilling mystery and electrifying suspense abound in Mark Frost’s action-packed Paladin Prophecy series, which is compelling to the very last page.

[Shiloh Adlar]

Tarma had been trying to get me to read The Paladin Prophecy for a while, and I finally did. It does move very quickly and at certain times I got lost but was able to still understand the story without issue.

I love good conspiracy theories and this one has one going in it along with a mystery of Will and his parents and exactly why they had to be so careful. The technology talked about in this book is near but has me terrified of it becoming real.

I need to know more about what Will discovered at the end of this book and of course about the Alliance. There is still so much more to unfold in this story and I'm also curious about Dave and what he tells Will about being an Initiate. He's different from his friends even if it's true that they were all born through IVF. Can't wait to read the next book.