Hordes of books pile ever higher in The Amazon Kindle Store: thousands of new ones per day. Who has the time to check them all out? No one… And who defines ‘quality’ anymore…?

At The Founding Fields and Publishing Push we’re always on the lookout for hidden gems amongst those piles of books: quality-writing by little known authors unlikely to be noticed unless people like us draw your attention to them. But how to find them – that’s the challenge. That’s why a review by accomplished writer Stephan Myers caught our eye recently. He was writing about Robin Chambers’ book A Wizard of Dreams (Book 1 in the Myrddin’s Heir series):

“Chambers has a unique style of writing that sets his work apart… With well-defined characters, Chambers demonstrates a meticulous eye for detail that makes them instantly identifiable… each captured with a distinctive tenor that adds greatly to the thematic undertones of his tale. A tale that not only entertains, but encourages thought and timely reflection… Original and highly engrossing, A Wizard Of Dreams is a wonderful read throughout and sets the tone for a series that undoubtedly deserves your attention.”

That got our attention. So we looked at other reviews of this book by writers – really good writers like Lesley Hayes, acclaimed author of A Field Beyond Time and The Drowned Phoenician Sailor:

“Not since reading C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books have I so much enjoyed a novel written for children of all ages, especially those who have managed to preserve the infinitely curious magical child in their heart. In his Myrddin’s Heir series Robin Chambers masterfully brings magic right up to date, while exciting the imagination about its long reach of influence in the past.”

Colm Herron, supremely talented author of The Wake wrote: “Gripping, funny and sad – all these and more – A Wizard of Dreams has to suit any age group, but especially children looking for magic. As intriguing a book as anything I’ve ever read, with wonderful characters like Zack and Gordon … I have no doubt that these will one day soon be household names.”

And so it went on: comparisons with Tolkien, Rowling, Dahl, Blyton, Carroll… High praise indeed, and by now our marketing juices were flowing. We checked out Robin Chambers’ website, and found it to be one of the best we’ve ever seen. It has the inside story on many of the characters, challenging activities for children, a Readers’ Wall for his readers’ own writing, an ingenious free booklet entitled Ideas for at least a Billion Stories...

There is also an intriguing video by Chambers himself inviting his readers to contribute their ideas to what is evidently a very long story indeed: longer than The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings, longer even than Harry Potter and… When he gets round to producing audio versions of these books, he should definitely read them himself!

We discovered he writes “for bright children from 10 – 110 years old.” That isn’t everybody; but there’s a bright child in very many of us – a child with a lifelong love of learning, a willingness to respect difference and a desire to help preserve the planet for all species (not just us).

So now we’re getting the word out about this extraordinary series – Myrddin’s Heir by Robin Chambers – and offering copies of Book 1: A Wizard of Dreams for review. We’re convinced that this really is one of those rare gems nestling unnoticed in The Kindle Store at 99c or 99p.