Jonathan N. Pruitt is a lifelong educator, a former scientific researcher, and a provocative fantasy author. Rising from humble beginnings in a rural, economically disadvantaged county in Florida, he skyrocketed to academic success, earning a PhD at the youthful age of 24. Pruitt’s journey took him from the concert halls as a child prodigy pianist to the globally recognized halls of esteemed universities including the University of Pittsburgh, Princeton University, and the University of California, Santa Barbara. His life experiences—from living in diverse corners of the world like South Africa, Namibia, Australia, and Canada, to navigating the wild landscape of his career—richly inform his narratives. Pruitt’s storytelling defies reality yet resonates with emotional truth. He makes readers question the differences between good and evil and the murky area between the two. With his debut novel “The Amber Menhir,” Pruitt delivers biting humor, deep human insights, and a unique scientist’s perspective. Readers visit a modern-day, grimdark fairy tale where reality bends and twists. Jonathan N. Pruitt’s metamorphosis from a prodigious scientific mind into a fantasy author is a testament to reinvention. Avoiding the usual expectations of fantasy by way of satire, humor, and a race of nefarious evil cats, it is the first in Jonathan Pruitt’s The Shadows of the Monolith series and arrives this October from Spinner Loom Press. It is available now for pre-order on Amazon. (Black Château, 2023)

“The Amber Menhir” – With each new dawn, the celestial body known only as ‘Calamity’ draws closer – and with it the end of the world. Humanity’s only hope from oblivion rests in the menhirs, towering bastions of scholarship and imagination which cast long shadows across the lands. The scholars within the menhirs devote themselves selflessly to the discovery of new magic that will help avert the impending apocalypse … or so the masses have been made to understand.

In a society divided between those with occult potential and lay citizens, Tara Langcraw is recruited into the Amber Menhir with great interest. The long-awaited heiress of a bloodline bearing the rarest of the six magical disciplines, time manipulation, she is expected to flourish within this noble citadel of learning, as are her friends and fellow recruits, Roland Ward and Peony Bianchi. They soon find, however, that those who fail to meet expectations, or who dare to challenge the prevailing order, put more than their marks on the line. For the menhir squirms with rivalries, and those who stand against the status quo may not stand for very long.

Having earned the title of the world’s most infamous spider biologist, Pruitt has penned a grimdark fantasy lampooning the academic and scientific communities, while also offering an immersive, diverse, and fast-paced story. What exactly is a Menhir? “Found across the globe, Menhirs are mysterious, ancient, imposing monoliths that prove evidence of a civilization’s existence. They’re often the subject of superstition, just like the magical institutions that make up this world. Whether they stand as pinnacles of grandeur and discovery, or blemishes of political pestilence will be up to the reader,” explains Pruitt.