Drakenfeld has been getting about a bit recently. A few meaty reviews have come in, which is great to see. The first is by Andrew Liptak over at the mighty io9.com:
Drakenfeld is a contagiously optimistic novel, from its politics to its characters. Newton’s ancient-styled world also belies the real nature of his novel: this is a cutting-edge political thriller that for the most part, wouldn’t be out of place in a major city like London or New York or modern day Rome.
The second is from Ana over at the Book Smugglers:
But the thing is: [Drakenfeld’s] choices? Are choices that also come from privilege – they are choices that he can do because he has never really suffered it directly. So, it is easy for him to make them. One great moment in the book is how he questions Leana for how she easily she seems to fight and kill: she directly calls him on that because she didn’t have that choice when her entire village and everyone she ever knew were destroyed in a violent attack.
The third is by Patrick Doherty over at Fantasy Literature:
Not every story has to have its own completely unique and original world. Sometimes taking inspiration from a past era works out better than creating a new world, and Mark Charan Newton proves that he can do both
Which is a pretty good week’s work as far as I’m concerned.
2 replies on “Reviews at io9 & the Book Smugglers”
I went hunting for you book after seeing the review at Book Smugglers. But Amazon doesn’t seem to have a Kindle edition. Will that be changing? (Kind of a deal killer as I don’t do paper any more.) Thanks.
Sadly, while the US rights are still being considered, there won’t be any digital versions available. Should there be no takers, then that might be looked at again, but that’s just the way of things in the digital age I’m afraid. (Paper books don’t have that problem, of course, as they can still be purchased overseas.)