Richard Abbott

Today I am delighted to welcome Antoine Vanner to the blog, who has kindly answered a number of interview questions. This is a follow-on to my review of Britannia’s Shark (http://richardabbott.authorsxpress.com/2015/02/05/review-britannias-shark-by-antoine-vanner/)  a few days ago Antoine is the author of (to date) three novels on the life and exploits of a Royal Navy captain of the late 19th century, Nicholas Dawlish.     I have reviewed each of these at   Britannia’s Wolf (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/644942489) Britannia’s Reach (http://richardabbott.authorsxpress.com/2014/03/05/review-britannias-reach/) Britannia’s Shark (http://richardabbott.authorsxpress.com/2015/02/05/review-britannias-shark-by-antoine-vanner/) Q. You write about an unusual period in naval fiction – the late 19th century. What first sparked your interest in this era?   A. There are two parts to the answer, the first related to the period and the second to the naval aspects.   I’m fascinated by the political, social and economic progress made by the Western World in the second half of the 19th century and I’m equally intrigued by the gigantic steps taken by science and technology at the same time. Like most Baby Boomers I    A parallel revolution occurred in naval technology and it was to have profound political and historic implications not fully recognised at the time. In the 1850s, for example, senior commanders had served in sailing warships in the Napoleonic Wars. Yet officers who entered the service in that decade – such as the later Admiral Lord Fisher – were to create the navy that fought World War 1. They had the vision during their careers to harness developments in metallurgy, hydrodynamics,...

This week sees the release of  in Kindle and softcover versions – preorder is available now and delivery will be shortly after. I have already posted various snippets from the story, so today I thought I would bring these together into the four strands which make up the whole. Refugees from Ikaret – Anilat and her husband Tadugari, their three children, and two members of their household remain in a group together after the defeat and sack of their home city of Ikaret (Ugarit). Anilat’s nephew and niece, Yasib and Dantiy, leave with them but soon separate to pursue a different route. Newcomers in the land – Nikleos and Kastiandra and their two children are Sherden migrants, working their way south through the land. Their clan is distantly related to the Sea Peoples’ groups which sacked Ikaret, but they themselves took no part in the attack. The Egyptian occupying force – Hekanefer is a military scribe, attached to an army contingent based in Gedjet (Gaza), and subsequently dispatched north to defend against the incursion. Inhabitants of the land – Labayu is a native of the town of Kephrath, currently living in a town near the Sea of Kinreth (Galilee) to help protect the people and their homes. These four groups start with very little reason to know of or feel empathy for one another. The changing situation throws these groups into contact with each other several times as they all head south to the city of Shalem (Jerusalem). There, the city...

For the full review please see my blog article at http://richardabbott.authorsxpress.com/2013/08/20/review-across-the-waters-of-time-pliny-remembered/ - these are short extracts taken from the full article highlighting the main points. I came away from Ken Parejko’s Across the Waters of Time: Pliny Remembered with very mixed feelings. On the plus side – and these are very large plus features – this is a beautifully conceived book, with a powerful and compelling imaginative sweep and some marvellously lyrical passages of writing. The presentation of Pliny’s interior thought-world, and its evolution through his lifetime, is splendid, and the historical events Ken chooses to illuminate this come over as pivotal to Pliny, and in some cases centrally important to the entire first century AD. It is a book which can be highly recommended in these grounds alone. ... [snip] ... Sadly, though, the book has been finished very carelessly. There are a great many spelling and grammar errors, accidental use of similar words (swapping her for here, and such like), and problems of formatting. There is even an email address at one point in my version, presumably dumped in by an auto-correction feature of the software Ken used. I can easily live with a few of these kinds of slips, but there were so many that they became a serious impediment. ... [snip] ... For depth and sweep of ideas, and for the way in which Ken has captured the inner world of a great and influential thinker, Across the Waters of Time deserves five stars. But the faults of execution, and the sad neglect of what...