Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Spotlight Review - THE STEAM MAGNATE by Dana Copithorne

One of the guest reviewers over at The Fantasy and SciFi Lovin' Book Review posted a fabulous review that also let me know of what sounds like another excellent small press, Aio Publishing. The novel is THE STEAM MAGNATE by Dana Copithorne. I've not yet announced this book, so here is the blurb:

Departing from formulaic themes involving quests, magicians, and mythical animals, this fantasy novel follows a character with powers more ordinary than most uber-wizards. Having inherited the steam-power legacy and the mysterious ability to funnel the assets of others into his own coffers through the mere use of ink and paper, Eson is hated by some and feared by others. While recovering from a disastrous relationship with a woman of his own magical kind, he meets a young woman who isn’t who she claims to be, and Eson must now defend himself against challenges far too close to home. Set in a world that is a tempting concoction of fairy-tale charm and everyday existence, this work explores the inequities of social class and the realities living among the less fortunate.

Here's a little sample of S.M.D.'s raving review:

To put it simply, this work is stunning. Copithorne's prose is superb. It's fluid, powerful, and gripping. I found myself dragged right into the world and unable to escape. This is prose to look up to, in my opinion. This is also not your typical story. While it flirts with the lines of science fiction and fantasy, it isn't a story of adventure, but a story of characters. The focus is on Kyra, Eson, and Jado (a character I didn't mention in the summary), and how they are affected and influenced by everything that goes on. Taken into account that this is a highly literary work, The Steam Magnate never ceases to be beautiful in its creation.

Here is the rest of the review. I will research this book and put up an announcement in the next few days.

7 comments:

visionbird said...

Thanks, Tia! I also enjoyed s.m.d.'s review, as you can imagine.

cheers,

d.

visionbird said...

Here's my blog site:

http://danaworld.blogspot.com/

Tia Nevitt said...

You're welcome! Thanks for the blog address; it will help my research.

Anonymous said...

This sounds promising. I like that the story is different, and based on the brief passages on the blog it also sounds like Dana has done some interesting things with tense and POV, tricky stuff to do well, but I'm getting the feeling it may work here. I'm looking forward to hearing more about this one.

visionbird said...

Thanks Raven! Please look over my blog, which has some excerpts from the story, as well as links to my publisher's site, which has reviews and other info, and my art portfolio site.

Enjoy,
Dana

Unknown said...

Thanks for linking! It's a fabulous work. It's going on my shelf. I need to pass this along to a university professor at some point...this might change their narrow minds about SF&F :)

Carole McDonnell said...

ooh, i love a story that deals with class issues. -C