David Anthony Durham's Forum

David Anthony Durham's website and forum has been up and running for weeks! Where the heck have you been? Sign up now and find out 10 things to do with an Antok! Incidentally, it might be worth your while to check his latest blog post, relating to "colour blindness" in reading choices

Audio Clip of Acacia

Feast your ears on this, the first available audioclip of David Anthony Durham's "Acacia: The War with the Mein". Audiobooks need just the right voice actor to bring a story to life and each book needs a different style of reading. So choosing who will be reading a 25hr+ book is a huge decision to make. I'm quite impressed by Dick Hill's voice-- it has a hint of Patrick Stewart to it, and a tiny echo of Anthony Hopkins.

Not quite Mr T

As some of you may realise, my favourite "new" author is David Anthony Durham. For any of you who feel guilty about reading "fantasy" novels, Acacia is the first step you need to take to get over literary snobbery. The Dragon Page has a new podcast, involving Anne McCaffrey and David Anthony Durham. I encourage you to listen to the whole thing, but should you just want to hear what David Anthony Durham has to say for himself, skip to 43:50. Click Here to Listen. My thoughts. -I always read "Mein" as in "Chicken Chow-Mein". -I really expected David to have a more Barry White/Mr T voice. -Authors and readers have different ideas of what "spoilers" are.

New Release- Acacia

Just a quick reminder that David Anthony Durham's "Acacia: War with the Mein" is now in stores! PS: Bookie Monster has been mentioned on David Anthony Durham's blog!

"Acacia: The war with the Mein" by David Anthony Durham

David Anthony Durham's debut in Fantasy is absolutely spectacular. A writer of historical fiction, David has had ample time and practice to hone his craft. This is obvious from the first few opening chapters of "Acacia: The war with the Mein", from the bubbling tension to the perfect characterisation of even the supporting characters. In fact it takes a while to realise who the supporting characters are, as David has taken as much care developing them as the main "cast". By the middle of part one, this is cleared up. The star of act 1 is one of the secondary characters--Leodan, King of the Acacian empire. Although many other, less capable authors would not have bothered developing a character they intended to die early on in the story, David seems to have bucked the trend and done the opposite. Why is this so important? Because the reader cares more about what happens to a guilt-ridden, disillusioned widower and father of four than just "a King". In fact, Leodan is a pivotal character in the entire book, despite appearing relatively briefly. Were he not so well written, I wouldn't have cared what happened to his children. Were he not so believable and remorseful, I wouldn't have cared what happened to the "Known World". Secondary characters are just as important to the enjoyment of a book as Primary characters, whether they have a huge effect on the plot or not. One of the great things about "The war with the Mein" is definitely the characterisation. The protagonists and indeed antagonists do not stagnate (which is a good job, as the book leaps a 9 year gap between act 1 and 2), and being in totally different situations grow in different ways- no two characters are the same. Skirmishes are usually skimmed over, or taken down the the personal level, allowing for yet more characterisation and tension as violence is experienced on the personal rather than grand scale. Although I've made a huge issue of how well the characters are developed, Acacia has a lot happening in it, from full-scale invasion, through gigantic explosions to duels and weaselling. I was utterly blown away by The war with the Mein--and cannot wait for the next installment. This isn't so much a fantasy novel as a novel written utilizing the fantasy genre. It feels far more realistic than a great deal of other fantasy books out there, partly due to the characters' realistic actions and reactions, and partly due to the inclusion of non-caucasian people and tribes (which in a lesser writer's version of events may have turned into elves or dwarves). Score: 10/10 Rationale: I was going to give it a 9 to play it safe--but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. A great many people are looking forward to George RR Martin's "A Dance with Dragons", when they really should be queuing up to buy a copy of this. "Acacia: The War with the Mein" is on release in the US on June the 12th.

David Anthony Durham, author of "Pride of Carthage" has his new website up and running. You can find it Here. The new website has been created to give him a bit more of an online presence (rather than one at all, sorry I made that assumption David!) in order to market his new book better. Due to the shift in audience that "Acacia" will appeal to, it's quite a clever move to make. I've managed to get my hands on an advanced readers' copy of Acacia, so I will be reviewing it soon.