An ancient gold rush, and loyalty faces off against greed. Circa 2200 BCE: Changes rocking the Continent reach Eire with the dawning Bronze Age. Marauders invade the island seeking copper and gold.
Synopsis
The young astronomer Boann and the enigmatic Cian need all their wits and courage to save their people and their great Boyne mounds, when long bronze knives challenge the peaceful native starwatchers. Banished to far coasts, Cian discovers how to outwit the invaders at their own game. Tensions on Eire between new and old cultures and between Boann, Elcmar, and her son Aengus, ultimately explode. What emerges from the rubble of battle are the legends of Ireland’s beginnings in a totally new light.
Larger than myth, this tale echoes with medieval texts, and cult heroes modern and ancient. By the final temporal twist, factual prehistory is bending into images of leprechauns who guard Eire’s gold for eternity. As ever, the victors will spin the myths.
BENDING THE BOYNE draws on 21st century archaeology to show the lasting impact when early metal mining and trade take hold along north Atlantic coasts. Carved megaliths and stunning gold artifacts, from the Pyrenees up to the Boyne, come to life in this researched historical fiction.
Trade and academic reviews:
..Boann is vivid and powerful and is perhaps one of the greatest strengths of this book. She is a full- fledged character whose nuances create a relateable and realistic rendition of a young woman in the Bronze Age. ...overall, Bending the Boyne succeeds in creating a seamless text where historical research and imagined worlds interweave effortlessly. This is a superb novel that will be of particular interest to readers of historical fiction as well as those with a keen interest in archeology and mythmaking.--Foreword Review
...A useful fleshing of the bones
of an interesting archaeological story.
William OBrien, PhD, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
...Bang-on with the latest archaeological debates.
Peter Clark, MIFA, Director, The Canterbury Archaeological Trust,
Canterbury, Kent, UK.
Awards:
Winner, historical fiction, Next Generation Awards 2011 (USA). Listed for a 2011 Foreword Reviews Award.About the Author
J. S. Dunn resided in Ireland during the past decade, and from there pursued a keen interest in Bronze Age culture and marine trade along the Atlantic coasts of Spain, France, Wales, and Ireland.The research for BENDING THE BOYNE yielded friends in diverse fields including archaeology and Bronze Age tool-making. In 2006, the author attended the Dover Boat symposium on the earliest known Atlantic plank boat. In September 2012, the author will attend a bronze age metallurgy workshop in Cornwall.
A short story by J.S. Dunn appears in a forthcoming anthology of historical fiction from Chamberton Publishing. The author has a second novel underway, set at 1600 BCE.
Links:
BENDING THE BOYNE, 2011, Seriously Good Books, publisher. ISBN 978-0983155416.350 pages print, and via Kindle/apps/Nook.
Audio version available September 2012.
Amazon/Kindle : http://www.amazon.com/BENDING-THE-BOYNE-ancient-ebook/dp/B0057YJAYQ/
Facebook page and blog/updates: https://www.facebook.com/BendingTheBoyne
jsdunnbooks.com