Secret History Thriller, Historical Fantasy, Supernatural Thriller, Speculative Fiction.
Date Published: 28/01/2019
Publisher: Matador
It is 1761. Prussia is at war with Russia and Austria.
As the Russian army occupies East Prussia, King Frederick the Great and his men fight hard to win back their homeland.
In Ludwigshain, a Junker estate in East Prussia, Countess Marion von Adler celebrates an exceptional harvest. But it is requisitioned by Russian troops. When Marion tries to stop them, a Russian captain strikes her. His lieutenant, Ian Fermor, defends Marion’s honour and is stabbed for his insubordination. Abandoned by the Russians, Fermor becomes a divisive figure on the estate.
Close to death, Fermor dreams of the Adler, a numinous eagle entity, whose territory extends across the lands of Northern Europe and which is mysteriously connected to the Enlightenment. What happens next will change of the course of human history…
Interview with Fiction Author Justin Newland
Tell us about your book
T he Coronation is a secret history thriller, that’s history with a supernatural twist.
In 1761, Prussia is at war with Russia and Austria. As the Russian army occupies East Prussia, King Frederick the Great and his men fight hard to win back their homeland.
In Ludwigshain, a Junker estate in East Prussia, Countess Marion von Adler celebrates an exceptional harvest. But it is requisitioned by Russian troops. When Marion tries to stop them, a Russian captain strikes her. His lieutenant, Ian Fermor, defends Marion’s honour and is stabbed for his insubordination. Abandoned by the Russians, Fermor becomes a divisive figure on the estate.
Close to death, Fermor dreams of the Adler, a numinous eagle entity, whose territory extends across the lands of Northern Europe and which is mysteriously connected to the Enlightenment. What happens next will change the course of human history…
Have you published any previous books?
I’ve published four novels. The Coronation is my third.
The first is The Genes of Isis, a mythological fantasy set under Ancient Egyptian skies. It joins the plot of the Book of Genesis to the myth of Isis and Osiris, to speculate on the origins of our human genetic.
This second is The Old Dragon’s Head. Like The Coronation, it’s a secret history thriller and historical fantasy set in 1400 under the shadows of the Great Wall of China.
My fourth novel is The Abdication. It tells the story of a young woman’s journey of self-discovery and coming of age, in a materialistic society. It speculates on the nature of the human deal and the purpose of free will.
The four novels are stand-alone, but the similarities are that they have the same cover designer, and share similar themes – the individual’s spiritual quest, the journey of self-discovery and the role of destiny in human affairs. The historical fiction novels feature known events and real people from history which are re-told and examined through the lens of the supernatural – that’s ‘history with a supernatural twist’.
Have you any books on the back burner?
I’ve written four historical fiction/fantasy novels, but none is set in my home country of England. I decided to put that right and write a story set during the dramatic turning moment and coming-of-age time in English history, namely the Elizabethan era.
It’s a two-book series provisionally entitled The Island of Angels, which derives from the enigmatic Latin phrase Ex Insula Angelorum, meaning Out of the Island of Angels.
The main protagonist is Nelan, a young man and a Flemish-Dutch émigré who becomes a master of conjuring the four elements, especially fire. In the first book, The Mark of the Salamander, he meets the mystic Dr John Dee and sails around the world with Francis Drake.
The second is The Midnight of Eights. In it, Spain, Europe’s most prosperous and powerful nation, sends a fleet of warships to invade England and burn all its heretical Protestants at the stake. Nelan knows that a battle is won before it’s been fought, so can he rescue England from the existential threat of the Armada?
What do you hope your readers will take away from The Coronation?
To ask themselves questions such as…
We are Homo Sapiens Sapiens, which is Latin for man-the-doubly-wise. If that’s the case, then how come we are not displaying that wisdom in our society today?
If the Great Enlightenment was when we were meant to begin that spiritual journey, what happened to it? If there was a natural development from it, how come we are not supremely enlightened? Where did the promise of that enlightenment go?
And why are we so fascinated by and dependent on technology?
Justin Newland
7th November 2022
About the Author
Justin Newland is an author of historical fantasy and secret history thrillers – that’s history with a supernatural twist. His historical novels feature known events and real people from the past, which are re-told and examined through the lens of the supernatural.
His novels speculate on the human condition and explore the fundamental questions of our existence. As a species, as Homo sapiens sapiens – that’s man the twice-wise – how are we doing so far? Where is mankind’s spiritual home? What does it look or feel like? Would we recognise it if we saw it?
Undeterred by the award of a Doctorate in Mathematics from Imperial College, London, he found his way to the creative keyboard and conceived his debut novel, The Genes of Isis (Matador, 2018), an epic fantasy set under Ancient Egyptian skies.
Next came the supernatural thriller, The Old Dragon’s Head (Matador, 2018), set in Ming Dynasty China.
His third novel, The Coronation (Matador, 2019), speculates on the genesis of the most important event of the modern world – the Industrial Revolution.
His fourth, The Abdication (Matador, 2021), is a supernatural thriller in which a young woman confronts her faith in a higher purpose and what it means to abdicate that faith.
His stories add a touch of the supernatural to history and deal with the themes of war, religion, evolution and the human’s place in the universe.
He was born three days before the end of 1953 and lives with his partner in plain sight of the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England.
Contact Links
Twitter: @Matador
Purchase Links
Other book stores:
Author’s Website (where buyers can enter a dedication to be signed by the author):
1 comments:
Thanks for hosting this stop on the Reading Addiction Blog Tour of my novel, The Coronation.
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