About the Book
'Today I am equipped with the knowledge that my future was to be far greater, more exciting, and more disturbing than anything so simple as my young imagination could then conjure. Indeed, looking back, my forecast was positively quaint. I ask myself a question often, and it is this: if I had understood all that was to befall me, would I have run, that day, or exulted?
I find I do not know.'
Ancient leviathans have stirred from their long slumber. Their scent song marks where they might be found, but only to those with the means to somewhat hear it: Sentinel Archivists.
Shay Bluefaltlow finds herself training to become such a specialist when she is bought into indentured servitude. Her new home, the city of Fivedock, is strange and bewildering, as are her new companions: a belligerent surgeon, a remarkable little boy, and a formidable Sentinel Archivist tasked with teaching Shay the terrifying ways of the trade.
Her unanticipated position requires forbidden knowledge, a terrible bargain and the strongest constitution. Shay is certain she is unequal to the prodigious task, but desperate to impress her superiors.
When war subsumes the Concord, the office of the Sentinel Archivist is dismantled by a terrible betrayal. And Shay has secrets of her own...
Packed with era detail to bring the world to vivid life, realistic, but with strong fantastical elements, a rich regency voice, and a bewitching touch of strangeness, Seeker is an immersive first-person novel for adults.
Naomi Novik meets Georgette Heyer and Bernard Cornwell in this sumptuous tale by the dazzling new voice in Flintlock Fantasy, Samuel Griffin.
Griffin does for regency era fantasy what Robin Hobb did for medieval: this isn't just a fiction, this is a living and breathing world you dunk yourself in. An intimate journey with real characters. With incredibly accomplished, enchanting prose, and a beating heart of a story.
About the Author :
Samuel Griffin is the author of the deep and evocative flintlock fantasy series, 'The Sentinel Archives', debuting with 'Seeker', releasing 2024.
Prior to becoming an author, Samuel worked in several fields, studied many subjects, and has wandered much of the UK. But his wild imagination and playful inquisitiveness always taunted him, and eventually he gave in the fight, allowing himself to be dragged properly into the worlds of his dreams. He's not looked back since.
Samuel lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, with his partner; who is herself a commercial fiction editor and ghost writer; as well as their cat, who is not.
Review :
"An absolute gem of a book that I couldn't put down." Foram Vyas, RL
'"However, Seeker does that difficult thing of taking a Regency style setting and making it into a fantasy story - a flintlock fantasy, if you like. The two shouldn't work together, and yet here they do, admirably." Mark Yon, SFF World
"Destined to be a master of the genre." L.R. Lam, Sunday
Times Best Selling Author of Pantomime & Dragonfall
"With its richly rendered world and compelling characters
Seeker is an unforgettable debut." Anya Bergman, Author of Historical Hit The
Witches of Vardo
"Much on a par for those who loved Susanna Clarke's
magisterial Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell." Expendable Mudge Muses
"Definitely one to watch!" Kit Neville, Canelo Reader
"Griffin has crafted a memorable thought-provoking narrative that lingers in the mind; the best compliment I can offer." Simon Hayes, Author of Explosive Financial Thriller Zero Ri$k
What advanced NetGalley reviewers are saying:
"Oh, to write like this!"
"This book was so unlike anything I have read before."
"On a par with Dickens."
"This book is beautifully and eloquently written! It's so
poetic, I honestly felt like I was inside a Jane Austen novel."
"It just makes my little reader heart pitter patter."
"This is a truly wonderful book."
"The author possesses a remarkable talent for descriptive
writing."
"I hope this book gets the hype it truly deserves."
"If you've got it, flaunt it."
"Loved every single second reading it."
"...a masterful debut book for the author with a prose and flow
of writing style you see nowadays in the most established of high fantasy
authors."
"I'd like to get into those archives and read about the
Sentinels!"
"...this is a fantasy world unlike any I've ever read."
"...the depth of the characters and the world was done
wonderfully."
"I adored Seeker from the writing style, world building,
prose, and narration!"
"Seeker" is a fantasy on par with "the Lord
of the Rings." Its deep, surrounding atmosphere builds the world in your
mind with minimal effort and all you need to do is keep turning the pages."
"...found the whole book to be utterly entrancing."
"This book was simply beautiful!"
"...Jane Austen and Charles Dickens are the two main authors
that come to mind that compare in the style of writing Mr. Griffin uses which
is no easy feat."
"The main character is as complex as they come."
"The ending was something else and I was on my toes the
whole time."
"This is one of those books that will stay with me forever."
"As a lover of fantasy books it is not too often that one
comes along that is sufficiently different. This is one of those books."
"Griffin has made me fall so in love with this world and the
characters."
"...a wonderful fantastical and unique adventure written with
beautiful language, well developed characters, stunningly strange character and
place names such as Fivedock and The Whispering Coast..."
"...the cover art is gorgeous, the ideas unique and that this
is the author's first published work is absolutely astounding."
"It completely transported me to a different world."
"It's unique, and I can't quite think of a book that left me
with this feeling."
"This is such a rich a luscious world that it's impossible
not to compare it to some of the greats."
"I'd happily read whole books just describing the world."
"This is a great book, with a rich world-building background
that you will love to soak in."
"...it felt like slowly peeling back many gossamer layers of
an intricate universe."
"...a gripping adventure that takes readers on a thrilling
journey from start to finish."
"There is an ever-present strangeness that lingered as I
read."
