Wynfield's War by Marina Neary

Wynfield's War by Marina Julia Neary

M. J. Neary, the author of "My Salieri Complex" (a featured story in ResAliens Issue 4), has a new book available from Fireship Press. Wynfield's War is Book 2 of the Wynfield Series. Here's a summary from the publisher:

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The spring of 1854 was filled with violence, deceit, and bereavement, and marked the end of Wynfield's reign as the king of the Bermondsey slums. His memory shattered and his perception of reality distorted, he falls under the influence of an unlikely patron - the ruthless Lord Lucan.

Known to his Irish tenants as the Exterminator, Lucan plans to mold his ward into a brainwashed ally for his upcoming Crimean campaign. While in the company of some frightfully incompetent and arrogant generals, Wynfield travels to the Crimea as a junior officer in the British cavalry. From the chaos of the extensive slum of Bermondsey, Wynfield finds himself in a military campaign that makes Bermondsey look orderly.

There he catches a glimpse of the personal war between Lords Lucan and Cardigan, which results in the blunder known as the Charge of the Light Brigade, and discovers the darker side of the saintly Florence Nightingale. Short-lived alliances with comrades who would never make it home to England, and haphazard sexual encounters with women he would never see again, challenge Wynfield's innate sense of loyalty. Having seen so many heroes trampled and so many cowards exalted, Wynfield must choose sides and, in so doing, shape the course of the rest of his life.

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"These new adventures of Marina Neary’s gothic anti-hero take us from the horrors of a Crimean field hospital to the intrigues of mid-Victorian London, meanwhile providing intimate glimpses into the lives of Florence Nightingale, Lord Lucan of Light Brigade infamy, and other famous personages of the time. Intensively researched, with unsparing attention to grim detail, Wynfield’s War is a fascinating and frequently disturbing read."
- Eileen Kernaghan, author of Wild Talent: A Novel of the Supernatural

"A fascinating look behind the military curtain - a story of men and women who look beyond the tenets of a waning empire toward a modern world just beginning to reveal itself."
- Meghan Walsh, editor of The Recorder

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For a summary of Wynfield's Kingdom, Book 1 of the Wynfield Series, visit the author's website. You may also purchase your copies here. For an article about the author, read this from the Stamford Advocate.