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Drake's Drum: The Peace of Amiens by [Nicholas Sumner]

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Nicholas Sumner

Drake's Drum: The Peace of Amiens Kindle Edition

by Nicholas Sumner (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

65 ratings

Book 1 of 3: Drake's Drum

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British decline in the 20th Century is often seen as something fixed and inevitable. As the United Kingdom’s financial strength ebbed, so did its power, prestige and influence in the world. Yet Britain was never a state in terminal decay. In relative decline, perhaps, but always a vital entity, one that embraced a process of re–invention; that proved ready to change and adapt its methods, its institutions and its structures.

But what if that re-invention had been driven by a pragmatic realism that put the economic health of the British state at the heart of policy?

Drake’s Drum: The Peace of Amiens is the compulsively readable first part of a three book series that recount an immersive, thoroughly researched alternate timeline where British politics, Britain’s wars and the history of the world in the 20th Century turn out very differently.

Print length

374 pages
Language

English
Publication date

June 10, 2019
File size

692 KB
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Books In This Series (3 Books)

Complete Series

Drake's Drum

Kindle Edition

Page 1 of 1Start OverPage 1 of 1

1
Drake's Drum: The Peace of Amiens
Nicholas Sumner

(65)

Kindle Edition

$6.00
2
Drake's Drum: The Reckoning
Nicholas Sumner

(47)

Kindle Edition

$6.40
3
Drake's Drum: Currents of Fate
Nicholas Sumner

(34)

Kindle Edition

$9.99

Nicholas Sumner
34
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $9.99
Nicholas Sumner
47
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $6.40
Jack Strain
298
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $4.99
Jack Strain
285
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $4.99
William Stroock
197
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $4.99
Max Lamirande
77
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $6.99

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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07SW5MMNW
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sea Lion Press; 1st edition (June 10, 2019)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 10, 2019
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 692 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 374 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1689121416
Lending ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #504,888 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,680 in Alternative History
- #2,075 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books)
- #4,371 in War Fiction (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
65 ratings

About the author

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Nicholas Sumner

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Nicholas Sumner was born in Africa and grew up in Nigeria and England. He has now come to rest in Canada with a wife, five daughters and a neurotic dog of uncertain parentage. Before he became a writer, he earned a living as a photographer and his work is represented by National Geographic Images. In 2012 he published a travel book called Available Light which can be purchased from the amazon websites. Drake's Drum is his first published alternate history novel.

Customer reviews

5 star		48%
4 star		22%
3 star		12%
2 star		7%
1 star		11%

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Top reviews from the United States

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C. Perelli-Minetti

Interesting and very plausible, but left you hanging

Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2019

Verified Purchase

This book is a considerable achievement which actually requires a thorough knowledge of 20th century British and European history to fully appreciate. Alternative history is a form of science fiction in most cases, and starts with speculation along the lines of ‘what if the South had won the civil war’ or the Spanish Armada had defeated Drake’ or .... you can come up with something. The hard part is writing plausible alternative history where very small changes in events, changes which were perhaps as likely as they way things did go, are spun out - again plausibly at each step - until a plausible alternative timeline has played out. Here Sumner has done a magnificent job. Leaves me waiting for more impatiently!

The only reasons it’s 4 stars rather than 5 stars are: 1) ends too abruptly without much of anything resolved (perhaps there’s too much effort in the detail?) and 2) it really takes a specialist level of knowledge to evaluate whether the choices of alternative events are plausible given what we know of the people and events.

The specialist will very much appreciate, as I did, the footnotes and allusions to how things/people/choices differed in our time line (OTL) from that in the book (TTL).

I would say a reader needs at least a solid undergraduate ‘Modern Europe’ survey course level of knowledge to “get” the book beyond the level of a “yarn”, but that it will best be enjoyed by those who have specifically studied 20th century Britain.

5 people found this helpful

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J. D. Kennedy

Incredibly detailed and scholarly

Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2019

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If one were to imagine an academic history of an alternative WWII that had actually happened, this book would be it. A highly credible and very detailed exploration of a very plausible scenario. By minimizing their roles in the alternative, the book makes quite clear just how indispensable Churchill and FDR were in reality.

5 people found this helpful

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Electric Zebra

Drake's Drum...listen to the beat of the multiverse

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2020

Verified Purchase

Britain and the Empire stand on the edge of the precipice - as does the USA! No spoilers but if you enjoy the "nation as character" and love British history you will thoroughly enjoy this book. Note: if you are looking for a standard "five person" novel, this will not be for you, but if you enjoy alternate history to see the historical background development of one set of potential changes, this is for you. One key alternate event happens (no spoilers) which shifts everything sideways from our time line and here we are! I read the second installment as well and enjoyed that one even more.

One person found this helpful

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dwc

Good alternative history.

Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2020

Verified Purchase

Really enjoying the story. The author changes history by altering the lives of a few major figures and then supposes how that would ripple through historical events. I'm not enough of a historian to pass judgement on his interpretations and extrapolations, but the result is a truly engrossing and entertaining story of how WWII might have played out differently. If you're a technology buff, which is what first attracted me to the story, the extensive appendices on further development of WWII fighting machines of all types is every bit as engrossing as the stories they fit into.

One person found this helpful

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Michael Wenlock

Overloaded with verbose "background"

Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2022

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I enjoyed the title of the series. But the book was a confusing sequence of small "action" sequences sandwiched between alternative history backgrounds and context. I finished the book with no idea what was supposed to have been described and no interest at all in what the next books would have.

It feels and reads like it was written to impress other members of some club or association.

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Freida D. Slater

Great series...appendix is kind of long

Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2020

Verified Purchase

Love the story...but the appendix does not need to be 30% of the book. I understand how you want to explain how it is different from the OTL but I thought I had 30% more of the book to go...and it ends...
More books, less appendix please!

2 people found this helpful

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Anonymous Customer

FUn Read and Instructive

Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2019

Verified Purchase

Well I learned more about English politics than I ever had. Mr Sumner also has US politics well understood. His battle scenes are excellent and worth the read by themselves. I agree with the previous reviewer about CHurchill and FDR reduced roles in the time line. I am hoping that he is planning a continuation of this AH. I will buy it.

One person found this helpful

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Glenn Wilson

nice start of a serie

Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2022

Verified Purchase

There is always room to quibble with alternate histories but for such this was a reasonable start if a bit disjointed in presentation. Ah, the first quibble…

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Top reviews from other countries

Kindle Customer

Exellent, well thought through alternate history.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 10, 2019

Verified Purchase

The author has taken the time to really do his research and craft a believable alternate history, without falling into any of the pitfalls of the genre.

Even with the subject matter, he manages to instill a little optimism and keep the narrative flowing and interesting.

If I have one complaint, it's that the book is more than a third appendices and additional data, and the story cuts out abruptly just as all the buildup is finished.

I look forward to the next book, because there must be another after that sort of cliffhanger!

Please work quickly!

One person found this helpful

T. Anderson

An interesting and original take on interwar alternate history in both the UK and globally

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 25, 2019

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In this book, the first in the Drake's Drum series, Nick Sumner explores a very different world arising from a divergence early in the First World War: the Royal Navy discovering flaws in their shells before the Battle of Jutland. From this starting point, many unexpected corollaries emerge, with differences being explored around the world. Familiar figures from global history and politics are explored in a new light. I would say the best thing about this story is that there are some very unexpected twists that make one want to keep reading - and to read future books in this series. My only criticism would be that I feel there is one British politician from our timeline who is portrayed in a little too negative a light here - I understand the author's goal was to show how our views of someone would be quite different if they had been forced into an awkward situation with no good options - but I feel it goes a little too far. Nonetheless, this is an excellent work of AH and I would certainly recommend it to readers interested either in AH or the military and political history of the first half of the twentieth century.

One person found this helpful

Neil

Grasshopper approach

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 18, 2020

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I didn’t like it. The failure to develop a cohesive timeline of events and the adoption of a piecemeal series of essay like pieces didn’t engage me and in fact annoyed so much that I almost set the book aside so I pressed on to the end only to be annoyed be the suddenness of the unresolved ending.
I will not be buying the other books in the series.

MR Simon Finney

More a series of essays than a novel

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 18, 2019

Verified Purchase

While the alternate histories presented in this novel are engaging the overall structure failed to engage as there are no characters or personal storylines that reflect the history being played out. Added to that the fragmented approach taken with varied sources being used to build the narrative led to an uncomfortable scattered jumble of viewpoints. As a human story it failed to engage, and it didn’t live up to the initial chapter that had real potential.

One person found this helpful