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Old Nathan by [David Drake]

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Old Nathan Kindle Edition

by David Drake (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

526 ratings

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FIFTH YEARS AFTER
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION,
MAGIC IS LOOSE IN THE BACKWOODS

The forces of evil are poised to prey on the folk of the hamlets and hollows: witches, demons, and red-handed men—but first they'll have to overcome Old Nathan the Wizard.

He doesn't claim much for his magical powers, but they're real enough for what they are—and besides, he hasn't forgotten how to use his long flintlock rifle ....

Enter the gritty, realistic world of Old Nathan, a backwoodsman who talks to animals and says he'll face The Devil himself-and who in the end will have to face The Devil in very fact.

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

Print length

302 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publication date

October 1, 1991
File size

324 KB
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00B7NQ3X2
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Baen Books; 1st edition (October 1, 1991)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 1, 1991
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 324 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 302 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #10,890 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #36 in Fantasy Anthologies & Short Stories (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
526 ratings

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David Drake

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The Army took David Drake from Duke Law School and sent him on a motorized tour of Viet Nam and Cambodia with the 11th Cav, the Blackhorse. He learned new skills, saw interesting sights, and met exotic people who hadn't run fast enough to get away.

Dave returned to become Chapel Hill's Assistant Town Attorney and to try to put his life back together through fiction making sense of his Army experiences.

Dave describes war from where he saw it: the loader's hatch of a tank in Cambodia. His military experience, combined with his formal education in history and Latin, has made him one of the foremost writers of realistic action SF and fantasy. His bestselling Hammer's Slammers series is credited with creating the genre of modern Military SF. He often wishes he had a less interesting background.

Dave lives with his family in rural North Carolina.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

526 global ratings

5 star		54%
4 star		30%
3 star		9%
2 star		5%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2022

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David Drake's Old Nathan is exactly what I was looking for. A backwoods hedge-witch/hedge-mage who doesnt throw fireballs or lays waste to armies with magic wands but uses the "old ways" familiar to the Scots-Irish of the Appalachian and Smoky mountain region. (My Mamaw from Crow mountain in the Ozarks called it hoodoo or scryin' and we were NEVER to dabble with it!) And although I can understand why a lot of other readers struggle with the accent in which the book is written, I kin thet sorta tawk when I break th' fast with muh Pa so it was easy for me to slip into. It's a dying dialect and I've read a lot of books that try to mimic it and fall way short. Drake is one of the few authors I've read that does it justice. So for those of you who struggle, stick with it because you're HEARING the history and culture of these folks as well as reading it.
The stories themselves are divided into short morality tales about greed, envy, etc. and the wake of those evils that sometimes open doors between this world and the next. Stories of souls seeking satisfaction in this life before they can move on and so much more. The banter between Nathan and the animals like Mule and Spanish King captures their personalities well. At the end of the day, Old Nathan is a problem solver. Just an old hillbilly paranormal detective trying to set things to right. Absolutely loved it.

Dialect writing about a time fading from memory

Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2016

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Old Nathan by David Drake is a collection of stories about a cunning (witchy) man located in the Carolinas about fifty years after the revolutionary war strung together in a novel-type package but easily read separately. Old Nathan is the person a body goes to when you've dun run out of all other options. His price is high. Mostly swallowing yer pride but he do speak to animals and does strange things, and maybe in league with the Devil.

The writing is in the dialect language of the space-time. The stories themselves are getting long-in-the-tooth; not enough for a modern high-speed cellphone addict to identify with. A different time and place, slower and more magic. Back with the things in the woods didn't take selfies with intruders, they ate 'em.

I enjoyed the magic not being wiz-bang wizard robes and lightning bolts. Farseeing was done with wellwater; ghosts were dealt with by feeding them ashcakes cooked in the hearth. Old Nathan is creepy powerful in that he not only does the minor hedge magic, but goes beyond, into the shadow realms opened at twilight, into places which bend the mind and create madness.

He is old enough and lived through the war that death holds little fear over him. He is too slow and tired to run far from things people in their right minds should run from. And so the things in the night become curious since he isn't running or scared, and in their curiosity the teethy things become vulnerable. Not greatly vulnerable - they still be hungry, with great claws and teeth, but sometimes the second pause of "what is this different thing" gives Old Nathan the moment he needs to live. It worked for him so far, but in each story the question is "is this time when the beast will be faster then cunning?"

I wrote the review after the third story but have finished the rest. Again, the stories may not be enjoyed very much longer just because living in one-room houses, drawing from wells, and needing horses to get to your nearest neighbor are becoming things of ancient history.

Is the cunning man always cunning enough, or does he need to run from the danger in some of the stories? Well that would be tellin'.

If this your cup of tea, you should read it. - The book is offered for free on Kindle, so take the chance.

12 people found this helpful

Unusual combination

Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2013

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Drake's novel of magic does two, or possibly three, things well.
He sets the novel in East Tennesee when it was still a frontier. We have no Indian fighting, but the law and order we might expect is absent, except when somebody has what it takes to enforce it personally and without any necessity for consistency.
Nathan, the "cunning man", has supernational powers which he acquired, apparently after being maimed at King's Mountain, a good many years prior to the setting of the story. They cost him effort. It takes it out of him to do what he needs to do. He has to maintain himself by farming, not by waving a wand to fill his larder. In the meantime, he can talk to his animals, who talk back in the manner of surly servants who, in any case, remain loyal. The bull--bulls are killers--is headstrong but loyal, along with being sceptical. The animals have their own personalities which are interesting in themselves. I'd like to have known the bull. But this is not a talking-with-the-animals story.
It's the story of the cunning man and his isolation due to his person, his history, and his powers. And then, with a series of necessary interventions requiring his cunning powers, he rejoins the local society, such as it is, and his humanity. And that has a cost, willingly paid.
One of the issues with fiction, especially scifi and stories of fantasy and magic, is what is known as the "willing suspension of disbelief". You can't have some clanger reach out of the book and punch the reader in the nose, reminding him, "This is just a story".
John D. McDonald's series on his "salvage consultant", Travis McGee did this in part by never mentioning a number which could have dated the story. McGee doesn't rent a "1968" Lincoln. He rents a "year-old Lincoln". The only failure I noted in this strategy is in a novel where a guy making $25k is supposed to be doing pretty well.
Murray Leinster, an early scifi writer, could explain a hyperdrive so clearly that I figured a couple of week's allowance and I could get the parts from the hardware store.
Similarly, Drake has his cunning man equipped with powers without explaining clearly where they came from--you can't actually do that and be believable--but refers to them so skillfully, and their use and difficulty so skillfully, that the the reader never doubts.
The background, hardscrabble, barely settled Tennesee, is clearly laid out. The personalities are not cardboard cutouts. Even the secondary characters are plausible individuals. Some of them do things they should not--nobody's perfect--as the rest of us do, but not out of cartoonish, unrelieved villainy
Worth reading and rereading.

One person found this helpful

Reminiscent of old time story telling

Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2022

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Captivating and masterfully told. The characters jump to life and the plot draws you straight in. No way out except to follow the "cunning man".

Top reviews from other countries

Kindle Customer

Don't let the language put you off

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 18, 2017

Verified Purchase

Took a bit to get into. The language is not proper English all the time but with a little practice you can understand it. A bit strange as I could not work out where this is meant to take place of when. I liked the madness within the book which ultimately lead to goodness.

Ian Titler

Good story, with clashes of good and evil

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 12, 2018

Verified Purchase

Good story, with clashes of good and evil, strength and weakness, cunning and openness, magic and knowledge. Very enjoyable, lots of twists and turns.

Oldfarmhorace

Best book I've read for a long time.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 2, 2013

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Rarely do you find a unique book. Old Nathan is refreshingly unique and I already wish there were more stories. Every character so well developed that they came alive on the page. Even Spanish King the huge black bull was believable. I cannot praise this book more.

2 people found this helpful

aka motley

interestingly odd tale

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 12, 2014

Verified Purchase

interesting tale mixing magic and morality set in early settled America but could be anywhere
well worth a read with an unexpected odd twist at end

alan

old Nathan

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 28, 2014

Verified Purchase

The story took a bit of getting into but once you did it reminded you of witchcraft at it's best complete with familiars

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