Justin Allen

Praise for Year of the Horse (The Over­look Press, Octo­ber ’09)

WINNER — 2010 Inde­pen­dent Pub­lisher Book Awards (IPPYs) Sil­ver Medal for Best Fic­tion about the Moun­tain West.

Final­ist — 2010 National Indie Excel­lence Award for Young Adult Fiction

“Every­one knows the glow­ing, irre­sistible, world-wide rep­u­ta­tion of Harry Potter’s seven vol­ume tri­umph over the dark arts and incor­ri­gi­ble evil in the set­ting of an Eng­lish board­ing school. Now, in a tale which may become another clas­sic, Justin Allen has moved the strug­gle between good and evil to the vio­lently dan­ger­ous Amer­i­can West in the years just after the Civil War… The char­ac­ters are orig­i­nal and fas­ci­nat­ing, the plot is com­pelling, and the extra­or­di­nary details of the jour­ney across the West are every bit as harsh and gritty as must have been true of such jour­neys in fact. The final pages are as sur­pris­ing, vio­lent, riv­et­ing – and sat­is­fy­ing – as any reader could pos­si­bly wish. I had a hard time putting this book down.”
– Robert K. Massie, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Peter the Great and Nicholas and Alexandra

“The West­ern novel may be a relic in the mod­ern book trade, but the genre isn’t com­pletely dead to young adults, thanks to Year of the Horse. Part Zane Gray, part L. Frank Baum, this read deliv­ers the ulti­mate dose of escapism, from its fan­tas­ti­cal, episodic nature to its dime-novel fla­vor. Lead­ing us through rhyth­mi­cally paced exploits is a will­ful, but pleas­antly pre­dictable, band of friends on a jour­ney to reach Sil­ver City and solve a mys­tery. Cow­boy magic and land­scapes with names like Hell Mouth color the fic­tive West while Amer­i­can folk leg­ends — ghost rid­ers and the Yan­kee Ich­a­bod Crane — fuel the plot. Charm­ing and full of heart, Year of the Horse pro­vides quaint read­ing, that, although brand-new, feels like a secret dis­cov­ery from the dusty back shelf of a library.“
– Edie Adel­stein for The Col­orado Springs Independent

“While Year of the Horse con­tains the basic ele­ments of a tra­di­tional West­ern, it also suc­ceeds in break­ing the mold with the nicely drawn char­ac­ter of Tzu-Lu — and it enter­tains in the process“
– Sybil Down­ing for The Den­ver Post

“The author clearly has a great love for old-style boy’s-adventure tales, but he doesn’t allow the genre’s tropes to keep him from try­ing new things. In par­tic­u­lar, the mul­ti­cul­tural cast of char­ac­ters, while per­haps his­tor­i­cally improb­a­ble, is refresh­ing, and Allen doesn’t gloss over the wide­spread racial prej­u­dices of the time. Best of all, how­ever, he knows how to tell a crack­ing good story. Excit­ing, orig­i­nal update of the ripping-yarns for­mula.“
– Kirkus Reviews

“With sum­mer spring­ing upon us quicker than we real­ize, most avid read­ers begin to pon­der which books will be placed on their sum­mer read­ing list. Here are a few pow­er­houses that cer­tainly deserve high con­sid­er­a­tion… ‘Year of the Horse’ by Justin Allen. Set in the old days of America’s Wild West, Chinese-American Tzu-lu embarks on an adven­tur­ous jour­ney across the coun­try. He finds him­self get­ting into dan­ger, seek­ing the unknown and com­ing across a chance at wealth. This is a coming-of-age novel for young read­ers who appre­ci­ate Amer­i­can his­tory.” Tony R. Rodriguez for The East Bay Lit­er­ary Examiner

“The story has that unique fla­vor of sto­ry­telling that I always asso­ciate with South­ern sto­ry­tellers like Flan­nery O’Connor. A more mod­ern and genre-specific com­par­i­son might by the fic­tion of Andy Dun­can.  Yet even such com­par­isons don’t quite catch the fla­vor of this story. Justin Allen has writ­ten a unique novel, one which may give birth to a new sub­genre, in which the west­ern and fan­tasy fic­tion are mixed, or then again it would be fair to say that Year of the Horse is a great lit­er­ary fan­tasy that shows what can be done when an author chooses not to be lim­ited by genre… Allen skill­fully brings together all of the dis­parate ele­ments of west­erns, tall tales, fan­tasy, and con­tem­po­rary fic­tion to cre­ate a work that is unique in both the fan­tasy and west­ern canons. Well writ­ten, enter­tain­ing, and action­ful, read­ers would do well to give Allen and Year of the Horse a try.“
– John Ottinger III for Grasp­ing for the Wind

“What kind of sto­ries do you like to read–Good old his­tor­i­cal west­erns? Fan­tasy sto­ries? Com­ing of age tales? Riv­et­ing adven­ture sagas? What about all four mixed together? Justin Allen man­ages to deliver all of the above… Year of the Horse chron­i­cles Tzu-Lu’s growth with wit, insight, and adven­ture. The his­tory and small trib­utes to Mark Twain, Wash­ing­ton Irv­ing, and oth­ers cou­pled with a diverse cast of char­ac­ters makes Justin Allen’s book an enjoy­able, imag­i­na­tive, and unique read.“
– Teen Ink

“a clas­sic fan­tasy quest story, wrapped in the trap­pings of the Amer­i­can West, reimag­ined in a cin­e­matic way.“
– The Idaho Statesman

“Here, arranged by career aspi­ra­tions, are sug­ges­tions for the young read­ers on your hol­i­day gift list. So you want to be… A Crime Fighter? Year of the Horse by Justin Allen. When 14-year-old Yen Tzu-lu sits down to write his umpteenth essay about what he wants to be when he grows up, he decides it’s time to dis­card boy­ish dreams of adven­ture. But before he even fin­ishes the assign­ment, he’s recruited to bat­tle the ulti­mate out­law — an enemy both less and more than human.” — Car­o­line Luz­zato for The Virginian-Pilot

“a delight­fully dif­fer­ent novel, as famil­iar as an epic fan­tasy, but with a dis­tinctly Amer­i­can twist. I hope Mr. Allen finds a way to return us to these char­ac­ters one day. I rec­om­mend it highly.“
– Tia Nevitt for Debuts and Reviews

“Year of the Horse is so dif­fer­ent, so charm­ing, and so much fun… It reminded me a bit of Huck Finn, with its inter­est­ing cast of char­ac­ters and tone. But what made it so spe­cial for me was the vein of super­nat­ural run­ning through the story. It was so sub­tle at first — did Lu really see Jack put cig­a­rette smoke in his pocket? — but by the time they get to cli­matic fight with the mys­te­ri­ous Yan­kee, this story has mor­phed into a tall tale, in the very best sense of the term.“
– Lorin Laia­cona for Arch­think­ing

“an inter­est­ing setup, and one that seems tailor-made to explore all sorts of dif­fer­ent issues. On the one hand, it’s an exam­i­na­tion of Amer­i­can myths and folk­lore… It’s also a can­did look at nine­teenth cen­tury racial issues… gives read­ers young and old alike plenty to mull over, but it’s also just a durned good story.“
– Mem­ory for Stella Matutina

“The real-life his­tor­i­cal inspi­ra­tion for every adven­ture is clear, but it feels like Allen took the actual his­tory, and turned the dial up to 11: every­thing is just a lit­tle bit more excit­ing, dan­ger­ous, and larger than real life. It’s an effec­tive bit of world­build­ing; at times I for­got that the actual wild west prob­a­bly wasn’t quite so fan­tas­tic as the world through which Lu and his friends moved. This book also neatly avoided the com­mon down­fall of adven­ture sto­ries; each inci­dent worked both as an episodic adven­ture as well as part of the over­all sto­ry­line. There are all the gun bat­tles and horse chases and sun and dust that you could want from a West­ern, and the final con­fronta­tion with the gold-stealing Yan­kee is nail-bitingly tense… I don’t read a lot of west­erns, but I do read my fair share of young adult fan­tasy adven­ture sto­ries, and on that tally, Year of the Horse is among the best I’ve come across.” — Nicki Ger­lach for Fyrefly’s Book Blog

“With a few play­ful nods to Wash­ing­ton Irv­ing, Allen mixes west­ern and fan­tasy into a high adven­ture coming-of-age, keep­ing his world’s more outre ele­ments grounded with a sur­feit of dead-on his­tor­i­cal details“
– Pub­lish­ers Weekly

“It’s good stuff. I highly rec­om­mend this book for fan­tasy read­ers who are sick of para­nor­mal romances tak­ing up all of the magic in young adult lit right now and for adven­ture read­ers who might be will­ing to let the truth stretch a lit­tle… One of the great­est things about this book is the large cast of mul­ti­cul­tural char­ac­ters.“
– Lawral the Librar­ian for Lucy Was Robbed

“In this intrigu­ing genre-bender, Allen places a coming-of-age fan­tasy quest in a west­ern set­ting, with both explo­sive and head-scratching results… this hybrid weaves lit­er­ary adven­ture with a uniquely Amer­i­can sense of mythol­ogy and lore, and does it all rather well.“
– Book­list

“a thrilling cli­max and sat­is­fy­ing end­ing. Mr. Allen did an excel­lent job of mix­ing fan­tasy with a west­ern tale, and there were sev­eral nods to other lit­er­ary sto­ries within the book. This will be a favorite to any­body who enjoys his­tor­i­cal fic­tion and/or west­ern nov­els“
– Mrsmagooreads.com

“Justin Allen sends young Yen Tzu-lu, also known as Lu, on a Wild West adven­ture in this humor­ous twist on the old-fashioned west­ern story… Allen includes a num­ber of amus­ing allu­sions (some not so sub­tle) to clas­sic writ­ers such as Mark Twain, Wash­ing­ton Irv­ing, and Larry McMurtry.  Fur­ther, he adds a fan­tasy ele­ment that takes the novel beyond the reader’s wildest expec­ta­tions.“
– Theresa L. Stow­ell for Teens Read Too

“Year of the Horse takes  some very famil­iar threads  in young adult fic­tion –a young pro­tag­o­nist with a des­tiny he must ful­fill, a quest for hid­den trea­sure, a dan­ger­ous land­scape pep­pered with for­mi­da­ble foes and unlikely allies– to weave an engross­ing com­ing of age tale  replete with both wis­dom and edge-of-the-seat moments.“
– Lavanya Karthik for Bookpleasures.com

“one of the more orig­i­nal fan­tasy amal­ga­ma­tions I’ve come across — a mix of fan­tasy, his­tor­i­cal west­ern, and coming-of-age boys’ adven­ture tale pep­pered with some Devil and Daniel Webster/ Wash­ing­ton Irving/ Mark Twain/ Zane Grey, and topped off a heap­ing of multi-culturalism…“
– fantasyliterature.com

Praise for SLAVES OF THE SHINAR (The Over­look Press, July ’07)

“In a switch on typ­i­cal roles, it’s the for­eign thief who’s black, rather than the slave. Uruk, a sub-Saharan African, swash­buck­les his way through exotic tem­ples Conan-style, steal­ing mag­i­cal jew­els and res­cu­ing vir­gins, while the enslaved Ander plans his revenge on his mil­i­taris­tic mas­ters. With a dri­ving plot and an excel­lent eye for liv­ing, breath­ing, tac­tile detail, author Allen brings imme­di­acy to this mod­ern ver­sion of the Gil­gamesh leg­end while keep­ing it in con­text with the rest of the not-necessarily-white world of thou­sands of years ago.”
– Nisi Shawl for The Seat­tle Times

“Slaves of the Shi­nar is a keeper for the reread shelf. If you like blends of ancient his­tory and fan­tasy, this is some­thing you are going to enjoy. I can rec­om­mend it highly.“
– Tia Nevitt for Debuts and Reviews

“Ancient Mesopotamian civ­i­liza­tions clash in Allen’s promis­ing debut… No part of the story involves any sig­nif­i­cant super­nat­ural ele­ment. Yet despite the lack of wiz­ardry, gods or strange beasts, some­thing in Allen’s writ­ing raises the mun­dane to the level of the fan­tas­tic, and the feel of magic crack­les through the pages, even if it’s nowhere to be found in the words.”
– Pub­lish­ers Weekly

“Slaves of the Shi­nar is a fab­u­lous story set in a world based on the Mid­dle East and with a cen­tral theme of racial intol­er­ance and prej­u­dice… unbe­liev­able that this is Allen’s first novel. I have read books by estab­lished authors who could never hope to be as tal­ented an author as this man. I only hope that he can main­tain this high stan­dard in his future work. If he can, Justin Allen is surely des­tined to become one of the great authors of the future and I for one intend to keep my eyes open for his next novel.”
– Eter­nal Night (UK)

“Allen’s high-quality first novel depicts a fic­tional war in ancient Sumer… The plot is quite plau­si­ble, the char­ac­ters are well drawn, the set­ting is cred­i­ble, and what is known of Sumer isn’t con­tra­dicted…”
– Book­list

“a solid first effort that his­tory buffs, epic fan­tasy lovers, and adven­ture fans alike can appre­ci­ate… an impres­sive show­ing and it will be inter­est­ing to see where Justin Allen goes from here…”
– Fan­tasy Book Critic

“Long before the rule of Gil­gamesh, king of the Sumar­ian city of Uruk near the Euphrates River (present-day Iraq), peo­ple told sto­ries of the land of Shi­nar… a thought-provoking glimpse into the begin­nings of a land and peo­ple very much in the fore­front of cur­rent events.”
– Library Jour­nal

“… part epic fan­tasy, part his­tor­i­cal novel with lash­ings of sword play… Allen pro­vides a liv­ing breath­ing world in which to set his story… Slaves of the Shi­nar is an impres­sive first novel and well worth a read. Appar­ently Allen is work­ing on his sec­ond novel, hav­ing read Shi­nar I look for­ward to its pub­li­ca­tion.”
– Charles Packer for Sci-Fi Online (UK)

“The author has researched this era thor­oughly and there is a feel­ing of real­ity about it miss­ing even in most his­tor­i­cal fic­tion, let alone fan­tasy.  It’s also a pretty grip­ping story.  Call it fan­tasy or call it his­tor­i­cal, but read it if you pos­si­bly can.”
– Don D’Ammassa of Crit­i­cal Mass

“This debut work from Justin Allen hasn’t received much atten­tion… but it should… This book shares many things in com­mon with Locke Lam­ora…unflinch­ing vio­lence, many of the main char­ac­ters are thieves and cut­throats. How­ever we see glimpses in this text that there is some­thing worth fight­ing to pre­serve… It’s a good read…not exactly uplift­ing, but nei­ther is it cyn­i­cal.”
– Rus­sell Smith of The Eagle and Child

“His­tor­i­cal fan­tasy, some­thing like a long-range pre­quel to the ancient Baby­lon­ian Epic of Gil­gamesh… An evoca­tive, tena­cious, often arrest­ing series of inci­dents… worth a try for sheer spec­ta­cle…”
– Kirkus Reviews

“… an excit­ing, hard-to-put-down tale that shows how the basics of war­fare were invented on the fly, and how early civ­i­liza­tion was cre­ated out of neces­sity.”
– Henry Leon Lazarus