The Weight of Smoke: So begins the chronicles of the Elizabethan Age.

Written by George Robert Minkoff

Narrated by Nigel Gore

Four hundred years after the founding of Jamestown, the lives of Captain John Smith, Powhatan, and Pocahontas assume their true dimensions in this far-ranging saga of the beginnings of the British Empire. The English came to the New World to found a utopia. Instead they founded a slave state. The only English voice of reason and the first true American hero became an outcast - and then forgotten.

George Robert Minkoff presents a rich, authentic tale about the disastrous first 18 months of the Jamestown Colony, 1607-1609. Entwined with the colony’s fractious beginnings are the adventures of Sir Francis Drake, retold around the campfires by an old alchemist, Jonas Profit, who sailed the Spanish Main with Queen Elizabeth’s favorite pirate.

Appropriately, these tales are told in a language rich with metaphorical power, flavored with Elizabethan authenticity, and read with power and authenticity by Nigel Gore.

“George Minkoff is one of the bravest men alive. He has gambled that a three-part epic novel about 17th century Colonial America — written in a language that mimics the speech of the time — can hold the interest of 21st century readers and bring satisfactions and delights as a work of contemporary fiction. Remarkably enough, he has won his bet."

~ Paul Aster

• Language: English
• Publisher: Minkoff Audio
• Release date: Apr 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9781982748586

Reviews for The Weight of Smoke

[Wolf Pompadour · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good story well told but needed serious editing. Written in a language reminiscent of its time, 16th century, both poetic and insightful. While I like this style the poetics and insightful observational asides dragged on and on to what felt like self indulgence, neither serving the story or the reader's patience.

[Dave Radlauer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This author’s language is exquisite and this narrator gives it a worthy voice.

With suspension of disbelief we witness fictional rendering of known historical events and figures to do with Jamestown and Sir Francis Drake.

Observing the Great Rogue is swashbuckling fun. But I do not find the author’s effort to go inside Drake’s head convincing nor productive. And fully informed writers of great skill (Bergreen) have wisely demurred.