"Farewell the Dragon is a rigorous examination of personal agency and universal morality. It contains all of the toxic glamour of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and a moderate dash of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code...Barckmann's novel is one that has achieved something rare: It has uncovered a unique corner of twentieth-century culture and delicately sculpted it into a story worth remembering and reading for years to come."
Red City Review
"...Barckmann is reaching for a depiction of time and place and character that rivals more classic tales of flawed individuals struggling with their exotic environments and their own shortcomings...There are similarities also in flaws, introspection, regret ...which echo Graham Greene's characters, "
The US Review
"A compelling read that will have readers sticking with the book long after bedtime. It's hard to put down"
Foreword Reviews
"...Farewell the Dragon brings relationships, sex, international intrigue, religion, politics, and a society in flux to create an examination of human nature that is at once blunt and nuanced."
Poet and author T.L. Cooper
"This book is a cross between a double murder whodunnit and a fascinating and sexually charged romp in China that can sometimes be found in tight expatriate communities (in this case both from within the group and amongst the few Chinese who could interact with them) ... the book is a valuable link between post-revolutionary .and the present... It is also written with a great deal of humor."
Mark Oulton on Goodreads
"A Great Read. Barckmann is a terrific storyteller"
"This Week in America's" Ric Bratton
AMAZON REVIEWS
Jeffrey Kinkley
... One of its attractions is all the odd, intriguing characters from the Chinese expat community in Beijing prior to "Tiananmen" (they're not academic researchers, either--an assortment of Russians, East Germans, Central Europeans, PLO, Mossad, Americans, you name it, and among their Chinese friends, a People's Liberation Army "General's daughter" and a blind erhu player). Advisory: they sleep around with each other relentlessly.
... All the plot threads come together in the end. It reads like a mystery set within a tale of personal exploration in a peculiarly welcoming, and yet rather mysterious foreign environment.
Carl Warner
Farewell the Dragon definitely held my interest, ... Highly recommended.
Laura B. Raynolds
... Barckmann uses the coming-to-an-end of Old China along with events in the plot to enable the reader to experience a universal wistfulness and longing for that perfection in memory that is lost and will never come again. His work is a superb piece of fiction that deserves a wide readership.
Dave
Farewell the Dragon is a very enjoyable look at the Western expatriate community in China
