scrape_r_rational/data/cache2/8atucr.md

## The March North [RT][C][HF?]

* Author: u/SpeculativeFiction *
* URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/8atucr/the_march_north_rtchf/
* Score: 13

* Created: 2018-04-08T23:01:56

### Post:

Features:

* Magical focus items, which civilians use in groups to remove dangerous Flora, and the military uses to shield themselves from arrows, power artillery, and create roads.

* a partly Geas bound society. Politicians can't lie without catching on fire, powerful mages are bound to stay out of politics, and must serve the government every few years (5 years in 50?)

* Interesting worldbuilding, though the author really doesn't hold your hand, and a lot of it is glossed over by the POV, as they already understand their society.

* The setting features the consequences of thousands of years of irresponsible mages. Rivers that change from water, to lava, to blood on a regular schedule. Extremely dangerous Flora and Fauna. Sentient mountain ranges that dislike being terraformed. Wide swathes of land blocked by heavy wards, occupied only by what are presumably a mages creations gone rogue. Former super soldiers finding a place in society.

* Fortresses created out of farmed and harvested human misery.

* Creating magical drayage and harvesting resources via magic.

I initially bought the first book when it was on a major sale (down to $2?). I noticed it appears to be on sale again.

It's definitely worth checking out. The writing style can be a bit opaque and hard to follow at first, but the author has some interesting ideas, and the characters are rational and interesting.

### Comments:

> **u/xamueljones** [+4]  *My arch-enemy is entropy* (36 minutes later)
> 
> I strongly suggest that people read the offered sample of the chapter before they buy it. The author writes in a very unusual way which is hard to describe (definitely not amateurish!), [but one consequence is ](#s "that there are no or very few pronouns (he, she) in the entire book which can be very confusing for readers. In *A Succession of Bad Days*, I wasn't sure about the gender of one main character introduced in the beginning until near to the end of the book.")
> 
> I actually didn't like *The March North* very much. However, I greatly enjoyed the second book in the series, *[A Succession of Bad Days](https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Graydon_Saunders_A_Succession_of_Bad_Days?id=tYyxCQAAQBAJ)*, which largely has a different cast of characters and plotline to the point where *The March North* feels as if it is a prequel rather than the first in a series. You can read either books independently of each other without any issues to the ordering.
> 
> Here's a link to his [blog](http://dubiousprospects.blogspot.com/).

>> **u/AezyDesu** [+6]  *The Culture* (4 hours later)
>> 
>> The books sound awesome and I really want to read them but I checked out authors blog and read their input on the gun violence thing. Uhhh... is that satire? Are those kind of views going to be in the novels?
>> 
>> EDIT: Read more posts and my concern over reading propaganda has increased.

>>> **u/sparkc** [+5]  (6 hours later)
>>> 
>>> Having not known his personal views before reading the novels I never felt preached to in any way. It’s possible that that could change if you go in primed to look for such things. 
>>> I don’t agree with his blog writings at all fwiw.

>>> **u/IgonnaBe3** [+3]  (13 hours later)
>>> 
>>> holy damn fuck. I thought you were exaggerating about his views but reading 3 pages into his posts on the blog and i am seriously concerned.
>>> 
>>> I talked to neo-maonist and i dont know which is worse

>>> **u/SpeculativeFiction** [+3]  (16 hours later)
>>> 
>>> Wow. That post would completely turn me off reading any of his novels, had I seen it before I read the book. I have no interest in checking out a particular author's work after seeing what they posted to r/fantasy, for similar reasons.
>>> 
>>> However, in this case, I feel it's more like Orson Scott Card, who is  incredibly homophobic in real life, but that doesn't really show up in any of his works I've read.
>>> 
>>> I've only read The March North so far though, so I can't speak for the sequels.

>>>> **u/sparkc** [+1]  (23 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> As someone who doesn’t frequent r/fantasy, why would you be disinclined to read a work from an author who posts there?

>>>>> **u/SpeculativeFiction** [+2]  (a day later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> I misspoke. That did sound like a condemnation of /r/fantasy, which I didn't intend. There's nothing particularly wrong with the subreddit at the moment, and there are many quality authors who post there.
>>>>> 
>>>>> They did have a period sometime after the [sad puppies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sad_Puppies) (I'm not a fan of the extremes of either side. Both care too much about what other people are writing and reading.) campaign started where they became rather political, but that's died down.
>>>>> 
>>>>> There are enough authors that are semi-active there, that if you follow the subreddit long enough, you may get a better idea of their opinions. 
>>>>> 
>>>>> I disagreed with one of them a fair amount, and got the feeling that their opinions would carry over to their novels, so I never picked them up.

>>>>>> **u/AdventurerSmithy** [+1]  (2 days later)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I mean I feel like that's just part of how it works? Not being preached to is one thing, but realistically a writer, artist, etc, is going to have their political views bleed into their work in one way or another. I don't really think there's a way to be 'apolitical' when it comes to something you make, and asking an author to distance their own personal views from their work seems to be a bit pointless and/or hurtful to their process.

>> **u/SpeculativeFiction** [+2]  (an hour later)
>> 
>> > I strongly suggest that people read the offered sample of the chapter before they buy it. The author writes in a very unusual way which is hard to describe,
>> 
>> I entirely agree. The writing is initially very hard to follow. There are references to things that aren't initially explained, and certain phrases almost seem intentionally opaque. It's best to try out the novel before buying it, though I personally feel it gets better. 
>> 
>> However, I would prefer you spoiler the second part, after the quoted text. It ruins any sense of surprise of a certain plot twist if you give that up, and it isn't really the part of the writing that will make things hard to understand.
>> 
>> While I personally find it a noteworthy facet of the writing, I deliberately didn't mention it for that reason.
>> 
>> Edit: I'd also mention that the first book is more action oriented, while the second book, at least what I've read of it, has dramatically less conflict. I need to get around to finishing it one of these days.

>>> **u/xamueljones** [+2]  *My arch-enemy is entropy* (2 hours later)
>>> 
>>> I don't agree that it is meant to be a plot-twist, but if you think it is, better safe then sorry.
>>> 
>>> While the second book is less action packed, it involves the characters being students learning about magic which is a lot of fun for me. There's also a lot of infrastructure study and building involved which is reasonable when you have a society heavily dependent on magic and you're teaching the people who will be responsible for the infrastructure.

>>>> **u/SpeculativeFiction** [+1]  (a day later)
>>>> 
>>>> [Personally, ](#s "I don't see another reason to use no gender pronouns to describe anyone (although IIIRC, the genders of other characters like Rust or Halt are given away early), then deliberately reveal her to be a woman by suddenly using a pronoun near the end of the book. That's a very deliberate move. Writing without pronouns is hard--I seriously doubt he simply forgot one at the end by accident. I think he knew readers would assume the captain was a man by default, and wanted to make them question their biases.")
>>>> 
>>>> Then again, I've seen an [author](https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-world-waits-on-evil-hivers-eoa-ww-a-finished-story.274791/) that used a base-16 number system and prevented himself from using english idioms as a writing experiment. so I suppose it's possible.

> **u/sparkc** [+2]  (an hour later)
> 
> I have not read the prequel but I have read the latest two novels, based on a recommendation from this sub, and very much enjoyed them. I’ve been keeping tabs on the authors blog, eagerly awaiting the latest in the series.
> 
> It’s worth noting that the authors writing style, while definitely unusual, is not amateurish. I personally can handle that a lot better than the latter but YMMV.

> **u/Izeinwinter** [+2]  (21 hours later)
> 
> I love Graydons work. Firstly, just because he is a very competent writer, and secondly, because he is writing fantasy that does not just bolt magic onto a medieval setting, despite this making no sense from a world building perspective. 
> 
> As a random example, I do not recall ever seeing another piece of literature that points out the fact that the number of people one farmer can feed is hugely important to the kind of society you can have. 
> And yes, he is progressive, which, as far as his books are concerned mostly just means he writes books that are *not* just cookie-cutter copies of the extremely reactionary political setups most fantasy novels have. Which makes them far more interesting than most fantasy

> **u/SpeculativeFiction** [+1]  (20 minutes later)
> 
> I originally put in the link info, but then switched to text, thinking that that option was for simply putting in a summary. Shows how often I submit things on reddit, I suppose.
> 
> You can get [The March North here](https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=MoIOAwAAQBAJ).

>> **u/serge_cell** [+1]  (8 hours later)
>> 
>> "Sorry! This content is not available in your country yet. We're working to bring the content you love to more countries as quickly as possible.
>> Please check back again soon."

> **u/PastafarianGames** [+1]  (18 hours later)
> 
> The first of the books in this series is a straightforward by-the-numbers March North (hence the title) turned completely and gloriously sideways by the setting and the writing style. The second and third books, more or less similarly have a relationship to Going To Magic School books.
> 
> It's a shitheap crapsack world made only dealable-with by having a fiercely idealistically egalitarian polity made of people for whom working together to solve problems larger than themselves is what they did all of their lives and will continue to do all of their lives, and that's glorious. The polity in question and the society is not all that similar to ours, and is influenced by the author's own hard-Left leanings. (Hence the "what about his blog" stuff; yeah, he's not writing Puppies-approved fiction, deal with it.)
> 
> It's a fairytale lost in a civil engineering manual. That's also glorious, at least to me.

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