Comment by kgm | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kgm | Hacker News Reader

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I just finished a re-read of the "Commonweal" series by Graydon Saunders, which begins with The March North:

https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=MoIOAwAAQBAJ

I've never been sure how to sum up these books. They're thoroughly strange fantasy books, oddly written and frequently chewy reads. They have an interest in politics and metaphysics; but they also have magical railguns, the sorcerous application of FOOF [1], and a five-ton battle-sheep named Eustace.

The first book is fairly straightforward: A quiet backwater of the Commonweal is under threat, and its only defense is an understrength territorial battalion, a handful of experimental artillery pieces, and three of the mightiest sorcerers of the age.

Then the second book (A Succession of Bad Days) isn't at all about the military, and is more like the weirdest going-to-sorcery-school book I've ever read. It also has an extended, detailed section on using sorcery in canal construction. If you ever wanted a book about the best ways to use magic in the service of civil engineering, this series is your jam.

These books really aren't for everyone, but I kind of love them, and they aren't widely known, so I'll always take an opportunity to shill them.

[1] https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/things-i-won-t-wor...

I re-read the series this year too. The books are just as good the second time 'round--maybe better. There's a fifth one new since my last read-through, and another in the offing perhaps[1].

Saunders' writing is for people who think that Gibson spends too much time explaining things.[2]

You do have to read between the lines a lot, and also stop a lot to figure out how bits of the world work, but the world-building is among the best I've seen. A fully worked out, humane society with its own customs, institutions, methods of government, and history in a world with multiple climatic zones and ecosystems.

Unlike most fantasy it's not fantasy aristocracy--there's no binary-thinking "of the blood/not of the blood" or lords and slaves stuff. Magical ability is Gaussian distributed; the mighty sorcerers come from the extreme right tail of the distribution, but everyone has a place and is allowed to grow and contribute as they desire and are able.

Democratic/collectivist welfare state fantasy, perhaps.

1. Saunders's blog: https://dubiousprospects.blogspot.com/

2. Must re-read The Peripheral.

Thanks for providing the link. It was surprisingly hard to find places to buy the book

You’ve done much better in summing them up here then I’ve ever seen elsewhere or done myself personally. Well sluiced.

Will note the writing style is almost weirder and more niche than the rigidly strange content though if that’s possible. It’s not difficult to get past and without a doubt enhances the general vibe & chewiness of it all, but man the sentence structures are just downright convoluted at times. Totally fitting.

Holy shit you were not joking. I’m trying to like the book, but while I like the story, it borders on unreadable.

I find myself trying to figure out what the author was thinking while writing something out, as only half of the words seem to make it to the paper.

I remember it getting “easier” once the universe & style sank in a bit after they ventured out into the desert IIRC but yeah, definitely a reread while reading type experience.

Absolutely worth it if you can stomach it though, especially the second book with the wizard students and extensive civil engineering!

These sound fantastic. I’ll give them a read.

You sold me! Starting it now

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