Theodore JudsonReseñas

A very provoking book. A prescient satire, with a deus ex machina. A number of sympathetic characters.

I had issues with awkward sentences. There were many run-on sentences and long sentences that made you lose your train of thought. Some information came so late in the book and at times there was information overkill. I hated the jumping around of the places as I felt things/setting wasn't fully established to the reader. Lucky, the condition of the world and the reason behind it is, just not all the locations. Maybe it is the jumping from past to present that is so confusing. I also wished that the characters were consistent. Golden, for example, is made out as a sneaky, brown nosing, con-man who is somewhat educated or at least well spoken. When we meet him we get it hammered into us that he is fat and he ends up being a pervy fat, old man who acts nothing like the letters and such.

Other characters progressed well, though. The ending was the best thing about this and not because it ended but because the last 70 or so pages were actually paced well and had good character development.

If it wasn't for the messed up sentences...2 stars it is.

Post-apocalyptic novel based on the Roman Empire from the age of the Antonines on.½

This modern-day fantasy story is about a soldier from ancient Rome who has been given a second chance.

Maternus (mentioned in Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire") has spent the last 1800 years in Hell because his file was lost. When it is retrieved nd processed, he gets a chance to prove that he is not just a killing machine. When he was alive, there were a number of instances where Maternus would kill only those who deserved to die, and spare the innocent. But Mr. Worthy, and angel, and Banewill, a demon, make the stakes very clear to Maternus. If he loses his temper, and lets out his inner warrior, even once, a new, and very permanent, level of Hell will be created just for him. Is Maternus sent back to the days of the Roman Empire to show that his soul has not totally vanished? He is sent to present-day Aurora, Colorado.

Mr. Worthy sets up Maternus (now Matthew August) with an apartment, and a janitor job at the local middle school. Maternus is also given the ability to read, and he is introduced to the local public library, where he spends much of his time. There he meets Stephen and Shen, both residents of a local rooming house. Stephen, who is white, is one of those who is constantly writing letters to the editor of the local newspaper about some Major Crisis (next week it will be some other Major Crisis). Shen, who is black, is very handsome, and attracts the ladies like flies to honey. He is also a poet, performing at local poetry nights, which Maternus attends.

Mr. Worthy and Banewill give Maternus several seemingly impossible tasks to perform. They inlcude bringing some joy and companionship into the lives of Edith Pink, a student at the school where Maternus works, and Margaret Lambkin, a resident at a local nursing home. Both Edith and Margaret are the sort of people for whom the description "mean, rotten and nasty" is much too generous. Through it all in this strange new world, Maternus is comforted by the memory of Maria, a woman he met during his soldier days, and whom he has never forgotten.

This story is surprisingly good. It's got heart, it's got intelligence and it says a few things about present-day America. The reader will not go wrong with this one.

A sort of madness overcame us; we had an infinity of bullets and an infinity of Chinese before us. Every one of our men felt he was killing thousands. Our infantry fired ever round the teamsters could carry to them; they fired until the raindrops sizzled on the rifle barrels. Death ran wild. How terrible it is, I thought, that the Yukons should be so good at this.

It is the early 26th century and the Yukon Confederacy (whose lands include North America, Australia, Greenland, Iceland and the British isles) is the most powerful country in the world. From its beginnings as a agrarian organisation based in North America, To start with I was surprised to see references to knights and hereditary lords, the Union Jack, and money being referred to as pounds and quid, but I soon realised that this must be due to the Yukon Confederacy wanting to distinguish itself from the American government that it replaced.

There is a steampunk feel to Yukon technology, since an emp field produced by satellites prevents the use of electricity on earth, and zeppelins are used for most long distance travel, as there are limitations to how high and fast steam-powered aeroplanes can fly. However, the Yukons have made advances in other areas, particularly with regard to technology with military applications, since they are a warlike society, whose men spend much of their lives in the armed forces. The human life span has also increased, with many citizens of the Yukon Confederacy living to 120 or more, as long as they avoid dying in an epidemic, being killed in a war, or being assassinated. A woman who died aged 81 is described as having died tragically early.

The memoirs of the General Sir Robert Mayfair Bruce paint a dark portrait of national hero Lord Isaac Prophet Fitzpatrick, Consul of the Yukon confederacy Robert and Fitz met when they were student officers at the War College, and Robert continually found himself compromising his ideals as Fitz consolidated his power and embarked on his plan to conquer the whole world.

Robert paints his close friend as a megalomaniac whose evil deeds were whitewashed after his death, while the historian who is re-publishing the memoirs in the late 26th century, apologises for publishing a scurrilous pack of lies written by a malicious and traitorous fantasist
. His copious footnotes draw attention to all the places that the memoirs disagree with the historical record, but reader can draw their own conclusion!

I had never heard of this author before finding this book on a BookCrossing bookshelf, but I found this book extremely enjoyable, even though military science fiction is not usually my thing. The one thing I didn't like so much was Robert's strange and submissive relationship with his wife Charlotte, which I found jarring. Overall this book wouldn't have been half as good if it had been presented as an ordinary novel; the historian's introduction and footnotes really make the book worth reading.

Readers who never learned any Roman history, or are able to put aside what they know, will best enjoy this tale of a tottering empire a few centuries hence. The plot plagiarizes the "Year of the Five Emperors" that followed the death of Commodus (A.D. 192), with flashbacks to that monarch's reign and to his father Marcus Aurelius. It's not clear why the author felt he needed this template. If one ignores it, the book is about a loyal, narrow-minded and naive public servant in an age when out-of-control technology is devouring itself. The overarching theme is the reversal of progress. Each year is a bit more backward than the last, and moral decay accompanies material decline.

General Peter Black struggles to preserve the Empire of his youth, without understanding what ails it. The narrator, his illegitimate daughter, is more savvy but likewise a prisoner of her own time and place. In the end, General Black enjoys a happier fate than his historical counterpart Pescennius Niger. After the defeat of his bid for imperial rule, he finds a haven in the equivalent of the barbarian lands, and we see the next generation of his descendants entering the world in reduced, but not unhappy, circumstances.

In its approach, the novel resembles those of Alfred Duggan, with the story told by a character on the fringe of events, from the perspective of the time. In fact, much of the material overlaps Duggan's Family Favorites. Perhaps Mr. Judson wanted to write an historical novel but was intimidated by the research involved. Perhaps he conceived an SF novel but couldn't think up a plot. In any event, he has kerplopped between two stools and produced a book that is quite good but not what it could have been.

A memoir (or secret history) set two-hundred-odd years in the future, Justa Black is the daughter of the last honorable general of the Pan-Polarian Empire, a polity in lineal descent from the United States and which is falling apart from nano-tech plagues, strategic overstretch, and just plain old corruption and idiocy. While not bad, that the author has looted Roman history a little too literally (particularly the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus) makes it hard for me to get especially excited about this novel. I actually do give the author points for making this a father/daughter story, which is a nice twist.½

Holy crap this is a great book! I know, I sound like Raymond's father; but I just wanted to be sure I adequately conveyed my enthusiasm for this novel. I cannot recommend it highly enough. How's that? Tom Wedderburn is a character I will not soon forget. I will place him up there with Stoner, a character created by another fine western writer, the late John Williams. Like Wedderburn, Stoner was a largely solitary and absolutely honorable man whose life was not particularly happy. The fact is, TWL reads like a memoir, like a very good memoir. I was hooked from the book's opening line: "My dad warned me early on that other people would not be interested in my story." I was still hooked at the last page and wished there were more, as Tom Wedderburn finally says: "...somehow happiness had survived as long as we had. I cannot write anything more true than that. I will miss the moments of happiness when I am gone from the earth, and I hope God grants me more of them in the place I'm going." While this is a serious book about an honorable man, the way Judson often slips in some subtle humor makes the story even richer. His description of a Marine drill sergeant at Parris Island and the DI's dead-on accurately obscene haranguing of the new recruits is simply classic and made me laugh out loud. I will say it again. Tom Wedderburn is as real as any fictional character can get and this is a wonderfully human, funny and moving story. Having said all this, I must warn you of one niggling fault with this book. It was published carelessly by a company apparently only interested in getting paid; and it is simply riddled with dozens of typographical errors. A good editor would have fixed this. But IN SPITE of this problem, this is still a TEN-STAR memorable read. I can't believe that this was Judson's first book, or that a NY publisher didn't snatch it up. Well, enough raving, I suppose. Loved this book!

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER

I wanted to tackle this SF book a few months ago, but I just really didn't have the time. And I'm afraid this particular book just isn't for me. It's a re-telling of the fall of the Roman Empire, but I think those who are well-versed in Roman history will enjoy the book far more than I did, as they can spot the parallels and cleverness that I didn't. As a science fiction book that stands on its own two feet, it doesn't work, and the title doesn't deliver on its implicit promise: a book about a DAUGHTER of a general on MARS. Too much telling with cardboard characters, at least this book was short, or I would've given up on it.

The full review is in my journal, if anyone's interested. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome.

REVIEW: Theodore Judson's THE MARTIAN GENERAL'S DAUGHTER

Happy Reading!

Told through the eyes of Justa, the daughter of the title, we novel describes how an empire, when centered on one man can fall into ruin so that it becomes a shadow of itself. In this case, the empire is the Pan-Polarian Empire, the ruler of most of the Northern Hemisphere. Really the remains of the American republic, this new empire has followed in the footsteps of its Roman predecessor. Due to our own stupidity, mankind has invented nanomachines that destroy technology, so man is now rapidly descending into a life of living hand to mouth, having to fend for himself and provide for all his needs without the benefits provided by technology and electricity. In this world is Peter Black, the general of the title, who lives by the old code of honor, duty, and loyalty, even as those who he follows are first evil, and then truly mad.

Many references are made to Roman and Greek history, and those readers who have seen movies like Gladiator and Spartacus or are well read in classical history will have a multitude of moments of epiphany when they see events and actions that have an intentionally written parallel to what we know of history, especially that of the Romans. I found these moments pleasurable, as I could say I knew something of the true history that informed Judson's writing, and could feel that just as I was reading for pleasure, I was learning as well. Those themes and ideas that history teachers had made so dry and boring were understood in reading The Martian General's Daughter. I can now read the histories of Rome and other empires with a better understanding of what they are all about.

This novel is now proudly displayed on my shelf, and I plan to one day hand to my child and use it to teach them about how empires fall. This fictionalized account is able to succinctly encapsulate the events and feeling of that kind of time, and while it can never replace a learning of history, it is certainly a starting point for discussions on politics, religion, and culture.

Full Review at Grasping for the Wind½

The Martian General's Daughter is another book from the up and coming publisher Pyr, written by Theodore Judson.

Set more than two centuries from now, The Martian General's daughter titular character is Justa, the daughter of Peter Justice Black. Black is a General, the best General, of the Pan-Polarian Empire, a successor state to the United States, and a military bidder for world power. The book chronicles the life of Black, and his daughter as seen through his daughter's eyes. In the process, we also get to see the decline and fall of an Empire, in a narrative that switches back and forth from the end of the story in 2293 to an advancing narrative that begins at 2278 with the last days of a philosopher-king Emperor, Mathias, and continuing to chronicle Black's story under the reign of a spoiled, lesser son.

The twelve year reign of the son is a slowly unfolding disaster, as his inattention to anything except his own petty interests and desires ruins the Empire his father built...

Stop a moment if you have heard that story before.

In point of fact, although set in this fictional future, the story of Black and Justa take place in an Empire which is very much like the Roman Empire at the end of Marcus Aurelius' reign (the philosopher king) and the subsequent mess of a reign of his son, Commodus. In point of fact, as if to reinforce the point, there is a character in the narrative, Cleander, whose name, position and role in the narrative is the same as it is in the history that Judson borrows from.

Where Judson finds originality in borrowed history, however, are the characters of the general, and his daughter. With everything we see and hear filtered through her thoughts and impressions, Justa becomes a fully fleshed and detailed character, even if overtly she only is shining a light on her father, and the Empire as a whole. This is the strength of the novel, and where it succeeds the most. Black is an original creation, not a clone of Maximus from Gladiator. or Livius from The Fall of the Roman Empire.

The novel has a few shortcomings, however. These mainly are the speculative fiction elements of the future that we are presented. We are given enough information to get a rough sense that the Empire begins sometime in the last 21st century. The sociological changes, though, don't really seem to hold up. I couldn't buy that, in the time frame of the Empire, that Christianity would be persecuted, driven underground and discouraged, and then, in an subsequent religious revival, would NOT be the primary religion to surface. While the panoply of religious cults are interesting (and at least one important to the plot), I still think that the religious makeup of the Empire didn't quite make sense.

Finally, there is the title. While "The Martian General's Daughter" is a lovely and evocative title, Judson doesn't do anything with it. Why, in a world of failing technology, Black and Justa are sent there is never actually made clear. And his time there doesn't seem to add much if anything to his "legend". Black does many great things, but calling him the Martian General is a misnomer at best.It has been suggested to me though that the title uses Mars as a appellation of Mars, the God of War. Given that Black is described as, and we see evidence of, him as the best general of his age, this is quite plausible. So my criticism of this is not as strong as you might think.

Still, even with these shortcomings, the writing is crisp, the characters are well drawn and depicted, and while Judson does borrow heavily from history, he borrows *interesting* history. There are reasons why I find the Roman Empire fascinating, and Judson, through the lens of Black and Justa captures that fascination and retells it anew.½

Here is our future, writ large upon the bones of those who came before. Read it and weep.

I read this the week before the U.S. elections of 2004, and it was entirely too depressing for that reason--that doesn't make this bad, just rather sobering. The jacket copy was actually informative, for once. This book is about how history is not only written by the victors; if the victory is sufficient enough, history can be altered. This is a future in which engineers rule in secret, and a ruralist religious government controls the world in the wake of devastating biological warfare. A young leader attempting to recreate the glory of Alexander the Great comes to power. One of his close associates writes a damning memoir (the text of the novel itself) which was evidently not believed. He went beyond the strictures of his society, and the victors couldn’t deal with it.