Marching Through Georgia [Paperback]

S.M. Stirling (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1991

The first novel of the rise and fall of the Drakan Empire, an alternative history saga. In 'Marching Through Georgia' the Draka begin their conquest of the globe as they fight and best that more obvious horror, the Nazis.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 410 pages
• Publisher: Baen (January 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671720694
• ISBN-13: 978-0671720698
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #530,140 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm a writer by trade, born in France but Canadian by origin and American by naturalization, living in New Mexico at present. My hobbies are mostly related to the craft -- I love history, anthropology and archaeology, and am interested in the sciences. The martial arts are my main physical hobby.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Master Race Meets the Master Class, December 28, 2003

By 

Arthur W. Jordin (Smyrna, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Marching Through Georgia (Paperback)

Marching Through Georgia is the first novel in the Draka series. In another timeline, the losers from wars in America and Europe, philosophers without followers, and other misfits migrated to the Draka Crown Colony in South Africa. Over decades the colony took over the entirety of sub-Sahara Africa and then the Balkans, becaming the sovereign Domination of Draka in 1919.

During World War II, the Domination entered the war with an airdrop onto Sicily in 1941. Six months later, the Germans had taken Moscow and the Wehrmacht in south Georgia are threatening the Draka conquests in Armenia. The Draka are assembling armored legions in Armenia to attack through the Caucasus Mountains and drop two legions of airborne at night to clear the passes of the Ossetian Military Highway. Opposing them is a panzer regiment of the Waffen-SS, Liebstandarte Adolf Hitler.

In this novel, the von Shrakenberg family are descendents of a Hessian mercenary paid off with land in southern Africa after the British lost their war against the American rebels. Karl is an Arch-Strategos, a general of the Supreme General Staff. His son Eric is Centurion of Century A, 1st Airborne Legion. His daughter Johanna is a Pilot Officer flying Eagle interceptors.

Karl is back in Castle Tarleton overlooking Archona, the capital of Draka. He is worried about Eric leading his century in the Caucasus Mountains and Johanna flying an Eagle out of Kars. He knows the North Caucasus campaign is risky, but necessary for the Domination to grow.

Century A has an American reporter, Bill Dreiser, with them as they drop into the mountains. It is his first airdrop and he is understandably nervous. As he leaps from the plane and falls, he grasps the release toggle and gives a single firm jerk.

This novel shows the personal lives of the van Shrakenberg family after the Sicily campaign in their plantation Oakenwald, intermingled with the assault on Village One along the Ossetian Military Highway. It describes the history of the Domination and the people who become the Draka. It also tells something of their serfs and their enemies.

The assault on Village One is depicted in great detail, from the first sentry taken out by the advancing Draka to the final confrontation and the subsequent relief by the Janissaries. It is a tale of a trained, experienced and well-led combat unit with excellent morale and determination. Unfortunately, they happen to be slave-holding imperialists.

This story is plausible and frightening in concept. What if the British had encouraged loyalists from the former American colonies to settle in South Africa? What if those settlers had been imperialistic and had expanded into Rhodesia a century before Cecil Rhodes? What if they continued their expansion to the rest of sub-Saharan Africa and then to the Ottomon Empire? Would the resulting state have a social structure combining the worst features of the Confederacy and the Afrikaners, but with a government more militarized and efficient than the Spartans or Prussians? Welcome to the Domination.

...The slave trade itself was banned in 1834 and this ban was enforced by British warships. However, the British hold in Africa was very lose prior to the 1880's and the taking of slaves within the African continent was not ended until 1891. Even after the Boer War, a form of non-chattel slavery remained in the practice of apartheid.

Highly recommended for Stirling fans and for anyone else who enjoys alternate history depicting ground combat in the worst of all possible worlds.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good, frightening, and quite clever, February 14, 2000

By 

M. Flegal (CT) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Marching Through Georgia (Paperback)

I have to admit, I enjoyed this book quite a bit, if enjoy is the right term for a book that focusses on mostly evil people.

Besides the rather interesting premise of the book, I found many of the aspects of the Draka out and out uncomfortable. They are not presented as moustache-twirling fiends, but rather as vigorous, focussed people so evil that they no longer even recognize it in themselves. These are people who honestly believe that their worldview is right, in spite of the fact that it is dehumanizing to their victims and serfs as well as themselves. I find this far more frightening than the popular view of racists who take delight in the fact that they can hurt others and are out and out sadists who wallow in their nastiness; rather they are akin to slaveowners, who were normal people who thought of themselves as good, but meted out horrors to their slaves.

The book itself is rather cleverly set out to where you often begin to like and admire these Draka, whereupon they matter-of-factly discuss some common atrocity that they perform and the reader is hit with a dash of cold water, realizing that these seductive people are almost anti-human. Tie this in with "Under the Yoke" where we see exactly what these people are capable of and I think you will get a rather clever peek into what true evil is.

As for the military aspects, they work rather well. In reality, a force like the Draka would have changed the world far more than we see in the novels before 1940, but it would have been an unrecognizable world to the reader. I think Stirling did as well as could be expected to put a rather implausible scenario into a history that we would recognize.

All in all, this is a good book in a good series.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars First in Stirling's alternate history universe of the Draka, September 21, 1997

By 

TANSTAAFL2 (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marching Through Georgia (Paperback)

I actually didn't come across this book until I'd already read the second in the series, Under the Yoke, which is the book that truly defines the heart of the series and fleshes out the background, world, and people that makes Stirling's alternate universe to real and so chilling. Nevertheless, you WILL want to read this book and it will become one of your favorite war novels.

Marching Through Georgia is mostly a straight military action adventure (though a very good one at that - I'd have ranked it higher, but the second book is even that much better). Stirling introduces most, if not all of the key facets of his alternate universe, but his objective is to write one of the best, fastest paced war novels I've ever read, so he doesn't play with the ramifications of the world he's created as much as he does in the later books of this series.

Go ahead and get this book. Even if you read 'Under the Yoke' first, you'll certainly get hooked and will want to read this one shortly thereafter