Customer Reviews

The Martian General's Daughter

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Having enjoyed Fitzpatrick's War enormously, I was delighted to find The Martian General's Daughter. I read most of it in a sitting, and my only disappointment was that it ended. This book is shorter than Fitzpatrick's War, but has all the same virtues. Judson is one of the rare novelists who doesn't need an editor (or has a good one). His writing is literate and vivid, and he manages to pack a lot of character, incident, history, imagination and moral philosophy into a compact length book. Novelists like Stirling and Turtledove, to whom he has been compared, could learn a lot from Judson. Their interminable series, while diverting, are padded with excessive description and exposition. Judson manages to entertain and get his points across in far fewer words. Since the theme of the novel is taken directly from the history of Rome, one is reminded of the old saw from Pliny the Elder: "If I had more time I would have written a shorter letter." Judson took his time, and wrote a shorter, beautiful book. His influences are, clearly the classics and probably Cordwainer Smith. The only reason I don't give this book a fifth star is that the story line is a little too obviously lifted from Suetonius.

After reading Fitzpatricks War I was looking forward greatly to the second novel however I found that it was perhaps a bit shorter than I was hoping for in that some areas of the empire seemed glossed over and skipped in order to keep the story tight with the current decline of the empire which is told using a end of Rome commentary. I would have liked to see more about the empire and the actions between the years as the story can be finished up in a few sessions at most and at the end I felt there were some questions left unanswered. How did the empire form? How did the other nations/empires fair?
Addionally and this is no fault of the author but for a short novel the format of the book is a bit odd given I feel a paperback would have worked better and since Mars has nearly no impact on the story why in the title?
However, overall I still found it an excellent story, one in which I am happy to have added to my collection and now look forward to any next novels the author will be putting out.

In AD 2293, the Pan-Polarian Empire, a direct descendent of the United States, rules over most of North America at a time when a pandemic nanotech plague has destroyed all hardware. However, with the recent death of powerful Emperor Mathias the Glistening, the nation is in jeopardy. His successor, his son Luke Anthony, is a psycho.

General Peter Black leads the imperial armies. He was very loyal to the competent Mathias and wants to remain so with the incompetent Luke, but has little choice as the empire begins shattering into pieces. Fearing for his family, he especially worries about his illegitimate offspring Junta who has gone from an embarrassing reminder of her dad's weak indiscretion to his prime advisor.

The futuristic story is told by Junta who sadly chronicles a dying once glorious empire as she sees it diminishing from a cancer from within. She is fully developed and from her hero worship jaundiced perspective her father and the late emperor seem real; so does the current ruler, who in Junta's mind is a sort of insane Nero. However, what makes THE MARTIAN GENERAL'S DAUGHTER superb is the thought provoking parallels between Pan-Polaria, Rome, and the United States; as Theodore Judson makes the case that the American Empire is dying from a cancer from within.

Harriet Klausner

The second future history novel from this talented writer. This book, however, is a bit disappointing in comparison with Judson's prior novel - Fitzpatrick's War. Both books draw inspiration from Classical history. In Fitzpatrick's War, the life of Alexander the Great, in this book, the history of the Roman Empire. Fitzpatrick's War, however, is considerably more imaginative. The future empire in Fitzpatrick's War is constructed of an ingenious compound of Renaissance civic republican political theory and the ideas of the great Arab historian Ibh Khaldun. The Martian Generals Daughter is largely a transcription of many of the lurid features of later Roman history transposed to the future. These include Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus, and quite a few other episodes and characters from Roman history.
Judson's apparent preoccupation with empires and their failings is interesting. Is this a warning about the dangers of imperial aggrandizement?

Fitzpatrick's War is one of my favorite books, so I waited with baited breath for this one to come out. Judson's follow-up is, like Fitzpatrick's War, a clever, post-apocalyptic, science-fiction version of classical history; in this case, the death of Marcus Aurelius, the reign of his mad son Commodus, and the beginning of the age of the Roman barracks-emperors.
Unfortunately, "The Martian General's Daughter" lacks much of the depth of Judson's previous work. There is no detailed historical background that reveals how the world has arrived in the shape set forth in the book. Nor are the characters particularly compelling: instead of the complex, brilliant, and hopelessly flawed Fitzpatrick, we have a caricature insane-emperor stock character, Luke Anthony; instead of the angst- and guilt-ridden Robert Bruce, we have the dispassionate and clinical Justa, and the childish outbursts of Abdul Selin are poor plot compared to the machinations of the disturbingly affable Dr. Murray.
Judson intended this book to be a warning of where we are headed, but there is little craft to his allegory and without any notion of how the society he depicts evolved, there is little to indicate what exactly he's warning us about.
That said, this was an enjoyable and easy read. Students of classical history will still be entertained by the many references to Imperial Roman culture and society.
I'm still hoping for Judson to return to Fitzpatrick's World and write Tri Ogalala, the book that his fans have been waiting for for some time.

If you read Fitzpatrick's War, then you'll be somewhat disappointed in Mr. Judson's new book.
Like his first book, this one chronicles the fall of a North American empire sometime in the future. However, if you know anything about Roman history, you'll soon see that it's all rehashed stories of the fall of Rome.
Perhaps because I was so impressed with Fitzpatrick's War, anything he wrote next would be a disappointment.

I had not read Fitzpatrick's War, so did not come into this book with any particular expectations - it was in the new release area of my local library and it looked interesting.

It was certainly interesting - a strange mix of future tech with a backdrop of the ancient Roman civilization as that technology fails and the emperor going mad as Nero. The characters are well drawn out - from the crusty but loyal General Black to the daughter Justa to the several political adversaries. The title is a bit misleading - while told from her perspective, it is much more about the General and how his character - almost his soul - is so out of contrast against what society has become, and particularly how unworthy his emperor is of his loyalty.

The story takes place both on Mars and Earth, although Mars isn't really that much of a factor, and it could just as easily have been Siberia instead without changing the story. It jumps back and forth from place to place and time to time (often decades, sometimes years) from chapter to chapter, and I am not certain that worked completely. I think a straightforward timeline from beginning to end, such as I, Claudius had done to refer to an obvious comparison, would have been easier to read and keep the particular conspiracy going on at that time in place for the reader.

I believe the author intended the reader to come away thinking that General Black was victorious - whether through his own actions or the survival of his bloodline. With the massive death and depravity presented in the last couple chapters, that wasn't the impression I received. It felt more like a small raindrop in the ocean of a sick society, and it was a little unsatisfying due to that.

Overall, an interesting story with an uncertain message.

Far out, I tell you:
This here book just blew my mind.
Read it, Friends, or else!

Set over two hundred years into the future, in a world like Imperial Rome, The Martian General's Daughter tells of one General Peter Black through the eyes of his devoted daughter, raised on battlefields. When a plague threatens their kingdom, the general must choose between tradition, war, and the daughter he loves in this fast-paced military science fiction fable.

There's a subgenre of Science (excuse me, "Speculative") Fiction where a futuristic story is built on a framework borrowed from historical or mythical events. David Drake does this a lot, and if you're a fan of the kind of military SF Drake specializes in, you'll probably enjoy his version of the Odyssey (Cross the Stars) the Argonautica (Voyage) or the Anabasis (The Forlorn Hope). Drake's retooling of these stories work because he uses them as a point of departure for his own storytelling.

If Theodore Judson knows how to do that sort of thing, he doesn't show it here. He simply takes the 3rd century and moves it to the 23rd, with only the most minimal changes. Thus Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor and Stoic Philosopher becomes Mathias the Glistening, Pan-Polarian Emperor and Stoic Philosopher! Where the Roman army has Gothic auxiliaries mounted on horseback, the Pan-Polarian army has Mexican auxiliaries mounted on motorcycles. Instead of the emperor's degenerate son Commodus (recall him as the villain in "Gladiator") blaming his apparent cowardice on a skittish horse, we have the emperor's degenerate son Luke Anthony blaming his apparent cowardice on a malfunctioning APC. And so on.

The big problem here is that none of these transpositions make sense. Judson makes a lame attempt to explain that civilization has regressed due to a "nano-plague". That explanation doesn't really cover much -- it certainly doesn't explain why Roman-style polytheism is once more in vogue, and a lot of other things that appear to be a certain way just because they were that way the first time around.

I lost interest in this one halfway through. Some of Judson's other works sound sort of interesting, but it will be a very long time before I give them a look, if ever.