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Customer Reviews of MARCH THRU GEORGIA

"Gripping" is an overused word in reviews, but it is an uncannily perfect word to describe this entire series, set in an alternate-history where the Loyalists established a colony in south Africa after losing the American Revolution.

"Marching Through Georgia", the first in the series, takes place in the early 1940's. The Draka have dominated and enslaved all of Africa, the Middle East, and much of Asia. They have lain in wait as the Nazis exhausted themselves conquering Europe and battling Russia. Now, the Domination of the Draka is poised to take advantage of the situation and extend its iron grip yet again.

The Draka -- men and women both -- are trained from birth to be outstanding fighters, both individually and collectively. They are also trained how to be slaveholders, how to most effectively tame, train, and use human beings, as some people tame, train, and use horses. Draka are dedicated to the survival of the State, and believe that "if you desire the ends, then you desire the means".

Unfortunately for everybody else, the only way the Draka will feel secure is to put the rest of the world "under the yoke".

Stirling could easily have written the Draka as stereotyped evil villians -- powerful and nasty and easy to hate. But the author did something far more impressive ... he(?) made them human. There is much to hate about the Draka and their society, but there is also much to admire. Better yet, Stirling helps you understand *why* the Draka are who they are -- and why their slaves are who *they* are. As "inhuman" as some of their actions are, it is clear the the Draka are, indeed, all too human. *This* is Stirling's accomplishment, this is what makes this series so impressive.

(The other books in the series are "Under the Yoke", "Stone Dogs", and "Drakkon".)

Good read but premise full of holes
I read this book (and the rest of this series)a few years ago. The basic premise is that American Loyalists developed a colony in South Africa after losing the American Revolution. They develop a society based on slavery and conquest. At the time of "Marching Through Georgia", this society has conquered all of Africa, much of Asia and is ready to pounce on the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany who are in the throes of WW2.

The series is interesting, but I believe fatally flawed. First, it assumes that the Domination could build advanced war machinery without the rest of the world catching on. The Domination develops armored cars and exports them to the American Confederacy in the 1860s, performs air strikes on Turkey during WW1 and goes after the Nazis with tanks that could probably hold their own against modern day M1 tanks. Despite the excellent results (for the Domination), the rest of the world never catches on and uses this war technology! Another problem is that it assumes Great Britain would permit a slave society within its empire in the early 1800s. The early Domination is a British Colony with slaves at a time when slavery was abolished in the Empire and the British were shutting down the slave business with force of arms.

If you can get past these big problems, it isnt a bad read however.

Unreadable, but not in a BAD way...
S. M. Stirling, Marching Through Georgia (Baen, 1988)

I'm not going to call marching Through Georgia a bad novel. I got a lot farther through it than the usual fifty-page rule. My only real problem with it was, quite simply, it didn't hold my interest.

This could very well be because I have trouble slogging through war novels of most stripes (Harry Turtledove's Guns of the South had much the same effect on me, despite its classic status). The book was originally recommended to me for its depictions of the society of the Draka, but I found it so difficult to get through I simply couldn't appreciate them.

So I'm not saying it's bad, I just couldn't get though it. You may have a different experience. Gets the gentleman's C.