A Mist of Grit and Splinters

[jsburbidge]

This review has spoilers for prior Commonweal books; which seems reasonable because this is definitely a book to read only after what goes before.

(Graydon's novels are not so tightly connected as to be considered chapters in one work, but they are nevertheless more tightly connected than, say, the Barsetshire Chronicles.)

Those readers who regretted the shift away from military fantasy after The March North will be pleased with this volume, which is throughly military fantasy.

The events in that first volume started a number of cascades of events, on which the next two novels barely touched (except for placing Dove into training for an Independent); and even Under One Banner, while following up one general consequence - the change in the strategic role of artillery - does it from a different perspective; Eugenia is barely aware of the March at the beginning of the book.

The two principal viewpoint characters in AMoGaS are veterans of the March who have, as a direct consequence, gone from being reservists to officers in the Wapentake, just as that body has gone from a kind of Territorial Reserve to a fully operational part of the Line. Of them, one is a cross between Achilles and General Ulysses S. Grant (without the affinity for horses); the other a competent and throughly pragmatic officer with a flair for tactics ("Tactical Genius Barbie").

The book is about the kinds of change to the Line necessary for the Second Commonweal to survive, and about some of the ways in which Creek traits call for subsidiary changes to the Line. It's also about the ways in which the changes in artillery doctrine seen in UOB are vindicated on a much larger scale.

It is about how a small polity with limited forces but advantages in knowledge and information sharing manages to defeat an invasion by a vast seagoing empire.

It is about the place of the deliberately anti-heroic in a disciplined army and how that intersects with a heroic temperament.

It is about handling trauma: of the principal characters, two have been literally put back together after serious injuries; a third has to cope with the responsibility of having taken over after they fell. Several other characters have left the Line and are trying, with difficulty, to reintegrate into society. In one somewhat comic scene a noncombatant is showing signs of significant emotional stress simply in contemplating what the Line is doing to prepare for the next fight, and the next.

Like all the books in the series, it is worth the read.

Comments

[graydon]

I cannot tell you how tempting it was to have Slow wind up with a horse-thing, but alas, the context could not support it.

[commodorified]

I am now picturing Slow riding Eustace into battle and my soul is glowing gently at the thought.

[graydon]

One would regularly expect someone would need to be a sorcerer to get an eustacen to listen, but Slow could manage it.

Still, alas, somewhat contrary to the Line's infantry traditions. :)

[commodorified]

I believe the traditional function of cavalry is to attend these events to ensure that the battle does not degenerate into a common brawl. :-)

[graydon]

That is one of the aristocratic justifications for the cavalry tradition, yes. :)

Horses are relatively sensible creatures and want nothing to do with sorcery. Cavalry in the Commonweal is a scout-and-messenger tradition with a terrible survival rate. So Blossom can have an official pattern saddle for Stomp and maybe even a Line-plausible reason (being able to see over the artillery, personal mobility along the line of march) for wanting to bring Stomp (actual reason; Stomp gets So Sad when left alone) but it's not frequent with artillery officers, and certainly not the Heavy Line, where it's unheard of.

(Various spoilers for book seven are being forcibly repressed, here.)

[jsburbidge]

When your entire strategic aim of combat is to obliterate the enemy with the Standard focus well before they can be engaged physically, (or, now, with artillery) cavalry charges are conyraindicated; likewise the use of light cavalry as pickets. Nor do you need gentlemen on the personal staff as gallopers when communication is through the Standard..

[graydon]

All extremely true!

The scout cavalry tradition is a "we are pretty sure there's a horrid thing in that province somewhere; try to localize it before the brigade advances, so we surprise it more than it surprises us" rapid survey sort of thing. The Heavy Line has issues with sustained rate of advance and with being very, very obvious in magical terms, so maintaining the direction of surprise as outward is difficult in several circumstances.

Much more relevant to the western extent of the First Commonweal, where the southern border has no natural barriers associated with it.