Graydon Saunders
Graydon Saunders | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Notable works | The Commonweal series |
| Website | |
| dubiousprospects | |
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Graydon Saunders is a Canadian fantasy author, known for The Commonweal, a five-novel ebook series beginning with The March North (2014).[1][2] Reviewers have discussed the series for its dense prose, indirect exposition, and political treatment of law, slavery, egalitarianism and extreme magical power.[1][3][4] Saunders has also published the standalone fantasy novel The Human Dress (2018).[5][6]
Works
Saunders's first published novel, The March North, appeared as an ebook in 2014 under the Tall Woods Books imprint.[7][2] It became the first volume of The Commonweal, which also includes A Succession of Bad Days (2015), Safely You Deliver (2016), Under One Banner (2018) and A Mist of Grit and Splinters (2020).[2][8]
The Commonweal is set in a world where magic gives some individuals the power of states. William H. Stoddard, writing for the Libertarian Futurist Society's Prometheus Blog, described the series as centered on a society that tries to maintain law, collective defense and opposition to slavery in a world otherwise dominated by superhuman magical tyrants.[1] James Davis Nicoll similarly read the later books as concerned with how an egalitarian society can incorporate people of extraordinary destructive power without treating them either as slaves or as masters.[9]
Saunders's standalone novel The Human Dress was published in 2018.[5] Nicoll described it as a separate setting from The Commonweal, set in a Norse-influenced, post-glacial region whose human inhabitants face both dangerous beasts and sabotage.[6]
Reception
Stoddard called The Commonweal "one of the most interesting recent works" in fantasy, emphasizing its combination of magical worldbuilding with political questions about consent, slavery and the rule of law.[1] He also wrote that the books use unusually strong "indirect narration", requiring readers to reconstruct the setting and events from implication rather than direct explanation.[1]
Nicoll reviewed several of Saunders's books. In his review of The March North, he described the novel as "very lean and extremely dense", comparing its military fantasy elements to Glen Cook's The Black Company and its elliptical exposition to the work of John M. Ford.[3] Reviewing Safely You Deliver, he wrote that it and A Succession of Bad Days function almost as two halves of one story, centered on the consequences of training exceptionally powerful magic users inside a lawful egalitarian society.[9]
The economist J. Bradford DeLong recommended the series in 2018, describing The March North as "a tract on feasible socialism disguised as a grimdark military fantasy novel".[4] The statistician Cosma Shalizi was more reserved about A Succession of Bad Days, saying that its characters' voices tended to run together, while still noting its sustained attention to the physical logic of wizardly education.[10] The novelist Rachel Manija Brown wrote that Saunders's fiction was unusually strange and difficult to place in commercial fantasy, locating its influences closer to Beowulf and Njáls saga than to J. R. R. Tolkien.[11]
Bibliography
The Commonweal series
- The March North (Tall Woods Books, 2014)[7][2]
- A Succession of Bad Days (Tall Woods Books, 2015)[12][2]
- Safely You Deliver (Tall Woods Books, 2016)[13][2]
- Under One Banner (Tall Woods Books, 2018)[14][2]
- A Mist of Grit and Splinters (Tall Woods Books, 2020)[15][2]
Other novels
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Stoddard, William H. (June 19, 2023). "Magic, superhuman tyranny and creating a society without slavery in Graydon Saunders's fantasy Commonweal Series". Prometheus Blog. Libertarian Futurist Society. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 "Series: The Commonweal". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Nicoll, James Davis (February 19, 2015). "A world of ancient magics". James Nicoll Reviews. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 DeLong, J. Bradford (January 27, 2018). "Dubious Prospects". Grasping Reality. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Nicoll, James Davis (May 1, 2018). "Come to Burn Your Kingdom Down". James Nicoll Reviews. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "The March North eBook by Graydon Saunders". Rakuten Kobo. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- ↑ "Commonweal Book Series". Rakuten Kobo. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Nicoll, James Davis (May 25, 2016). "Not quite Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters". James Nicoll Reviews. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- ↑ Shalizi, Cosma (April 30, 2022). "Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur, April 2022". Three-Toed Sloth. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- ↑ Brown, Rachel Manija. "The March North, by Graydon Saunders". Rachel Manija Brown's Dreamwidth. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- ↑ "A Succession of Bad Days eBook by Graydon Saunders". Rakuten Kobo. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- ↑ "Safely You Deliver eBook by Graydon Saunders". Rakuten Kobo. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- ↑ "Under One Banner eBook by Graydon Saunders". Rakuten Kobo. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
- ↑ "A Mist of Grit and Splinters eBook by Graydon Saunders". Rakuten Kobo. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
External links
- Dubious Prospects – Saunders's blog
- Graydon Saunders at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
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