Since kicking off The Maradaine Saga with The Thorn Of Dentonhill in 2015, author Marshall Ryan Maresca has added more than a dozen novels to this epic fantasy series.
But he’s also included some shorter stand-alone novellas as well in a subseries he calls The Maradaine Saga Shorts, which he started in 2022 with The Mystical Murders Of Yin Mara.
In the following email interview, Maresca talks about the fourth novella in The Maradaine Saga Shorts series, The Royal First Irregulars (paperback, Kindle), including what inspired and influenced this shorter story, and why you don’t have to read the 19 previous books first.
For people who haven’t read any of the books, what is The Maradaine Saga about, and what kind of world is it set in?
The Maradaine Saga is a wide spanning fantasy epic, comprised of multiple series that braid into each other, telling a grander story that is a greater whole than the sum of its parts. It’s set in a relatively traditional fantasy world, filled with magic and mystery and heroes and villains, who all have some role to play in guiding the fate of the city of Maradaine, and the larger world around it.
And then what is The Maradaine Saga Shorts series about, and how do these novellas connect to the mainline Maradaine Saga books?
The Maradaine Saga Shorts are side stories to the larger epic. Essentially, short stand-alone stories focused on secondary characters from the larger saga, or just showing a slice of the larger world. The Withered Boy, for example, takes place in a different part of the world, and spans about twenty years, largely before anything else in The Maradaine Saga.
Which brings us to the new book, The Royal First Irregulars: What is Irregulars about, and when does it take place in relation to both the previous Maradaine Saga Shorts installment, The Withered Boy, and the mainline Maradaine Saga books?
The Royal First Irregulars focus on members of the titular company, who are introduced briefly in the second Maradaine Elite novel, Shield Of The People.
Lt. Fredelle Pence is one of the Royal First Irregulars, an all-female performance squad of the Druth Military, assigned to a “morale tour” of their show to remote forts and outposts in the northern archduchies. But she and a few other members of the squad chafe at what is being asked of them. When their commanding officer becomes ill, Fredelle is put in command to lead the Irregulars to finish the last two shows before returning home. The journey to the next performance offers them an opportunity to act as proper soldiers and help people — and her choices as commanding officer press at the tensions within the Irregulars, as well as exposes them to adversaries in and out of the Druth Army as they head to their final shows.
The other books in The Maradaine Saga were a mix of epic and urban fantasy. Is this how you’d describe The Royal First Irregulars as well?
Less “urban” in that most of the story takes place in remote military outposts, and the country roads between them. But tonally, yes, still in line with the other Maradaine Saga books.
It seems like The Royal First Irregulars has a bit of a feminist bent to it…
It has a predominantly female cast, which would make it feminist in some eyes. I suppose it does, much in the same way that, say, a movie like A League of Their Own does. I mean, I kind of feel like a book that is a predominantly female cast shouldn’t be uncommon or have a message merely for existing, but that’s not how the world works.
It sounds like The Royal First Irregulars might have some situational humor in it as well.
It’s weird, I never write to be “funny.” Or more to the point, if I do, I fail miserably. But I often end up writing things that folks find humorous, and that’s great. In this case, I think some of the characters are funny, in that they’re people who will say funny things, especially since all the main characters are fundamentally performers. But I never try to write “jokes” as it were.
Moving on to the always popular question of influences, what do you think influenced The Royal First Irregulars the most? And I don’t just mean in terms of authors and stories, but also non-literary influences as well: movies, TV shows, games. Because the ladies being elite soldiers sent to be on a morale tour instead of into combat reminds me of that part in Captain America: The First Avenger where the same thing happened to Steve Rogers.
I mean, it’s weird, my internal “pitch” for this story was essentially “A League of Their Own x Pitch Perfect 3 meets The Revenant.” Though you’re right that part of Captain America is probably also in the mix.
But I’m always a little cagey about specific influences, because it’s all influences, you know? All the things I watch and read get thrown into the crockpot in my skull and simmer away to make something new. Isolating which ones were which is a challenge.
As you said earlier, The Royal First Irregulars — like the other Maradaine Saga Shorts — is a stand-alone story. In the interview we did a few years ago about The Quarrygate Gambit, you agreed with me that Quarrygate wasn’t a good place to start reading The Maradaine Saga because it was the fourth book in The Streets Of Maradaine subseries. But given that it’s a stand-alone story, do you think Irregulars would be a good starting point for someone interested in this series?
I do. The story works whether you know Fredelle and the rest of the Irregulars from their appearance in Shield Of The People, and works better if you don’t, and it gives you a taste of the tone and style of the Maradaine Saga.
Given that, what will someone get out of The Royal First Irregulars if they’ve read all the other books in The Maradaine Saga?
Certainly, it gives deeper insight into characters they met in Shield Of The People, as well as a look at a different facet of the larger world, which is part of the point of the Saga Shorts. And it’s just an interesting story that hopefully they would enjoy.
So, is there anything else you think someone might need to know about The Royal First Irregulars and / or The Maradaine Saga?
The whole saga may seem intimidating, with so many different books and an explicit reading order, but if you give it a shot, you might find it like a good plate of loaded nachos: addictive and very satisfying.
Finally, if someone enjoys The Royal First Irregulars, they’ll probably go back and read the other books in The Maradaine Saga. But once they’ve done that — which will be like a week, since there’s only 19 books — what epic fantasy novel or novella of someone else’s would you suggest they check out next?
I will always shove folks in the direction of Fonda Lee’s Green Bone Saga, as well as Andrea Stewart’s Drowning Empire series, M.J. Kuhn’s Tales Of Thamorr duology, and M.A. Carrick’s Rook And Rose trilogy. All of them fabulously written, tons of action, and worth your attention.
