“March’s End” by Daniel Polansky

This was an excellent book that I have a major issue with.

Family is complicated. We all get that. It turns out that being part of a family that is also the hereditary rulers of a parallel fantasy universe doesn’t make it any less complicated. Who knew?

The Harrow family rules the March, a fantasy world that has more in common with Fantasia from *The Neverending Story* than anything else. You have the mechanized beings in the Clockwork Republic, the sentient teddy bears and tin soldiers and blankets-with-googly-eyes-on-them of the Toybox, the insect-like beings of the Hive, et cetera. The Harrows stand above it all, protecting and providing for everyone, ensuring peace between the realms, and defending the March against the deadly plague known as the End whenever it appears. This is a kind of contagious madness that affects the residents of the March, corrupting them into mindless beings bent on destruction.

There are four main characters to the book: the matriarch of the family/reigning monarch of the March, and her three children. The book jumps back and forth from when her kids are children and her reign is just beginning, to when her kids are grown up and she is dying, with some midway points as the story is spun out. The main part of the story is the period with her dying. The End is threatening the March, yet the Harrows are estranged from one another.

The story is, in the end, about family. It’s about how they fell apart as a family, and the big question is less about the March and the fight against the End then whether or not they can reconcile and find each other again.

It was, on the whole, an excellent story. All four are very human in their desires and their mistakes. The past doesn’t magically go away, but people can and do grow and move on. All very well done.

So as to my major issue: one of the characters (and we’re supposed to be sympathetic to all of them) does something I regard as an unforgivable crime, and though no one approves of it or anything, there also isn’t really any blowback. About the only thing I can say without spoilers is that it’s not a thing I would provide a trigger warning about. But I found it very hard to move past.

So on the whole: recommended, but with a strong “but.”

Comes out on May 9.