The Marshlanders

The Infinite Games Series #1

by Annis Pratt

The Marshlanders is about the conflict between self-sustaining communities and their enemies, who are determined to drain their wetlands for agricultural development. Clare and William are adopted by marsh dwellers and coastal farmers after William's father, a pharmacist, has been murdered and Clare has barely escaped with her life from a public shaming of her mother. Their communities are threatened by a cabal of merchants, ministers, and apothecaries. The merchants are buying up their common land, the ministers insist they renounce their love of the earth and of their own bodies, and the apothecaries, greedy to corner the market in herbs, persecute their traditional healers. The Marshlanders are joyously sensual, seek harmony with their watery landscape, and are creatively practical, always looking for new ideas about farming, irrigation, navigating, foraging, and weaving. Their enemies are sexually violent and seek to dominate nature. They pursue technology out of greed and govern by male domination and military force. This novel has a fast paced plot and is a compelling read.

328 pages, Paperback

First published May 20, 2010

About the author

I have always longed for a world where people are more interested in each other's good than their own. I have always lived in a world where people are more interested in competing for profit and status than in each other's good.

Do you live in a world of greed and long for a world of good?

What human evils endanger our beloved planet?

Can we do anything about it?

My Infinite Games Series - The Marshlanders, Fly Out of the Darkness, The Road to Beaver Mill (all available on amazon.com); and the Battle for the Black Fen, forthcoming with Moon Willow Press in summer 2017 - are my way of asking those questions and suggesting answers to them.

I taught English and Creative Writing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for many years, but I eventually threw my full professorship out of the window to engage in community activism and novel writing.

I chose speculative fiction with a real world (non-fantasy) flavor to tell the story about how environmental degradation began in the early modern era, based on the historical conflict between "Merchant Adventurers" and self-sustaining Fen dwellers. My novel series fits nicely into the new genre of Eco-Fiction.

During research trips to East Anglia, I discovered that the Fen people revolted against the Bishops at Ely as early as the eleventh century, rose up against unjust landlords in the thirteenth century, and, as the Fen Tigers, conducted such successful guerrilla skirmishes against the drainage schemes of the Earls of Bedford that it took 300 years for their completion.

My Marshlanders seek harmony with nature and each other. Their enemies want to drain their wetlands for exploitation and profit.

I believe my invented world makes for more compelling page-turners than if I wrote strictly historical ficton. My Infinite Games series is suitable for young adult readers as well as for adults.

Reviews

[Linda Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Marshlanders by Annis Pratt is a cleverly woven tale about the interaction of two very different worlds. She draws heavily on her background knowledge of the world of the riverbank and fills her story with characters, who live in and love the natural world of the marshlands and their struggle to save their environment from the advances of those who seek to change it for monetary gain. The heroine of the story is a young girl who is thrown into a series of dangerous adventures in the quest to save the marshlands and, in this first book of the trilogy, we see her grow from childhood into womanhood. It is an enchanting story, full of much to interest the reader as well as to entertain The author's prose style, defined by her American heritage and her career as a University Professor of Creative Writing, is clear and easy to read. A delight!

[Annis Pratt]

wrote this myself: enjoy!