His Soul is Marching On to Another World; or, the John Brown Isekai

Beautiful, this is exactly what I've been looking for lol. John Brown isekai is a very funny concept thanks for making, I have always hated isekai normalizing slavery in such a manner that it feels really weird and forced. I saw a meme and didnt think this would be real.

Short stories can't be assessed using the same yard stick as regular novels.  Consequently, there is no time for progressive character development or intricate plot design.  Ultimately, it comes down to a simple question; Did you enjoy the story?"  My answer is a resounding YES!.   "His Soul is Marching On" takes the historic revolutionary figure of John Brown Isekia, drops him in another world. From there, we follow his comedic progress as he continues his passion to free all slaves. Finally, it wraps up with a marvelous, bittersweet ending tying his real and fictional lives together. 

Highly recommended.

Fantastic. At times it becomes abundantly aware that this is a silly, if fun concept. But most of the time, I'm there for the ride. John Brown lends himself naturally to a good swashbuckling story lile this.

Im left wanting more and more. For that, its as good as anyone could wish for.

Only reason it's not 5 is that it could have been longer :P

I love the scenes where JB is just being a absolute Chad in freeing the Slaves and helping create a new constitution in the new world.

What a way to send of this Gigachad of a man!

I salut thee author San! From a fellow Author to you!

You ever start reading a portal fantasy story but 9/10 get creeped out and drop the story because the portage just has to go out and buy himself some slave girls because of some creepy wish fulfillment? 

You ever wonder why nobody writes a story about these modern day protagonists going into another world and starting a revolution and killing these bastards or something?

Or in other words...

Why don't these Protagonists act more like John Brown instead of Thomas Jefferson?

This story is just that! A story NOT about some creep who travels into a magical world, buys a slave girl, and starts a harem.

No! This is a story about a protagonist who goes into another world and STARTS A SLAVE REVOLT! 

Bonus points because the author actually seems to know quite a bit about the history of John Brown!

Hey.

Let's be short and sweet. The premise is interesting. It's basically john brown fanfiction. The title say it all.

I joined, hoping for some spartacus moments.

It start nice. The prelude is strong. The author seems to like his research, it's nice.

Unfortunalety, the style is woobly. Is this serious, or not ?

The narrator is omnipotent yet most description feel woobly. Multiples tentacles, or four ? Why tell me both ? Why did i had to rethink that scene ? Nothing even happen in this fight ?

About the story, The author could have gone full crackfic, having john running from the kingdom from the start, freeing slaves, seeding chaos, using charisma and will.

But here slaving is magical and John is stuck on a cave making soap.

Could have gone a realistic angle, but well, slime, soap, jokes about adventurer and misplaced armor plate.

Characters are just jokes. How can you write a full page about the two of them talking about their whole lives while avoiding the topic of magic, of cheat skills, of anything of import ? It's just, they talked, she feel better and now understand him.

Could have been great. Maybe is. But this start is boring to me.

I'm a bit sad now :'(

Be stronger and read on to find the gem that could be

This was great fun. This maybe went on a bit longer than the bit warrants, but I enjoyed the whole thing.

Prompted me to read up on some of John Brown's writing, amazing stuff. This is probably how it would go if he was isekaied.

His soul goes marching on.

Very fun comedic take on a isikai. If a bite sized fast moving tale about John brown, daredevil historical abolitionist destroying fantasy slavery sounds like something you would enjoy definitely give this a shot. Really fells great to show a bunch of edgelord would be protagonist slavers what for. 5/5 stars would liberate the cat girls again 

I have read many works of fiction but no other has made me as consistently happy as this one, characters that make you smile every time they talk, antagonists that play on the common trope of isekai mcs, and a story makes you feel like the real john brown is coming inside you. Overall, this story is what makes me feel like we need more mediums for independent writers to make original stories, who knows, maybe someone could even make a jack black isekai. (Please I am begging you to make a jack black isekai). Anyways, I would rate this as a very solid 9.8 out of ten, I literally stayed up until 2 a.m. just to read this. I have no idea how I'm supposed to get to 200 words normally so uh, John Brown is love, John Brown is life. John Brown is love, John Brown is life. John Brown is love, John Brown is life. John Brown is love, John Brown is life. John Brown is love, John Brown is life. John Brown is love, John Brown is life. John Brown is love, John Brown is life. John Brown is love, John Brown is life. John Brown is love, John Brown is life. John Brown is love, John Brown is life. John Brown is love, John Brown is life. John Brown is love, John Brown is life. John Brown is love, John Brown is life. John Brown is love, John Brown is life. John Brown is love, John Brown is life. John Brown is love, John Brown is life. 

In style and content, the closest comparison for John Brown Isekai is probably  Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Both involve their 19th century main character being violently transplanted into a medieval fantasy world (although with less fantasy in Twain's case). Both involve their progressive protagonist undermining backwards and oppressive social regimes. Both slowly accumulate a cadre of followers who adopt their leader's modern ideological leanings (at least that seems to be the direction JBI is heading as of Chapter XVII).

The appeal is similar (albeit with due respect to Twain's status as a master writer). John Brown Isekai is at its best when it is delivering little historical factoids, playing with what its characters know and do not know, deconstructing genre expectations (burlesques for Twain, isekais for JBI), and delivering the audience satisfaction when their modern sensibilities win out over political evils.

If there is a "cheat skill" John Brown has, it is his ability to stumble into success through single-minded - bordering on pathological - adherence to his brand of moral Christianity. A fair shake given the man himself. There isn't a lot of suspense when Brown goes stumbling into an altercation for that very reason, but the appeal, like that of a moral fable, is knowing that things will turn out alright for him through moral righteousness alone.

Not every story can be everything though, which is why John Brown Isekai sacrifices a few elements in service of its central conceit.

This is not a story for deep character studies, for instance. John Brown's character, by necessity, must be one-dimensional for the jokes to land and the plot to make sense. The side characters have some small, plot-related developments, but are largely in service of deconstructing a certain type of "slave-centric" isekai, and are thus constrained by that role.

The setting, similarly, isn't so much a steak you can sink your teeth into as a platter of familiar tropes served upside-down. And while some interesting political critiques are nodded to, they aren't intended to be deeply explored and interrogated the way A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court does.

This is not to say that JBI needs, or would be well served, by having these elements in it. A morally gray and complex John Brown sounds like a recipe for being an unfocused snoozefest. Discarding too many isekai staples would undermine the satire. And the levity of the humor relies on there not being too much heady ideology for the reader to juggle.

Ultimately, this is a fun little story that delivers on its central premise exactly how you expect it to. It entertains throughout with more than a few killer lines like:

"Old John Brown had expected to encounter slavery. He had expected to encounter crimes against humanity. He had not expected to encounter a catgirl."

The build-up to revolution is fun, as are the historical asides and the pains taken to make sure John Brown knows, speaks, and acts exactly what and how his historical counterpart would. The writing can be a bit dry and matter-of-fact. The concept a little shallow now and again. But I can't be too harsh on it for accomplishing exactly what it sets out to accomplish.

This is a fun little isekai, better written and with a far better premise than a lot of other generic titles, and I would highly recommend it.