Gentle, Mary Books

ASH

Mary Gentle

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Awesome gritty military fantasy. 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 12 people found this review helpful.

This book was great! I read the entire 1000 (or so) page volume in several days. It is reminiscent of the popular The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon, but, dare I say it, better.

It's a very realistic, gritty military fantasy. Ash, a girl, grows up as an orphan in a mercenary camp. At one point, she discovers a voice in her head that gives her tactical advice during battles. With the help of the voice, she grows into a brilliant mercenary leader.

The story is like alternate history/fantasy/hint of scific. Set in medieval France. Then, Carthage invades. And the brilliant general leader of the Carthagian forces happens to look exactly like Ash and also respond to a voice in her head. What is the voice? Is it hallucination, a demon, or a computer?

Great adventure, thrilling battles, mysteries, and discovering. The main character is a vibrant strong woman, very realistically portrayed. I wish there had been more romance. Ash is in an arranged marriage with a man she's really attracted to, on a base physical level, who has nothing but distaste for her. But, since this is not a trashy romance novel, she dismisses her lust for him for what it is, has no trouble beating him up or sticking to her grand plans of conquest and adventure. I loved it. I do wish that there was more sex though. After all, once the battle is won, the warrior herione must get her reward in the arms of a handsome boy, right?

My point is, you'll like this book.

Editorial Review:

For the beautiful young woman Ash, life has always been arquebuses and artillery, swords and armour and the true horrors of hand-to-hand combat. War is her job. She has fought her way to the command of a mercenary company, and on her unlikely shoulders lies the destiny of a Europe threatened by the depredations of an Infidel army more terrible than any nightmare.

Worlds That Weren't

Harry Turtledove, Walter Jon Williams, S.M. Stirling, Mary Gentle

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Alternate history is the branch of speculative fiction that explores what might have happened if history had taken a different turn. The obvious changes, like the Nazis winning World War II, have filled innumerable novels. Fortunately, the anthology Worlds That Weren't avoids the obvious with its four fine new novellas from four superior authors: Harry Turtledove, S.M. Stirling, Mary Gentle, and Walter Jon Williams.

The collection opens with "The Daimon," written by Harry Turtledove, AH's best-known practitioner. In Turtledove's turning point, the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates chooses to accompany General Alkibiades to war instead of remaining in Athens, and sets Alkibiades on a triumphant, terrible new course.

Set in the British India-dominated alternate history of The Peshawar Lancers, S.M. Stirling's novella is a rousing old-fashioned adventure. "Shikari in Galveston" follows a hunting safari through a regressed American frontier that might have given even Daniel Boone pause.

A prequel to her Book of Ash tetralogy, Mary Gentle's novella "The Logistics of Carthage" concerns Christian warriors serving pagan Turks in a North Africa conquered by Visigoths instead of Vandals, and is the strongest story in Worlds That Weren't.

The collection concludes with "The Last Ride of German Freddie," in which Nebula Award winner Walter Jon Williams considers what might have happened if the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche had taken himself and his superman theories to the Wild West. --Cynthia Ward

Grunts!

Mary Gentle

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 65 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Good read, Great fun. 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Opinions on this book seem to fall into two camps. The first are those who "get it", and have probably reccomended this book to everyone they thought was at all interested in a related genre. The second is the camp of those who don't get it, and who mercilessly rip every fabric of the work to shreds for its every tiny defect.

I'm in the first camp, and I hope you'll join me. At the very least, heed my opinion on the second camp- too many people try to take this book seriously. A quote on the cover says it all, "moves at a good clip and delivers plenty of gags". And that's what this book is all about- a nice quick story with lots of gags.

And they're great gags at that. Sure, the story isn't particularly solid. And there's nothing in the book that'll have people pulling out comparisons to Tolkein-esque visuals or Salvatore-esque characterizations... but that's sort of the point. Think of this book as the "Three Stooges" of the Fantasy genre, and you're on the right track.

I particularly reccomend this book to anyone who's ever played Dungoens and Dragons, known someone who played it, or laughed at someone who was playing it. So many elements here seem to be ripped right from late-night, caffiene-enhanced, power-gaming D&D scenarios that I'm surprised the Roleplaying community hasn't adopted this work.

Grab this book if you're a Fantasy fan who wants a truly lighter take on the genre- complete with lots of cursing, sex, and gore just for flair. Grab it if you're a D&D fanatic who's taken part in one too many sour campaigns. But mostly, just grab it. It's a great twist on the genre, it's a terribly fun read, and at least a few of the gags are going to be worth the price of admission alone.

Editorial Review:

A humorous fantasy epic follows a pivotal time in the lives of the Orcs, a brawny race whose ruthless fighting abilities and lower intellectual capacities invariably place them on the front lines of battle.

The Wild Machines:: The Book Of Ash, #3 (Book of Ash, No 3)

Mary Gentle

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Story Stalls In The Details, Redeemed At The End 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

As with book two of this ongoing saga, if allowed I would probably award this installment an additional half star. A shift back to Burgundy after Carthage, and, unlike the first two books, clearly separate in its plot development, Ash returns to confront the Visigoth forces besieging Dijon. While the military realism that has distinguished the earlier two books continues here, to a large degree it comes to dominate the bulk of the narrative, with much of the story bogging down in details about the siege and military councils. And, once again, we are regaled with descriptions of pauldrons, greaves, gauntlets and cuisses as Ash puts on and takes off her armor. While this contributed a great degree of realism to the earlier books, after innumerable acts of accoutrement the ritual and by now overly detailed arming of Ash has become worn and wearisome. The repeated descriptions of bevors and sallets, as well as mangonels and placement of forces, cannot alone sustain the story, and with very little else taking place, begins to erode the earlier value of its contribution.

As an previous reviewer has noted, the answer to certain mysteries is revealed, and the characterization of Ash and her company remain strong. However, much of these revelations come at the end of the book, along with a stirring variation upon the Great Hunt that does much to redeem the often plodding and repetitive detail burdening the earlier chapters, and acts as a springboard into the action that opens the fourth and final work of this quartet, "Lost Burgundy." While the detail dominating the first three fourths of this book, regardless of how well written, had begun to slow my interest, the narrative's vivid conclusion left me wanting more, and I have already begun the last book. Hopefully it will sustain the pace and interest established in this book's conclusion

Ancient Light

Mary Gentle

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Ancient Light 3 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

It's almost impossible to assign this book a numerical rating. It's an intelligent book, a book of good qualities, but it's also something I wish I hadn't read.

Ancient Light marks the return of Christie "S'aranth" to Orthe, now in the pay of an exploitative vaguely John Company-esque corporation. Will Witchbreed technology be rediscovered? What harm will the Company do post-holocaust Orthe? And how will Christie reinvent her relationships with her former friends and rivals?

Hampered by a slowly unfolding, jerkily paced and overly complex plot, this is at times a powerful book. It's powerful enough, especially taken with its wonderful prequel, to make me care; to make me care a lot.

And that's why I wish I hadn't read it. Without wanting to spoil the ending... to say that it's depressing is an understatement. It hurts. I suspect the book is a parable about interference and exploitation. It's not an unintelligent treatment. But it's not, by any stretch of the imagination, fun to read.

Editorial Review:

In 1985, Mary Gentle exploded onto the science fiction scene like no other first author in years with the bestselling Golden Witchbreed. Now, after four years, she returns with Ancient Light, her most spectacular achievement yet. HC: NAL.

A Secret History: The Book Of Ash, #1 (Book of Ash)

Mary Gentle

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Mary Gentle first came to prominence with the lovingly conceived and beautifully written SF novel Golden Witchbreed. Its sequel, Ancient Light, then took the world and premise built into the first novel and deconstructed it thoroughly. Gentle's latest plays some of the same tricks with reader expectations.

In a typical fantasy milieu, the mud and blood of a military camp in 15th-century Europe, a scarred and beautiful 8-year-old girl kills her two adult rapists. She is Ash. In unflinching prose, Gentle describes the child's treatment in a men's camp, then the teenager's hard lessons in the art and craft of war, and finally the young woman's rise to command a mercenary army. Ash, it seems, is not only strong and fast but has the advantage of hearing a voice that instructs her on troop deployment. To the well-versed SF reader, the voice begins to sound suspiciously like a tactical computer.

Just as the reader gets ready to reassign the book to time travel SF, Gentle inserts--in what are purported to be excerpts from a 21st-century scholar's e-mail conversation with his publisher--hints that perhaps the novel belongs in the alternate history category. By now Ash and her army are embroiled in war and politics up to their fluted breastplates (armor, like all the historical detail, is minutely and accurately described), and if swords and poleaxes were not enough, she now faces golems and the Carthaginian army. Amazingly, Gentle makes this impossible mix believable, and by the end of the novel it is apparent that this is the beginning of a most interesting series. --Luc Duplessis

Ilario: The Lion's Eye: A Story of the First History, Book One (Ilario)

Mary Gentle

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Ilario is not an easy character to like... 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Ilario has spent childhood as a slave, as the Iberian "King's Freak." A true hermaphrodite, abandoned as an infant to die, Ilario recently found out his/her mother was a court lady, the wife of the king's chief advisor, Lord Videric--who wants to kill him/her to stop scandal and keep their positions.

At the start of the book Ilario has come to Carthage, a city that is always in darkness (one wonders if any plants survive--or how the darkness comes about, but this isn't revealed). He/she's recently been freed by the Iberian King and wants to go to Rome to study art. Even the guy at customs wonders why an artist would come to a place of darkness. Ilario takes the suggestion of the customs guy and stays with him at his mother's place--and has sex... and ends up drugged and sold into slavery.

And the misadventures and odd decisions do not stop there--they, naturally, get worse, as the scandal may affect the course of kingdoms and Ilario's father appears to help, to his own cost. Ilario is NOT an easy person for me to like. I almost threw the book across the room half a dozen times. For instance, Ilario is immediately sold to a large but soft-spoken Alexandrian, Rekmire', and immediately demands to be allowed to practice art when not doing scribe work (IS there time-off for a slave?). Rekmire' seems to go out of his way to accommodate Ilario (who also refuses to sleep with Rekmire' who asked politely). Things continue in this vein--Ilario continues to rush head-strong through life, others want to kill him, friends try to help him. And the first book doesn't really end so much as pause, and the tale continues right from that moment in the second book.

Somehow, after simply deciding that Ilario was a bit crazy-- as well as those around him/her-- I kept being curious about what would happen. I picked up the second book when I got the first and am reading that, now. So far, there has been no temptation to throw it against the wall, but I remain somewhat detached from the characters and the tale, even though it still holds my interest.

EDIT: I'm in the middle of the 2nd book now and all the characters are MUCH more fun and likable now. Ilario still makes some crazy decisions, but they are more and more understandable, given the established character. I suppose I'm just getting more used to him/her! I think I would give the first book 4 stars, now, in retrospect--but can't change it in the edit function.

Editorial Review:

Abandoned and alone, the fosterling Ilario grows up as the King's Freak, surrounded by all the pomp, intrigue, and danger of the Iberian court. Fleeing a failed treacherous attack, Ilario crosses the sea to Carthage, where the mysterious Penitence shrouds the sky in darkness. There, a strange and awful destiny awaits the would-be painter, one that spans continents and kingdoms.

Filled with intrigue, sex, and mystery, Ilario: The Lion's Eye is a stunning tale of secret histories and self-discovery. The adventure continues in Book Two: The Stone Golem.

Cartomancy (Gollancz SF) (Gollancz S.F.)

Mary Gentle

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Editorial Review:

Mary Gentle is one of Britain's most outstanding writers of imaginative fiction, able to move seamlessly from science fiction to fantasy within the same story. Following on from the success of ASH, 1610: A SUNDIAL IN A GRAVE and the omnibus volumes WHITE CROW and ORTHE, comes CARTOMANCY, the definitive collection of Mary Gentle's short fiction. CARTOMANCY includes the stories from SOLDIERS AND SCHOLARS as well as a number of tales previously unpublished in book form, all with new afterwords and topped and tailed with a specially revised version of her split story 'Cartomancy'.

Lost Burgundy:: The Book Of Ash, #4 (Book of Ash, No 4)

Mary Gentle

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

There is more than one history of the world...

In a barbarous age in a world now forgotten, an extraordinary figure stood formidable on the European battlefield--a remarkable female warrior and strategist without equal...save one.

Dijon, the once-proud capital of Burgundy, has been pounded into near submission. The merciless soldiers of the Visigoth Empire stand hungrily at the gate, and at their fore, the beautiful, deadly Faris, unwittingly bred to tbe the instrument of a machine intelligence that seeks the end of humanity. The sun gutters weakly overhead like a dying candle, as the Wild Machines once again flex their dark, demonic power.

Ash, like her warrior twin, hears the Wild Machines' call--but unlike the Faris, Ash will not be their tool. For within Dijon's crumbling walls a fragile hope has bloomed: one who bears in her royal blood the ability to hold the dread Machines at bay. But defeating their dark plans will take a miracle--and ultimately, only Ash herself stands between Burgundy's implacable enemies and all humanity.

Lost Burgundy

The stunning conclusion to the remarkable true chronicles of Ash

White Crow: "Rats and Gargoyles", "The Architecture of Desire" and "Left to His Own Devices" (Gollancz S.F.)

Mary Gentle

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

White Crow 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

An omnibus edition containing Rats and Gargoyles, Architecture of Desire, two very nice short stories featuring similar characters and ideas to the first two, and a not-very-successful cyberpunk novella theoretically featuring the same characters.

My reviews of Rats and Architecture are on this site under those titles - I found both gorgeous, difficult and wonderfully original. One of the short stories describes Valentine and Casaubon's first meeting, while the other is a characteristically slightly cruel story of a renegade King's Memory. I enjoyed both very much. I didn't find myself engaged by Left To His Own Devices.

I recommend this attractive omnibus as an alternative to buying the two novels separately, especially since it contains the short stories as well.

Editorial Review:

The White Crow, one-time Soldier-Scholar of the Invisible College and a practioner of Hermetic science and magic, and Baltazar Casaubon, architect and lover, a man not too particular about his personal hygiene, are two of Mary Gentle's finest creations. The worlds they stride across range from the Renaissance city where aristocratic rats rule the human servant class, to a near-future London where chaos is come again. They are two of the most powerful players in the games of magic and politics, and the most colourful. This volume brings together three brilliantly imaginative, powerful and disturbing tales - Rats and Gargoyles, The Architecture of Desire and Left to His Own Devices - and the linked short fiction and confirms Mary Gentle as one of the foremost writers of dark and visionary fantasy.