Hi guys...happy new year!!!Ash: A Secret History by Mary GentleI feel I have to recommend this book with table pounding intensity to all of you. It's long, epic length...in fact the American version was spread out over 4 books, I read the British version which was one long, almost 1200 page brick...worth every page!!! (BTW, according to the author, this is the way it's meant to be read, the segregated U.S. version was just a marketing ploy.)This book worked on so many levels that it made my head spin and, quite frankly, I've never read anything like it. With it's combination of Medieval history (takes place in the latter half of the 15th century) portrayed in a stark real tableau ...to real, you might think after reading it (gritty, filthy, dirty, cold, destitute and uncompromisingly violent are all adjectives that are apropos) mixed with...quantum physics!!??!?...this book was completely unique.In a nutshell, a modern day historian finds a manuscript that tells of the last 6 months in the life of a female leader of a mercenary company. As events unfold, and they do so slowly as would happen with a 1200 page book, you begin to realize that the history that is being translated from these manuscripts is slightly askew. Not completely unbelievable at first but...something a little odd. The more you read, the more it becomes clear to you, the reader as well as to the historian that what he has found is a little slice of history that was never written about in any known history book in the last 500 years.Things progress, events become more alien and...what is and was totally amazing to me was...I was buying it! Mary Gentle forced the Kool Aid down my throat and I was totally onboard that I was actually reading real history. The way she wrote it...crystal clear realism (I heard she got a couple degrees from University in Medieval studies, weaponry and warfare) put me there, right in the middle of it. There were a number of characters in this book, all of them fleshed out and developed quite richly.And then there was the quantum physics aspect. I think Gentle successfully justified what was happening in the 15th century with modern day theories of many worlds, string theory, time paradox and who knows what else...certainly not me...but I still bought it. Don't get me wrong, this was not the "meat" of the book, that took place mainly in the city of Dijon and a Carthage. But,it was there and it was the aspect that put me over the top and completely blew my mind. The cosmic implications were staggering and, my head is still hurting from it.This book is not George R. R. Martin, not even remotely close...I wouldn't even call is fantasy. I'm not sure what I would call it other than speculative fiction of the highest order. The best book I've read in the last 2-3 years maybe...HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
A big fat book of 1120 close-printed pages of pure awesome! A perfect blend of historical-fantasy with near-cutting-edge SF and heaps of battles, violence and (because it is a "free translation" of an "historical" body of work) an absolute ton of rude words - I almost made up a "Swearing" shelf just for this book, but settled for the more descriptive "Housebricks."Ash is a mercenary captain who has heard voices for half of her young life. They advise her on tactics leading her to a reputation as one of Europe's best soldiers of fortune. But an invasion of Europe from the empire of Carthage leads her to discover that her powers aren't as miraculous as she might think...... in the present day, Pierce Ratcliff, an academic, is working on what he calls the definitive edition of Ash's life. He discovers that there are some differences between the world Ash lived in and the world he studied the history of for so many years. This leads him to question the nature of history, the universe and everything.I freaking love this book to bits. If you have a spare month and enjoy a book that covers just about every theme and topic known to man and still keeps you rattling through because almost every character, action and word is compelling, you probably will too.
What do You think about Ash: A Secret History (2001)?
Looks like a big fat fantasy novel, but this alternate history is actually terrific science fiction, or, if you prefer, science fantasy. Mary Gentle has an MA in military studies, and this is a well-researched story of late-medieval warfare, modern-day scholarship, and crazy speculative physics. The woman warrior Ash and her compatriots are some of the most compelling characters I've come across in a long time. Also please note: (1)I have no interest in big fat fantasy novels (2)I dislike really long novels in general, and the page count of this book is at least twice the "too-long" threshold for me. And I loved every page of it! I feel a bit lost now that I've finished it--I read it over a period of about a month and a half, drawing it out because I didn't want it to end too quickly.
—Lynda Rucker
This is a LONG one, but it kept me willing to read on and on. It's done in an interesting format being a translated manuscript between and author and publisher, not every writer can pull this off well but Gentle does.This book is chock full of stuff (for lack of a better word?). The ending was completely not anything I would expect which suited the rest of the book I suppose, it did get a bit strange and delved into the world and physics though. This book has isn't afraid to show the grit and pain that was a part of this lifestyle, it's full of the harsh realities that tend get glossed over or romanticized in books and movies in a similar setting. This book really takes you through a gamut of emotions; there are things that will disgust you, disappoint you, chill you, sadden you, make you laugh, make your heart ache in good and bad ways, make you proud, and cheer you. This one is worth a shot if you have the time and dedication.One thing that irritated me though...I wanted to SMACK Ash for all her stupidity where Fernando was involved, she is so strong and all of the storytelling is so rich and has wonderful depth until he prances in. Every damn scene he is in goes down the shitter. The writing suddenly feels more like a 15 year old boy writing how he thinks a female thinks. I get that Ash has this achilles tendon, but lordy those scenes killed me.
—Sandra
I would probably like the last decade in fantasy more if it had been influenced by Ash (which I would categorise as science fantasy, leaning slightly towards the fantasy side) rather than Perdido Street Station (which beat Ash out for the Clarke Award). The conceit of an academic presentation of a 'found' text is one of my favourite things, and the way it's handled in this book, through an ongoing email conversation between the author and his publisher, makes me love the modern characters as much as any of the ones we get to know in the main plot. On the other hand, an Ash-influenced fantasy genre might just have produced a bunch of boring Singularities.I also love the classical influences on Gentle's writing - at one point I realised I was reading a worldbuilding infodump done via ecphrasis, and the switching of tenses between simple past and historic present works very well. I also want to associate the repeated descriptions of Ash's physicality with the epithets of Latin epic, though that may be a longer bow to draw.
—Chris
