Mary Gentle
Encyclopedia
Literary career
Mary Gentle's first published novel was Hawk in Silver (1977), a young-adult fantasy. She came to prominence with the OrtheOrthe
Orthe is a series of science-fiction novels by Mary Gentle.The Orthe series consists of the books Golden Witchbreed and Ancient Light and the short story The Crystal Sunlight, the Bright Air...
duology, which consists of Golden Witchbreed (1983) and Ancient Light (1987).
The novels Rats and Gargoyles (1990), The Architecture of Desire (1991), and Left to His Own Devices (1994), together with several short stories, form a loosely linked series (collected in White Crow in 2003). As with Michael Moorcock
Michael Moorcock
Michael John Moorcock is an English writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published a number of literary novels....
's series about his anti-hero
Anti-hero
In fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis in which the character is generally useless at being a hero or heroine when they're...
ic Jerry Cornelius
Jerry Cornelius
Jerry Cornelius is a fictional secret agent and adventurer created by science fiction / fantasy author Michael Moorcock. Cornelius is a hipster of ambiguous and occasionally polymorphous sexuality. Many of the same characters feature in each of several Cornelius books, though the individual books...
, Gentle's sequence retains some basic facts about her two protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
s Valentine (also known as the White Crow) and Casaubon while changing much else about them, including what world they inhabit. Several take place in an alternate-history
Alternate history (fiction)
Alternate history or alternative history is a genre of fiction consisting of stories that are set in worlds in which history has diverged from the actual history of the world. It can be variously seen as a sub-genre of literary fiction, science fiction, and historical fiction; different alternate...
version of 17th century and later England, where a form of Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
Hermetic
Hermeticism
Hermeticism or the Western Hermetic Tradition is a set of philosophical and religious beliefs based primarily upon the pseudepigraphical writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus...
magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
has taken over the role of science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
. Another, Left To His Own Devices, takes place in a cyberpunk
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a postmodern and science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life." The name is a portmanteau of cybernetics and punk, and was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk," published in 1983...
-tinged version of our own near future. The sequence is informed by historically existing ideas about esotericism and alchemy
Alchemy
Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...
and is rife with obscure allusions to real history and literature.
Grunts!
Grunts!
Grunts! is the satiric fantasy novel by Mary Gentle.It is set in a basic fantasy world taken from the usual The Lord of the Rings mold, with orcs and elves using magic and typical medieval weaponry, but it plays heavily on black comedy and strong doses of violence and graphic description,...
(1992) is a grand guignol
Grand Guignol
Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol — known as the Grand Guignol — was a theatre in the Pigalle area of Paris . From its opening in 1897 until its closing in 1962 it specialized in naturalistic horror shows...
parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of mass-market high fantasy
High fantasy
High fantasy or epic fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy that is set in invented or parallel worlds. High fantasy was brought to fruition through the work of authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, whose major fantasy works were published in the 1950s...
novels, with orc
Orc
An orc is one of a race of mythical human-like creatures, generally described as fierce and combative, with grotesque features and often black, grey or greenish skin. This mythology has its origins in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien....
s as heroes, murderous halfling
Halfling
Halfling is another name for J. R. R. Tolkien's Hobbit which can be a fictional race sometimes found in fantasy novels and games. In many settings, they are similar to humans except about half the size. Dungeons & Dragons began using the name halfling as an alternative to hobbit for legal reasons...
s, and racist elves
Elves in fantasy fiction and games
In many works of modern fantasy, elves are a race of semi-divine humanoid beings.-Characteristics and common features:Modern fantasy literature has revived the elves as a race of semi-divine beings of human stature who are friendly with animals. Fantasy elves are different from Norse elves and the...
.
Gentle formed part of the Midnight Rose
Midnight Rose
Midnight Rose was a name taken by a group of United Kingdom science fiction and fantasy writers for a series of shared world anthologies published by the Penguin Books imprint Roc. The group's "core members" were Alex Stewart, Roz Kaveney, Neil Gaiman and Mary Gentle...
collective in the early 1990s.
Her novel Ash: A Secret History (published in four volumes in the US) was a long science fantasy
Science fantasy
Science fantasy is a mixed genre within speculative fiction drawing elements from both science fiction and fantasy. Although in some terms of its portrayal in recent media products it can be defined as instead of being a mixed genre of science fiction and fantasy it is instead a mixing of the...
epic that won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History
Sidewise Award for Alternate History
The Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were established in 1995 to recognize the best alternate history stories and novels of the year.The awards take their name from the 1934 short story "Sidewise in Time" by Murray Leinster, in which a strange storm causes portions of Earth to swap places with...
in 2000. Gentle has since published Ilario, set in the same timeline.
She has also written a number of erotic novels under the name Roxanne Morgan.
Novels
- A Hawk in Silver. London: Gollancz, 1977. ISBN 0-575-02386-4
- OrtheOrtheOrthe is a series of science-fiction novels by Mary Gentle.The Orthe series consists of the books Golden Witchbreed and Ancient Light and the short story The Crystal Sunlight, the Bright Air...
series- Golden Witchbreed. London: Gollancz, 1984. ISBN 0-575-03332-0
- Ancient Light. London: Gollancz, 1987. ISBN 0-575-03629-X
- Orthe (omnibus edition). London: Gollancz, 2002 (paper). ISBN 0-575-07287-3
- White Crow sequence
- Rats and Gargoyles. London: Bantam, 1990. ISBN 0-593-01948-2
- The Architecture of Desire. London: Bantam, 1991. ISBN 0-593-01952-0
- Left to His Own Devices. London: Orbit, 1994 (paper). ISBN 1-85723-203-8
- White Crow (omnibus edition). London: Gollancz, 2003 (paper). ISBN 0-575-07519-8
- Grunts!Grunts!Grunts! is the satiric fantasy novel by Mary Gentle.It is set in a basic fantasy world taken from the usual The Lord of the Rings mold, with orcs and elves using magic and typical medieval weaponry, but it plays heavily on black comedy and strong doses of violence and graphic description,...
. London: Bantam, 1992. ISBN 0-593-01956-3 - First History sequence
- Ash: A Secret HistoryAsh: A Secret HistoryAsh: A Secret History is a fantasy novel by author Mary Gentle. Set in the 15th century, the novel blends elements of fantasy, alternate history, and secret history...
(vt US). London: Gollancz, 2000. ISBN 0-575-06900-7 - Ilario: The Lion's Eye. London: Gollancz, 2006. ISBN 0-575-07661-5
- Ash: A Secret History
- 1610: A Sundial in a Grave (vt US A Sundial in a Grave: 1610). London: Gollancz, 2003. ISBN 0-575-07250-4
As Roxanne Morgan
- Dares. London: X Libris, 1995 (paper). ISBN 0-751-51341-5
- Bets. London: X Libris, 1997 (paper). ISBN 0-751-52046-2
- A Game of Masks. London: X Libris, 1999 (paper). ISBN 0-751-52308-9
- Who Dares, Sins. London: X Libris, 1999 (paper). ISBN 0-751-52938-9
- Sinner Takes All. London: X Libris, 2000 (paper). ISBN 0-751-53073-5
- Degrees of Desire. London: X Libris, 2001 (paper). ISBN 0-751-53087-5
- Maximum Exposure. London: X Libris, 2004 (paper). ISBN 0-751-53400-5
Collections
- Scholars and Soldiers London: Macdonald, 1989. ISBN 0-356-17893-5
- Left to His Own Devices. London: Orbit, 1994 (paper). ISBN 1-85723-203-8
- Cartomancy. London: Gollancz, 2004 (paper). ISBN 0-575-07532-5