Mary Gentle
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A Secret History: The Book Of Ash,
Mary Gentle
There is more than one history of the world…
In the mid-fifteenth century there was Burgundy, the jewel of Europe-opulent and powerful, the undisputed center of an uncivilized world.
In an epoch of war and madness there was Ash. A girl born in mud and dung, she slew her first men while only eight. Scarred and ravaged, but still beautiful, she rose up to lead a great mercenary army before the age of twenty—and followed a sacred voice wise in the bloody ways of battle to a pinnacle unattainable to even the most potent of legends.
In a time when empires and alliances shifted like sand—when Mithras the bull was worshipped freely alongside the Christ—a great cloud arose out of Africa to darken the sun. The Visigoths came with their terrible machines-powered by magic or a science unknown to this day—and aimed their irresistible might toward the rich Burgundian prize, wrenching the wheel of civilization in an unknown and unexpected direction. And with their coming, one incomparable warrior raised on Destiny’s ash heap became more that anyone thought one woman could ever be.
Mary Gentle
It is a nameless city somewhere between past and future, a mythic realm at the “heart of the world,” where wicked Rat Lords have reduced all humankind to slaves, and god-daemons make the decision to end all existence. This energizes a compelling quest for survival, and prompts the powerful White Crow to order an uprising against this chaotic strike that threatens them all.
Among those who respond to her are the defiant Prince Lucas of Candover, a student at the University of Crime, and no mans’s slave; and Zari, the young Katayan woman who is destined to become the living Memory of all that follows. And others rally to join them in one final desperate revolt, hoping to create a magic powerful enough to reshape the very nature of how they live.
With this brilliant story, Mary Gentle has created a realm in which imagination knows no bounds. Rats and Gargoyles is her most masterful novel to date.
