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Title: Carthage Ascendant : The Book of Ash 2 by Mary Gentle ISBN: 0-380-80550-2 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 01 February, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.78 (9 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: A detailed look at 15th century life, but slow at times
Comment: I like the series because it seems to be an accurate, gritty view of life in 15th century Europe. The author brings out little details that usually aren't found in period novels, like her men always cussing and "scratching under their codpeices". Now there's something I wouldn't have thought about...
And when Ash is commanding her men in battle, shouting orders, getting her men in position, I can almost smell the smoke from Angelotti's guns and hear the screams of the horses. These are the best parts of the book. The author definately knows how to present a battle scene from the perspective of a company captain.
Unfortunately, there is too little action in the first two books, and especially this book. Ash's long periods of self-examination really grow boring and add nothing to the story, except a feeling of "hey, no kidding Ash; you just figured that out?". This book is about 200 pages too long. And slow. And Ashes attraction to del Guiz makes her seems EXTREMELY shallow.
But despite all that, I'm still drawn to the story because, first, I keep waiting for a battle and second, I love the feeling of being dropped into the period. The author's research into battle tactics and the period itself really make the story come alive.
I would recommend the book to people who like historical novels or who might enjoy the medieval mercenary setting. The series is worth a look.
Glenn Bontrager
Rating: 5
Summary: Swords, and now some sorcery
Comment: Carthage Ascendent is the second Book of Ash, although this isn't a series but a tremendous novel published in four parts. It's the only one that takes place away from Ash's stomping grounds of western Europe, where the other three books are set. Here, our heroine, the leader of a mercenary company, is captured and taken prisoner, then returned to her birthplace of Carthage. She didn't know this was her birthplace, and this is not the Carthage you think it is. Oh, and she's got this twin who is the general of the Visigoth army. And if you think that isn't weird enough, there's no sun in Carthage. And now it's getting very cold.
Yes, things are defintely getting beyond a straight historical fiction, but it doesn't read like just fantasy either. The story of Ash is supposedly a manuscript translation, but the editor wants to yank the project because the manuscripts are disappearing from their supposed libraries. Meanwhile the translator has joined an archaelogical expedition and is finding evidence supporting the events in Ash's life.
This second book has a very different sense than the first one, since we meet her as a competent leader, and now she's reduced to a defeated slave. But with two more books to go, there are plenty more plot developments, and they are very surprising. The "voice" in Ash's head is not what she thought it was in Book 1, and dealing with it takes up a good deal of her worries (that is, when she isn't plotting her escape). Her husband shows up in Carthage, too, and she gets to watch the politics of the amirs here after handling European nobility in book 1. Have I mentioned that there is a lot going on here?
Keep at it and enjoy. Check out the reviews of Book 1: A Secret History if you haven't already.
Rating: 2
Summary: Mary Gentle's The Book of Ash - Part II
Comment: This is the conclusion of my review of the whole work. Part I is found under volume 1, A Secret History.
NO LAUGHING MATTER
We would assume there would be some comic relief in so long and depressing a novel, yet we search for it in vain. Ash's sordid world is generally unrelieved by any humor. But every so often we are told that some characters chuckled, guffawed, or burst into laughter. It is fortunate that we are told this, because we can then re-read the text to try to find out why. The wit and humor in this book are so feeble and simple-minded that one is forced to conclude that the characters are the type of people who would convulse in laughter if somebody merely broke wind. While reading this interminable work we are usually in the company of simpletons (i.e., the men of the Lion Azure passant guardant affronte look-I-swear-I'm-a-lion-and-not-a-leopard, really.)
TWO HEARTS THAT BEAT AS ONE
Ash's love for Fernando del Guiz is even weirder that the alternate universe flapdoodle. She says she hates him (as well she should), he is a coward, a wimp, a swine....but Ash just loves him to pieces, because he's handsome. This must be a "woman thing." A man cannot understand it. It tends to destroy the whole feminist agenda of the book. It turns Ash into a giddy teen-age girl (instead of the homicidal, sociopathic teen-age girl we know and love.) But wait, wait--maybe this whole episode is the comic relief I thought wasn't there???
PATTON--WHAT A GOOD MOVIE!
"I don't want you guys to die for your flag--I want the Visigoths to die for theirs." [II,80] I was disappointed that Ash didn't add something like, "And when your kids ask you what you did in the great Visigoth war, you won't have to say you shoveled muck in Antwerp." But at any rate, I then understood the earlier slapping incident. Could Ash be George Patton? (Considering that Old Blood and Guts believed in reincarnation, we may have a hook for a whole new series here.)
DEUS EX MACHINA
An earthquake is a pretty feeble plot device to get characters out of a tight place.
EXPLETIVE NOT DELETED, NOT EVER
Question: How many times is a certain four-letter profanity used in the book?
Answer: 590
Question: How many times is it Ash who uses it?
Answer: 373
Question: Does this bother you?
Answer: Yes
Question: Did you actually count the times?
Answer: Yes
Question: Where is the editor when you need him?
No Answer
The churls of Ash's world do not impress us by their mindless and repetitive profanity. Ash herself should have her mouth washed out with soap. (Too bad Leofric didn't think of that.)
TO BATTLE! (WHAT'S HAPPENING?)
The fog of war never billows more thickly than when a battle occurs. From the first skirmish, which is so vaguely narrated as to seem surreal, to the Battle of Auxonne--a pitched battle if ever there was one, just begging for a map, an OB (order of battle, troop list), and clear prose, but which is instead described only from Ash's confused and incomplete viewpoint--we are usually unsure as to what is happening. We do not even get a map of Dijon, where we are stuck for two volumes.
FINALLY
Anyone who has had the patience to read this whole review might well now ask why I read all four volumes when I found in them so much to dislike. I could take the easy way out and say it was because I had bought them and wanted a return for my money, but that is not the case. No, I finished them, and gave them 2 stars instead of 1, for several reasons. The main one is that, in spite of everything, I liked Ash--or at least I felt sorry for her. She never gives up, and is strong and brave. I kept hoping she would grow and show some recovery from her horrible past. I hoped she would give up on Fernando and turn to Floria. I wanted to see how it ended (as disappointing as that was to me.) I also have to admire an author who can write so long a story and get through the enormous task of seeing it into print. Ms. Gentle also never quits, and is strong and brave. But when all is said and done, I do feel that the limitations of this work far outweigh its virtues. Caveat lector (Let the reader beware.)
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Title: The Wild Machines: : The Book Of Ash, #3 (Book of Ash) by Mary Gentle ISBN: 0380811138 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 01 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: A Secret History : The Book Of Ash, #1 (Book of Ash) by Mary Gentle ISBN: 0380788691 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 05 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Lost Burgundy: : The Book Of Ash, #4 (Book of Ash, No 4) by Mary Gentle ISBN: 0380811146 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 01 December, 2000 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Sethra Lavode (V of A) by Steven Brust ISBN: 0312855818 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Grunts!: A Fantasy With Attitude by Mary Gentle ISBN: 0451454537 Publisher: Roc Pub. Date: 01 August, 1997 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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