Alternative Worlds
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Ilario: The Stone Golem
Mary Gentle
Eos, Sep 2007, $14.95
ISBN: 9780061344985
Spanish King Rodrigo freed Ilario, the hermaphroditic freak, whose male and female sexual organs work, was abandoned by his mother at birth (see ILARIO: THE LION’S EYE). However, all is not idyllic for the mixed man-woman but he decides to become an apprentice painter in Roma. However, before he departs someone tries to kill him.
He flees Spain stopping in Carthage where the darkness of the Penitence leaves a cloud on everyone’s soul. However, Carthage proves a terrible mistake as he is captured and sold as a slave to the highest bidder. Having tasted slavery before, Ilario vows to regain his freedom and continue his trek to Roma. However, he-she is fortunate to have a kind master, a book collecting castrato. Ilario will soon learn the identity of his assassin, who tries again to kill him-her. Lady Rosamunda needs Ilario dead as she climbs the aristocratic ladder in Carthage; if the truth of her greatest shame came out she would be ostracized especially by her master Egyptian scholar Rekhmire.
Set in the Ash alternate historical universe, but decades earlier, Ilario is a terrific character driven tale that grips the audience from the onset as the author gently challenges readers’ concepts of reality with fascinating plausible spins and twists. Ilario is an interesting protagonist who thinks of people through which of his genders they have not yet met while Rosamunda’s motive to having him killed seems genuine especially anchoring the late fifteenth century era. Although one does not need to read the Ash saga, fans need to peruse THE LION’S EYE as THE STONE GOLEM is book two of the Story of the First History, Ilario’s tale.
Mary Gentle
Eos, Sep 2007, $14.95
ISBN: 9780061344985
Spanish King Rodrigo freed Ilario, the hermaphroditic freak, whose male and female sexual organs work, was abandoned by his mother at birth (see ILARIO: THE LION’S EYE). However, all is not idyllic for the mixed man-woman but he decides to become an apprentice painter in Roma. However, before he departs someone tries to kill him.
He flees Spain stopping in Carthage where the darkness of the Penitence leaves a cloud on everyone’s soul. However, Carthage proves a terrible mistake as he is captured and sold as a slave to the highest bidder. Having tasted slavery before, Ilario vows to regain his freedom and continue his trek to Roma. However, he-she is fortunate to have a kind master, a book collecting castrato. Ilario will soon learn the identity of his assassin, who tries again to kill him-her. Lady Rosamunda needs Ilario dead as she climbs the aristocratic ladder in Carthage; if the truth of her greatest shame came out she would be ostracized especially by her master Egyptian scholar Rekhmire.
Set in the Ash alternate historical universe, but decades earlier, Ilario is a terrific character driven tale that grips the audience from the onset as the author gently challenges readers’ concepts of reality with fascinating plausible spins and twists. Ilario is an interesting protagonist who thinks of people through which of his genders they have not yet met while Rosamunda’s motive to having him killed seems genuine especially anchoring the late fifteenth century era. Although one does not need to read the Ash saga, fans need to peruse THE LION’S EYE as THE STONE GOLEM is book two of the Story of the First History, Ilario’s tale.
