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White Crow Sequence #2
The Architecture of Desire
In 17th-century London two powerful magicians--the White Crow and her husband the Lord-Architect Casaubon--are embroiled in a deadly game of politics and magic. Only drawing upon long-forsaken talent will save them from "justice". A critically acclaimed work comparable to that of Ursula LeGuin and Frank Herbert.
Paperback
First published August 1, 1991
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114 people want to read
About the author
Mary Gentle
44 books204 followersThis author also writes under the pseudonym of Roxanne Morgan
Excerpted from Wikipedia:
Mary Gentle's first published novel was Hawk in Silver (1977), a young-adult fantasy. She came to prominence with the Orthe 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's series about his anti-heroic Jerry Cornelius, Gentle's sequence retains some basic facts about her two protagonists 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 version of 17th century and later England, where a form of Renaissance Hermetic magic has taken over the role of science. Another, Left To His Own Devices, takes place in a cyberpunk-tinged version of our own near future. The sequence is informed by historically existing ideas about esotericism and alchemy and is rife with obscure allusions to real history and literature.
Grunts! (1992) is a grand guignol parody of mass-market high fantasy novels, with orcs as heroes, murderous halflings, and racist elves.
Excerpted from Wikipedia:
Mary Gentle's first published novel was Hawk in Silver (1977), a young-adult fantasy. She came to prominence with the Orthe 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's series about his anti-heroic Jerry Cornelius, Gentle's sequence retains some basic facts about her two protagonists 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 version of 17th century and later England, where a form of Renaissance Hermetic magic has taken over the role of science. Another, Left To His Own Devices, takes place in a cyberpunk-tinged version of our own near future. The sequence is informed by historically existing ideas about esotericism and alchemy and is rife with obscure allusions to real history and literature.
Grunts! (1992) is a grand guignol parody of mass-market high fantasy novels, with orcs as heroes, murderous halflings, and racist elves.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 1, 2012
Well, hell. The cat just sat on the keyboard and erased a long, rambling review, so y'all should probably thank him.
In short - am torn. This book does really lovely things with women in an alternate history Cromwell-era London (featuring Olivia Cromwell and Queen Carola, like you do), with motherhood and career versus family and marriage and honor and all sorts of things. The heroine also rapes a woman who had already been raped by a mercenary while under the heroine's protection, then frees the mercenary right before his hanging after the raped woman's suicide. I think we're supposed to think that heroes are complicated, but the author went a little overboard on the "heroes do bad things" without ever showing us why our heroine was heroic in the first place.
Other disgruntlements: incredibly distant writing - very hard to get a hold of the characters. Rampant epithetism - the same character was referred to by four different monikers in half a page. (This probably didn't help at all with the distance in the writing.) And then the heroine's husband, who seemed a fairly decent fellow all around, was almost fetishistically described in his enormous, gross, greasy, snotty fatness. Did she mention he was fat? Because he was fat. When other characters would receive no physical description at all, every single one of his attributes would be modified by an adjectivial synonym for fat. And we'd hear about how he burst his seams or overflowed a chair or smeared a greasy pork chop over the rolls of fat in his face. Are you kidding me?
And yet I still give the book three stars, because the women. This passes the Bechdel test on steroids.
In short - am torn. This book does really lovely things with women in an alternate history Cromwell-era London (featuring Olivia Cromwell and Queen Carola, like you do), with motherhood and career versus family and marriage and honor and all sorts of things. The heroine also rapes a woman who had already been raped by a mercenary while under the heroine's protection, then frees the mercenary right before his hanging after the raped woman's suicide. I think we're supposed to think that heroes are complicated, but the author went a little overboard on the "heroes do bad things" without ever showing us why our heroine was heroic in the first place.
Other disgruntlements: incredibly distant writing - very hard to get a hold of the characters. Rampant epithetism - the same character was referred to by four different monikers in half a page. (This probably didn't help at all with the distance in the writing.) And then the heroine's husband, who seemed a fairly decent fellow all around, was almost fetishistically described in his enormous, gross, greasy, snotty fatness. Did she mention he was fat? Because he was fat. When other characters would receive no physical description at all, every single one of his attributes would be modified by an adjectivial synonym for fat. And we'd hear about how he burst his seams or overflowed a chair or smeared a greasy pork chop over the rolls of fat in his face. Are you kidding me?
And yet I still give the book three stars, because the women. This passes the Bechdel test on steroids.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 4, 2021
It breaks my heart to give this book a 2 star review. I looooved "Rats and Gargoyles", loved the protagonists, and was delighted to find out there was more White Crow & Casaubon out there.
Sadly, despite a vivid Cromwellian alternate universe, this one felt hollow. Seeing one of the characters I like commit a vile act with no explanation took away almost any enjoyment.
Sadly, despite a vivid Cromwellian alternate universe, this one felt hollow. Seeing one of the characters I like commit a vile act with no explanation took away almost any enjoyment.
August 31, 2017
I've loved Mary Gentle books in the past... but this was just bizarre. Character development non existent. Plot lines abandoned. Impossible to follow... and a random werewolf for no reason that was mentioned once!
July 28, 2023
Lots of nice ideas but too grungy for me.
January 19, 2012
Odd little book set in a fantasy version of Restoration London. Rapes and double rapes. Guilt. A cathedral that does not want to be built. Olivia Cromwell. Gentle often goes too far and too long in her stuff, but this time she goes the other way and doesn't really explain or develop, leaving one with a slight bad taste. Rated MA for sexual violence, coarse language and adult themes. 2.5/5
Want to read
September 10, 2010*note to self. Copy from A.= ( corgi books,1991 different cover,scan later)
May 2, 2013
Reads as a derivative of Gloriana, and not in an interesting way.
February 12, 2017
Ugh....why did I subject myself to this?
August 24, 2007
Even our heroes are corrupted and weak.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews