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Scholars and Soldiers
This is the first story collection by the fantasy author of "Golden Witchbread". The collection includes two previously unpublished novellas - "Beggars in Satin" and "The Knot Garden".
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
70 people want to read
About the author
Mary Gentle
46 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 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 29, 2013
An excellent collection of short stories by Gentle, featuring an
entertaining introduction from Neil Gaiman as well. However, I've
previously read the Mary Gentle short story collection "Cartomancy," which, I believe, includes all of these stories, plus some additional ones. So you don't really need both books.
Contents:
Beggars in Satin.
This novella introduces the young warrior White Crow, and the
corpulent lord Casaubon who becomes her lover, the characters featured in Gentle's novels"Rats & Gargoyles" & "The Architecture of Desire." It really helps to understand their characters and relationship. The young warrior/scholar comes to Casaubon in response to a plea for help - he has aimed to create a wondrous garden - but something is going horribly wrong.
The Harvest of Wolves
A future encounter between an aging former radical and the young man who is assigned to both care for and spy on her. Ruthless in its
vision of the self-centered nature of humanity.
The Crystal Sunlight, The Bright Air
This story takes place on Orthe, the world of the novels "Ancient
Light" and "Golden Witchbreed."
In it, an agent of the Holy Dominion is sent to Orthe to determine if
the world should be put under Interdict. Grieving for a dead lover, he is unsure of what might be the right thing to do.
The Tarot Dice
A beautiful, dreamlike, and tragic tale of doomed love. A woman,
Sanzia, is obsessed with a man who insists he loves her only as a
sister. Full of details but never fully explained, it's a sci-fi
setting full of heresy, divination, life on the fringes.
Anukazi's Daughter
A woman who has fought to be a warrior in her harsh, Mongol-type tribe makes a split-second decision to let a prisoner free - and to escape with him to his people. She based her decision mainly on the idea that women had more opportunities in this foreign land - but although she is hailed as a hero, she is not at home, and cultural differences slowly lead to tragedy.
A Sun in the Attic
When an inventor disappears from his household, his spouses are
frantic with worry. Searching warehouses and quays, and asking at
ships, they call in favors for information throough complex and rival
families... and uncover a plot to keep technology below a certain
level, possibly for good reasons...
A Shadow Under the Sea
Another quite negative rumination on the nature of humanity. When her island is threatened by a giant kraken, interfering with shipping and disastrous to sailors, she calls on the aid of her estranged sister, a powerful sorceress. The two women go out alone in a small boat to enspell the creature. But at the crucial moment, the councilwoman is paralyzed by fear, causing things to go wrong - and then she faces a terrible decision, alone on the open waves.
The Pits Beneath the World
Another tale on the theme of differences between cultures. A group of humans, ambassadors on an alien world, have been interacting well with the native, giant centipede-like creatures who love to hunt the grasslands. But after a young human girl has a discussion with her alien friends, suddenly, she is the one being hunted, for reasons she cannot understand.
The Knot Garden
Another tale of The White Crow and Casaubon - in this one, things are bizarrely going wrong in Casaubon's city, again, and Valentine
mysteriously disappears. Some suspect she may simply have left him - but then, others start disappearing, and he must seek her, even into other dimensions.
entertaining introduction from Neil Gaiman as well. However, I've
previously read the Mary Gentle short story collection "Cartomancy," which, I believe, includes all of these stories, plus some additional ones. So you don't really need both books.
Contents:
Beggars in Satin.
This novella introduces the young warrior White Crow, and the
corpulent lord Casaubon who becomes her lover, the characters featured in Gentle's novels"Rats & Gargoyles" & "The Architecture of Desire." It really helps to understand their characters and relationship. The young warrior/scholar comes to Casaubon in response to a plea for help - he has aimed to create a wondrous garden - but something is going horribly wrong.
The Harvest of Wolves
A future encounter between an aging former radical and the young man who is assigned to both care for and spy on her. Ruthless in its
vision of the self-centered nature of humanity.
The Crystal Sunlight, The Bright Air
This story takes place on Orthe, the world of the novels "Ancient
Light" and "Golden Witchbreed."
In it, an agent of the Holy Dominion is sent to Orthe to determine if
the world should be put under Interdict. Grieving for a dead lover, he is unsure of what might be the right thing to do.
The Tarot Dice
A beautiful, dreamlike, and tragic tale of doomed love. A woman,
Sanzia, is obsessed with a man who insists he loves her only as a
sister. Full of details but never fully explained, it's a sci-fi
setting full of heresy, divination, life on the fringes.
Anukazi's Daughter
A woman who has fought to be a warrior in her harsh, Mongol-type tribe makes a split-second decision to let a prisoner free - and to escape with him to his people. She based her decision mainly on the idea that women had more opportunities in this foreign land - but although she is hailed as a hero, she is not at home, and cultural differences slowly lead to tragedy.
A Sun in the Attic
When an inventor disappears from his household, his spouses are
frantic with worry. Searching warehouses and quays, and asking at
ships, they call in favors for information throough complex and rival
families... and uncover a plot to keep technology below a certain
level, possibly for good reasons...
A Shadow Under the Sea
Another quite negative rumination on the nature of humanity. When her island is threatened by a giant kraken, interfering with shipping and disastrous to sailors, she calls on the aid of her estranged sister, a powerful sorceress. The two women go out alone in a small boat to enspell the creature. But at the crucial moment, the councilwoman is paralyzed by fear, causing things to go wrong - and then she faces a terrible decision, alone on the open waves.
The Pits Beneath the World
Another tale on the theme of differences between cultures. A group of humans, ambassadors on an alien world, have been interacting well with the native, giant centipede-like creatures who love to hunt the grasslands. But after a young human girl has a discussion with her alien friends, suddenly, she is the one being hunted, for reasons she cannot understand.
The Knot Garden
Another tale of The White Crow and Casaubon - in this one, things are bizarrely going wrong in Casaubon's city, again, and Valentine
mysteriously disappears. Some suspect she may simply have left him - but then, others start disappearing, and he must seek her, even into other dimensions.
August 11, 2025
Dark and human stories about the heart in conflict with the disciplines imposed on it by society or expediency, with the outcome always uncertain. A very taut and thematic collections, where the stories don't so much twist as sting.
Stand-outs for me include Anukazi's Daughter, A Sun in the Attic and most especially The Pits Beneath the World. Her later collection Cartomancy includes all of the above, and is much easier to get hold of. I suspect it isn't as cohesive as this concise little book, though.
(also... god I love the Ian Miller back cover on my yellowed copy of this book. British fantasy art - visual and prose - circa 1990 was so baroque and strange and compelling...)
Stand-outs for me include Anukazi's Daughter, A Sun in the Attic and most especially The Pits Beneath the World. Her later collection Cartomancy includes all of the above, and is much easier to get hold of. I suspect it isn't as cohesive as this concise little book, though.
(also... god I love the Ian Miller back cover on my yellowed copy of this book. British fantasy art - visual and prose - circa 1990 was so baroque and strange and compelling...)
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June 11, 2024“Beggars in Satin”: 5.5
- Like most fantasy I think I might like, eventually lapses into nothingness — reveries of tone and import, with little there besides. STORY: smartstrong woman summoned to darkness-bedecked kingdom to heal some budding threat; does. Maybe I’m missing the maze garden specifics of the denouement. Possible.
- Like most fantasy I think I might like, eventually lapses into nothingness — reveries of tone and import, with little there besides. STORY: smartstrong woman summoned to darkness-bedecked kingdom to heal some budding threat; does. Maybe I’m missing the maze garden specifics of the denouement. Possible.
February 19, 2012
My copy is actually called Scholars and Soldiers, but it seems to be the same...
Before I get to the stories themselves, I need to rant a bit about short story collections: all but 3 of the stories in this one are also in Cartomany, which I already had. That's 3 out of 9 new (to me) stories. I hate it when they do that. It's just the ultimate rip-off, because, especially for less-known authors, it's pretty much impossible to find out the exact contents of short-story collections. (and no, there's no bookshops or libraries carrying that kind of stuff anywhere around here).
Right. Onto the stories. Gentle's stories are always exquisitely crafted, infinitely complex little universes in a bubble. Each little world has its own, intricate history and culture (usually with strong women), and I wouldn't mind reading longer stories set in many of them. They do, however, often have the problem that you're dropped right in, and don't really get all that's going on.
The first and the last story, Beggars in Satin, and The Knot Garden, are set in the same world, with a kind of 16th century tech, but also magic. In the first one, a magic garden is going seriously wrong, and as "as above, so below" is an important principle about how things work in this world, disorder in a magical depiction leads to disorder in the city. In the second story, ancient powerful beings suddenly appear in the city, and people start disappearing. Again, above and below have to be put in balance.
The Crystal Sunlight, The Bright Air is set in the universe of the Orthe series, which I haven't read yet. It's about a kind of inquisitor, sent to a planet to find out if it should be interdicted.However, he is haunted by his own past.
A Sun in the Attic is about a young scientist, who finds out something that the public must never know, and he must decide between scientific integrity but the risk of starting a civil war, or being bought, and shutting up. I really liked this world, where there is a powerful empire on the south pole, where women can marry several men, and basically run everything. ;)
The Pits Beneath the World is about a human embassy to an alien culture, and a potentially fatal misunderstanding.
In general, reall good and complex stories.
8/10
Before I get to the stories themselves, I need to rant a bit about short story collections: all but 3 of the stories in this one are also in Cartomany, which I already had. That's 3 out of 9 new (to me) stories. I hate it when they do that. It's just the ultimate rip-off, because, especially for less-known authors, it's pretty much impossible to find out the exact contents of short-story collections. (and no, there's no bookshops or libraries carrying that kind of stuff anywhere around here).
Right. Onto the stories. Gentle's stories are always exquisitely crafted, infinitely complex little universes in a bubble. Each little world has its own, intricate history and culture (usually with strong women), and I wouldn't mind reading longer stories set in many of them. They do, however, often have the problem that you're dropped right in, and don't really get all that's going on.
The first and the last story, Beggars in Satin, and The Knot Garden, are set in the same world, with a kind of 16th century tech, but also magic. In the first one, a magic garden is going seriously wrong, and as "as above, so below" is an important principle about how things work in this world, disorder in a magical depiction leads to disorder in the city. In the second story, ancient powerful beings suddenly appear in the city, and people start disappearing. Again, above and below have to be put in balance.
The Crystal Sunlight, The Bright Air is set in the universe of the Orthe series, which I haven't read yet. It's about a kind of inquisitor, sent to a planet to find out if it should be interdicted.However, he is haunted by his own past.
A Sun in the Attic is about a young scientist, who finds out something that the public must never know, and he must decide between scientific integrity but the risk of starting a civil war, or being bought, and shutting up. I really liked this world, where there is a powerful empire on the south pole, where women can marry several men, and basically run everything. ;)
The Pits Beneath the World is about a human embassy to an alien culture, and a potentially fatal misunderstanding.
In general, reall good and complex stories.
8/10
August 12, 2007
The invisible college won't favour an Architect-Lord's Lady
March 2, 2012
A chance pick up and not a bad read, well worth getting if you find it in the library or in a charity shop as I did.
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May 1, 2017Edition: New edition
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews