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The Book of Ash #2
Carthage Ascendant
There Is More Than One History Of The World
In a brutal age of bloodshed and miracles where dark sorcery has extinguished the sun, the fate of Western Europe, Africa--and perhaps all the world--rests in the hands of a warrior woman named Ash.
In a brutal age of bloodshed and miracles where dark sorcery has extinguished the sun, the fate of Western Europe, Africa--and perhaps all the world--rests in the hands of a warrior woman named Ash.
The undefeated legions that are the army of Carthage rampage across the kingdoms of Europe. Beneath a sunless sky, Burgundy alone stands in the path of the Visigoth horde and their legendary slave general, the Faris. Deep in enemy territory lies a living stone idol of frightening power that must be destroyed if anyone is to survive, a being that whispers in Ash's soul, that has guided her through every military campaign, that only she and her enemy--her twin--can hear.
But there is an even greater evil that lurks at Carthage, one that created the stone idol and shaped Ash's existence. It plots with deadly purpose the final annihilation that will wipe Burgundy from the face of the earth. For Burgundy lies at the heart of it all--the richest prize in Europe and the key to the world--the jewel of the Carthaginian campaign.
422 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
2 people are currently reading
229 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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September 25, 2024
merita qualcosa più di 3 stelle
ma ho letto la versione omnibus e dopo 2.200 pagine credo di essermi spazientita
TRAMA:
biografia della mercenaria Ash
ma ho letto la versione omnibus e dopo 2.200 pagine credo di essermi spazientita
TRAMA:
biografia della mercenaria Ash
February 22, 2009
Bon,
il faut être honnête, commencons par le dire tout de suite : ce second tome est légèrement inférieur au premier.
D'abord, il commence par une première partie difficile à vendre pour un auteur : toute une phase dans les prisons carthaginoises, qui ne sont en fait qu'un ensemble de cellules, identiques à toutes les cellules de tous les romans de toute l'histoire de l'humanité.
Difficile, donc.
Heureusement, au bout d'un moment, les choses évoluent, d'abord en douceur avec les discussions de Cendres avec Leofric (et en parallèle les découvertes de l'auteur imaginaire sur la "réalité" de ces récits), et ensuite (dans ce qui est en fait la dernière partie) d'une manière de plus en plus effrénée.
Dans tout ça, en fait, deux choses m'ont séduit intellectuellement, et une d'une manière plus brutale.
La première chose qui m'a séduit, c'est bien évidement, et plus encore que dans le premier tome, le jeu entre le texte du roman et le paratexte de l'auteur.
En effet, les questionnements constants de l'auteur virtuel à propos de la ... comment dire ... réalité historique du ou plutôt différents récits qui constituent l'histoire de Cendres. Cette partie est en soi une espèce de rêve pour le bibliophile de qualité, car elle interroge le lecteur sur la qualité des classifications bibliothécaires, mais aussi, et peut-être surtout, sur la réalité de ce que peut être l'Histoire en tant que chose scientifique (et non l'Histoire en tant que chose politique, qui elle a une réalité évidente).
Un autre point très intéressant est lévidement le Golem de Pierre. Il y a en effet dans ce second tome une histoire de la création du Golem qui est réellement passionante. Par exemple comment les carthaginois sont passéss d'un rabbin créant un étrange golem à un élevage humain dans le but d'exploiter au mieux les capacités de ce golem. Surtout quand on apprend ensuite quelles sont les visées derrière ce golem. ce qui nous réserve d'ailleurs des tomes suivants tout aussi dynamiques.
C'est d'ailleurs le troisième point fort de ce roman : une fois passés les différents jeux intellectuels, on passe enfin à quelque chose de plus tangible avec une attaque commando de Carthage qui montre bien quelles sont les vraies forces de Mary Gentle : l'action à tout crin, les soldats qui se hurlent à la tronche, le tout dans une crasse qui fait vrai.
En tout cas, une chosee est sûre, je lirai les deuxx derniers tomes, tellement c'est bon.
il faut être honnête, commencons par le dire tout de suite : ce second tome est légèrement inférieur au premier.
D'abord, il commence par une première partie difficile à vendre pour un auteur : toute une phase dans les prisons carthaginoises, qui ne sont en fait qu'un ensemble de cellules, identiques à toutes les cellules de tous les romans de toute l'histoire de l'humanité.
Difficile, donc.
Heureusement, au bout d'un moment, les choses évoluent, d'abord en douceur avec les discussions de Cendres avec Leofric (et en parallèle les découvertes de l'auteur imaginaire sur la "réalité" de ces récits), et ensuite (dans ce qui est en fait la dernière partie) d'une manière de plus en plus effrénée.
Dans tout ça, en fait, deux choses m'ont séduit intellectuellement, et une d'une manière plus brutale.
La première chose qui m'a séduit, c'est bien évidement, et plus encore que dans le premier tome, le jeu entre le texte du roman et le paratexte de l'auteur.
En effet, les questionnements constants de l'auteur virtuel à propos de la ... comment dire ... réalité historique du ou plutôt différents récits qui constituent l'histoire de Cendres. Cette partie est en soi une espèce de rêve pour le bibliophile de qualité, car elle interroge le lecteur sur la qualité des classifications bibliothécaires, mais aussi, et peut-être surtout, sur la réalité de ce que peut être l'Histoire en tant que chose scientifique (et non l'Histoire en tant que chose politique, qui elle a une réalité évidente).
Un autre point très intéressant est lévidement le Golem de Pierre. Il y a en effet dans ce second tome une histoire de la création du Golem qui est réellement passionante. Par exemple comment les carthaginois sont passéss d'un rabbin créant un étrange golem à un élevage humain dans le but d'exploiter au mieux les capacités de ce golem. Surtout quand on apprend ensuite quelles sont les visées derrière ce golem. ce qui nous réserve d'ailleurs des tomes suivants tout aussi dynamiques.
C'est d'ailleurs le troisième point fort de ce roman : une fois passés les différents jeux intellectuels, on passe enfin à quelque chose de plus tangible avec une attaque commando de Carthage qui montre bien quelles sont les vraies forces de Mary Gentle : l'action à tout crin, les soldats qui se hurlent à la tronche, le tout dans une crasse qui fait vrai.
En tout cas, une chosee est sûre, je lirai les deuxx derniers tomes, tellement c'est bon.
June 27, 2013
Charlie Brown of "Peanuts" (tm) fame will never get to kick Lucy's football, but for pithy profundity he remains unsurpassed by his pen-and-ink peers. Charlie Brown once lamented that there's no heavier burden than having great potential, an astute observation that proves too often true. Carthage Ascendant all but collapses under the weight of unrealized potential.
In a brutal age of bloodshed and miracles, in which sorcery extinguished the sun, the fate of Europe, Africa and perhaps the entire world rests in the hands of a female mercenary captain named Ash. The undefeated army of Carthage rampages across the kingdoms of Europe. Burgundy alone defies the Visigoth horde and their legendary slave general, the Faris. In the center of enemy territory lies a living stone idol that whispers in Ash's soul to guide her through every military campaign, a being of frightening power that must be destroyed if the world hopes to survive.
But an even greater evil lurks at Carthage, one that created the idol and shaped Ash's existence. It plots the final annihilation that will feed its own lust for power and wipe Burgundy from the face of the earth. For Burgundy lies at the heart of it all, the richest prize in Europe and the key to the world, the jewel of the Carthaginian campaign.
So much for the book's back-cover teaser.
Don't look for the defeat of this "greater evil" in Carthage Ascendant. I suspect it won't even be resolved in the forthcoming Ash novel, The Wild Machines, since Avon advertises the series as a tetrology. Oh, Ash gives it the old college try, so to speak, as she slashes and cusses her way into the enemy's lair and back out again, but the plot follows a predictable if brutally realistic parabolic curve.
The literary device of presenting the story within the framework of a newly discovered historical document, which I admired in its predecessor, A Secret History, fails to reach its potential in Carthage Ascendant, too. The second installment of Ash's story ends like so many mega-fantasies, with nothing resolved, as if printed on a wad of bathroom tissue and torn off to a convenient length for packaging purposes.
But, hey, if you want something to pass the time while sitting on your throne, then go for this novel. If I were you, I wouldn't waste time reading it anywhere else.
(Originally published in Crescent Blues. Reprinted with permission.)
In a brutal age of bloodshed and miracles, in which sorcery extinguished the sun, the fate of Europe, Africa and perhaps the entire world rests in the hands of a female mercenary captain named Ash. The undefeated army of Carthage rampages across the kingdoms of Europe. Burgundy alone defies the Visigoth horde and their legendary slave general, the Faris. In the center of enemy territory lies a living stone idol that whispers in Ash's soul to guide her through every military campaign, a being of frightening power that must be destroyed if the world hopes to survive.
But an even greater evil lurks at Carthage, one that created the idol and shaped Ash's existence. It plots the final annihilation that will feed its own lust for power and wipe Burgundy from the face of the earth. For Burgundy lies at the heart of it all, the richest prize in Europe and the key to the world, the jewel of the Carthaginian campaign.
So much for the book's back-cover teaser.
Don't look for the defeat of this "greater evil" in Carthage Ascendant. I suspect it won't even be resolved in the forthcoming Ash novel, The Wild Machines, since Avon advertises the series as a tetrology. Oh, Ash gives it the old college try, so to speak, as she slashes and cusses her way into the enemy's lair and back out again, but the plot follows a predictable if brutally realistic parabolic curve.
The literary device of presenting the story within the framework of a newly discovered historical document, which I admired in its predecessor, A Secret History, fails to reach its potential in Carthage Ascendant, too. The second installment of Ash's story ends like so many mega-fantasies, with nothing resolved, as if printed on a wad of bathroom tissue and torn off to a convenient length for packaging purposes.
But, hey, if you want something to pass the time while sitting on your throne, then go for this novel. If I were you, I wouldn't waste time reading it anywhere else.
(Originally published in Crescent Blues. Reprinted with permission.)
April 30, 2017
Title in German:
Die Legende von Ash 2. Der Aufstieg Karthagos
In this second part of the history of Ash our heroine is deported as a prisoner to Carthage her birth place. There she meets Amir Leofric her "father" whose family has tried to breed for generations a being with the ability to get in mental touch with the Stone Golem a kind of tactical computer. Not only in the conquered countries but even in Carthage itself darkness and cold prevails and Ash learns step by step that behind the enemy another greater enemy pulls the strings...
In this book Ash is a slave in the land of ther enemies without rights, tortured and despairing. We learn much more about the voice in her head, about Carthage and its society which has never existed in history like described in the Ash manuscripts. Is it an alternate reality or just a fantasy world? Carthage is a dark and cold place and I was really cheered up when a part of the "Lion Azure" Ashs mercenary troop showed up for the rescue...
Die Legende von Ash 2. Der Aufstieg Karthagos
In this second part of the history of Ash our heroine is deported as a prisoner to Carthage her birth place. There she meets Amir Leofric her "father" whose family has tried to breed for generations a being with the ability to get in mental touch with the Stone Golem a kind of tactical computer. Not only in the conquered countries but even in Carthage itself darkness and cold prevails and Ash learns step by step that behind the enemy another greater enemy pulls the strings...
In this book Ash is a slave in the land of ther enemies without rights, tortured and despairing. We learn much more about the voice in her head, about Carthage and its society which has never existed in history like described in the Ash manuscripts. Is it an alternate reality or just a fantasy world? Carthage is a dark and cold place and I was really cheered up when a part of the "Lion Azure" Ashs mercenary troop showed up for the rescue...
August 1, 2023
L'histoire est toujours aussi prenante, bourrée d'idées surprenantes qui fonctionnent bien. D'ailleurs je ne m'arrêterai pas avant d'avoir lu toute la série.
Mais quelques défauts me gênent : narration parfois obscure (la traduction ?), coïncidences vraiment trop forcées (retrouver ses petits copains au sortir du souterrain, ben dis donc vous ici, ça alors !), son côté incassable qui me fait sortir de la "suspension d'incrédulité".
Mais quelques défauts me gênent : narration parfois obscure (la traduction ?), coïncidences vraiment trop forcées (retrouver ses petits copains au sortir du souterrain, ben dis donc vous ici, ça alors !), son côté incassable qui me fait sortir de la "suspension d'incrédulité".
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 17, 2017
Well, this is a middle-y sort of book. There's a lot of dithering around in Dijon at the start, which is only rewarded (imho) by a really emotional scene between Ash & Godfrey. Once the story gets to Carthage it's better. Though burdened with some pretty serious exposition-y info dumps it also has some incredible emotional wallops for Ash, which I won't spoil here. This installation is definitely mostly centered on Ash and her world; the email interjections of modern characters are at a minimum and nothing happens that brings the two timelines together. Still, at the end there's a sense of the story being blown wide open and the question of "where the hell is it going to go from here?!" - in a good way. I look forward to carrying on.
February 24, 2009
Ce second volume est meilleur que le premier. La dimension militaire perd un peu de son importance pour se concentrer un peu plus sur le personnage de Cendres et ses origines. D'ailleurs Mary Gentle, ayant laissé le lecteur plein de questions à la fin du premier tome arrive à y répondre progressivement tout en gardant la cohérence du récit. Bien sûr, nous sommes amené à nous en poser d'autre, mais j'aime beaucoup ne pas avoir un GRAND mystère qui nous aurait suivi pendant les 4 ou 5 tomes de la série.
La suite... quand je me serais acheté le tome 3.
La suite... quand je me serais acheté le tome 3.
April 12, 2012
I finished the volume and stopped reading the series. The author failed to keep my interest.
July 29, 2011
Voir commentaire Tome un.
November 11, 2012
Good start, gets a little odd when the book goes from medieval fantasy to Sci-Fi but still an interesting story with an empowering heroine.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews