Ilario: The Lion's Eye

First History #1

by Mary Gentle

'We are so often a disappointment to the parents who abandon us ...' Ilario is born hermaphrodite, a true genetic chimera. Found abandoned on the steps of a chapel of the Green Christ, in one of the minor Iberian kingdoms, on a freezing snowy night, Ilario is fostered by Federico, an impoverished Iberian noble, who plans to gift Ilario to the king, hoping to gain favour at court. At the age of 15, Ilario joins King Roderigo as the King's Freak, but while learning the ways of the court, Illario has another lesson to abondonment and betrayal. For Rosamunda, Ilario's birth mother, has arrived - and the secret of Ilario's shameful birth must be kept hidden, lest the resulting scandal ruin Rosamunda's husband, Videric, the king's most powerful advisor. When Ilario is freed by the king, he/she is summoned by Rosamunda. And when her attempt to murder her child fails, Rosamunda whispers 'Run ...' And Ilario does ...across the Mediterranean, to Carthage.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Alternate History, Historical, Science Fiction, M M Romance

672 pages, Paperback

First published June 26, 2007

About the author

This 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.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read "Ash - A Secret History" many many MANY years ago, but I do think I remember it being quite brutal and explicit, admittedly taking place during a war, which this one does not, but still. People died horribly on basically every page and was SA'd almost as often.
I was expecting the same kind of brutality here, but there isn't. In fact, this one is extremely kind, if you will, in that regard. It's not a bad thing, just an interesting juxtaposition.

Ilario is also an interesting character. It's difficult to read about their experience with the political climate we have today, but I have to remember that this is a) fiction, b) written over 20 years ago and c) meant to take place in a historical setting. If Ilario is a good representation of an intersex character, I can't say (but probably not, let's be honest), but I'm heartwarmed by their father's unwavering support and their tenacity to make a good life for themselves.

I was just about to write something about not being able to make sense of the timeline, when I checked the back and saw that it said A.D 1426 (which I DID read), followed by "history is different", which I completely missed. So the confusion was all my own fault. You'd think I would know how to read....

[Zoe · Rating 1 out of 5]

In asking for books with gender variant main characters, I was told to look up this alternate history book about a "true hermaphrodite". Within the first five pages, the author established the character's genital status with a gay sex scene, with no lube, with a complete stranger. So right off the bat, we've established that the main character is slutty. Nice. Despite an abusive sex partner, Ilario is happy to be used...until they're tricked by their new lover's mother and sold into slavery...again.

And this is how the story goes. Pity the poor character who everybody likes abusing. After just a few pages, I skipped to the final chapters, read them, and wished I hadn't. Then I started skipping around to different parts of the book. Nothing made me feel like reading the rest. About the only nice thing I can say about this book is, I got it on steep discount, and I didn't pay shipping.

I give Ilario 1 star, and would never recommend this to anyone.

[Mieczyslaw Kasprzyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh how I love Mary Gentle's books. She takes me into a universe that never was yet is so familiar. The blurb on the back tells me that we are returning to the world of "Ash", but that understates the situation. In Ash's world there are only teasing hints at another dimension, at a parallel history. "Ilario" projects us into this world like a stuntman is shot out of a cannon! The darkness that permanently hangs over Visigoth Carthage, the cursed, empty chair of the Papacy, the outpost of the Egyptian Empire that is Constantinople, and a Venice we are all familiar with.
Ilario is a hermaphrodite from Taraconensis, a minor Iberian kingdom, who is escaping an attempt on his life by his mother and unleashing a series of adventures that span an Early Renaissance Europe that is so familiar yet so strange. I found the character difficult to identify with at first, filled as he is with bitterness and anger. I also wanted more description of the streets, canals, landscape. Despite this "failing" I was given a story full of wonderful characters; an Egyptian bookseller, German and Croatian mercenaries, Iberian generals and spies. I also got Golems and arquebuses, "ghost" ships and the new art...
If this doesn't excite you then what can?

[Dannica · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has a thing with telling rather than showing. Telling backstory, telling Ilario's thoughts (and everyone else's) on gender, the current political situation, people's plans--and in dialogue, not even in narration. It also has a thing with picking up and dropping plots somewhat at random.
I wasn't a huge fan but I did like Ilario the character and a couple other characters. It had a cliffhanger so I'm tempted to read book 2 even tho I didn't like this one so much.

[S.B. (Beauty in Ruins) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I brought a copy of Ilario: The Lion's Eye with me on vacation, and my only regret is that I didn't bring the companion volume, Ilario: The Stone Golem, with me because I devoured The Lion's Eye on the first day.

This is a book about art, gender, family, friendship, and politics . . . and not necessarily in that order.
First of all, let's talk art. The driving force behind the story is Ilario's quest to study the new art of painting the thing itself - the world as it appears to the naked eye, rather than the iconographic representation. It's odd to think of a time when realism and perspective were undiscovered concepts, and it makes for a fascinating story.

Look beneath the art, and the Lion's Eye is the story of a rather unique and unusual friendship between Ilario, the hermaphrodite artist, and Rekhmire, the eunuch book buyer (and, we suspect, Egyptian spy). Their relationship is handled so beautifully, and so naturally, almost as if they were siblings or best friends getting reacquainted after a long absence. There is a lot of good-natured ridicule of their respective gender identities, but it's just that - good-natured and friendly. By the time we're introduced to Neferet, the feminized eunuch book buyer, her gender identity is almost a non-event.

Lastly, this is a book about politics and family. Poor Ilario must contend with the mother who left her 'freak' infant to die in the cold, the adopted parents who raised him and sold him to be the King's freak, and the father who returns from the Crusades to discover he has a son-daughter. If I could have chosen my parents, I don't think I could have even asked for a father as loving, understanding, and fiercely dedicated as Honorius. Oh, and just to round out the theme of family, Ilario must also contend with the fact that he-she is pregnant!

This is not the book I expected it to be, and that is too its credit. I must say, the ending is quite a cliff-hanger, but knowing there is a second volume eases some of the worry for lovely Ilario. Here's hoping The Stone Golem is a worthy conclusion to the tale.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in the same universe as Mary Gentle's Ash novels. In this one, she continues her recent trend of writing about gender-ambiguous protagonists with a protagonist who is an out-an-out hermaphrodite: the eponymous Ilario.

Ilario's convincingly portrayed, seeming masculine at times and feminine at others without ever seeming inconsistently written. However, he/she is sometimes a difficult protagonist to like, being stubborn, impulsive, and more than a little self-centered. The secondary characters come off as rather saintly for putting up with him/her as much as they do. Ilario does ultimately come across as sympathetic, I think, but it's a near thing.

Despite these faults, the book has two big things going for it. It's almost compulsively readable, with a gripping plot. And it has a fantastic cast of secondary characters, including a totally badass snarky Egyptian eunuch spymaster. I will put up with a lot in a book if it has a totally badass snarky Egyptian eunuch spymaster in it. Authors, take note.

Anyone buying this book should be aware that this book isn't really a complete novel - Ilario was published as one large book in the UK, and split in two for its American publication. This volume ends on an cliffhanger, and you will want to get on to the next bit a.s.a.p. Probably best to buy both volumes together.

[Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant

[Jack Deighton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is set in Gentle’s First History universe which she introduced in Ash: A Secret History. It is a stand alone novel though, merely sharing the same background.


We meet narrator Ilario trying to enter Carthage, a city under the dark shield of the Penitence and hence no view of the sun, and with naphtha lights providing illumination. Marcomir, the border guard she deals with, offers her a place at the boarding house of his mother. Once there, lust struck, they stumble to bed together. At first this might seem merely to show us that Ilario is a true hermaphrodite, having functional sets of both sex organs, but the encounter is to have plot ramifications. The morning after, Marcomir’s mother gives her a drugged drink and she wakes up to find herself a slave once again.

Freed by her/his King, Rodrigo Sanguerra of Taraconensis in Iberia, Ilario had fled after her/his true parentage was revealed, leading to her/his supposed father, Viderico, the King’s right-hand man, suborning her/his mother, Rosamunda, into trying to kill her/him to expunge the shame of engendering a freak. This wasn’t the first time Rosamunda had attempted this since after the birth, Ilario had been left on a hillside from which she was rescued by a couple who raised her/him as their own. In late childhood she/he was offered to the king as an amusement and, as a slave, no threat to anyone.

The beautifully intricate and cleverly designed plot revolves around the tension between the desire of Carthage to take over Taraconensis, the high politics of Ilario’s homeland - at first navigated from a distance - efforts to avoid assassination by Viderico’s agents, and Ilario’s desire to be an artist, exploring painting and the New Art of true representation (perspective.) Through it we are taken not just to Carthage but all over the Mediterranean of this scenario, to Rome, known as the Empty Chair since no Pope has sat there for centuries, to Venice, a growing power, to Alexandria-in-exile, seat of the Ptolemies in what is still called Constantinople by adherents of the Green Christ, whose religion mixes in aspects of the Christianity we know with elements of Mithraism.

This all comes about since Ilario is bought by the Egyptian eunuch Rekhmire’, a “humble buyer of manuscripts” (though a de facto spy) and a cousin to Alexandria’s ruler, the Pharaoh Queen Ty-Amenhotep. In Rome, while apprenticed to Masaccio, a master of the New Art, Ilario encounters a golem-statue designed as a weapon to be used against the Alexandrine monarch, meets in Venice a pseudonymous Herr Mainz who has a new, quick method of manuscript reproduction (ie he is really Gutenberg,) and her real father (and delighted to be so) Honorius, the lion of Leon and Castille, recently retired from fighting the Franks on behalf of King Rodrigo and whose personal guard accompanies him. Along the way Ilario discovers she/he is pregnant by Marcomir and, the dangers heightened manyfold for a hermaphrodite mother, is operated on by a Turkish doctor, Bariş, in the manner of Caesar. (Since this is less than halfway through the book much of the tension of that situation is thereby vitiated.) Both mother and infant survive, the daughter, Onorata, another complication that Ilario has to deal with. The lack of love Ilario confesses for Onorata is belied by the way in which she/he ensures there is always someone around to care for her. Honorius’s soldiers are exemplary in this respect. In Constantinople, all are astounded by the huge size of a ship which has lost its way in a storm, not least its complement of five thousand men. The ship’s captain is Zheng He and it is part of a Chinese fleet exploring the world. Both Alexandria and Tarconensis will seek to use this as a lever against Carthage. Somewhere in amongst all this Rekhmire’ restores freedom to Ilario again.

Much of Ilario’s thoughts veer towards drawing and painting and the implements and materials required but there are also many reflections on the lot of the hermaphrodite. Ilario gets to see things both ways, “Men alone together talk as if women are children; women together speak as if men are not-very-intelligent animals.” Gentle displays a flash of feminism towards the end when Rosamunda says that, freak or not, Hilario’s possession of a penis (however rudimentary a one) gives her/him agency, places her/him above women in the pecking order.

Ilario is an engaging character throughout and the others we meet in this portrayal of a world that never was (or, if we are to believe Ash: A Secret History, was expunged,) behave in ways that are entirely believable.

[Kes · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yikes.

Ilario is a hermaphrodite; she/he wants to become a painter after being freed from slavery. Unfortunately, she/he immediately gets resold into slavery (from trusting the wrong person).

We see a lot of similarly impulsive decisions: Ilario deciding to marry a girl in order to free her / bring her around the world (except the girl doesn't even want to be freed or leave her home). Ilario decides to go haring off after his/her mother that tried to kill her, and surprise - Ilario's mother still intends to kill Ilario. There's a lot of decisions that Ilario just doesn't think about without making, and that's frustrating, especially when we know that people are trying to kill Ilario.

Despite this, Ilario manages to amass two friends: first, her/his biological father, Honorius, who swoops in with lots of fatherly love and second, Rekhmire', a castrato who repeatedly swoops in to save Ilario from their various scrapes.

We're also supposed to be taken by Ilario's love of art and painting, which gains a greater focus in the second half of the novel. Unfortunately, I couldn't get over Ilario's poor decision making skills, which land this novel solidly in 1/5 stars.

[Stephen Poltz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really struggled with this book. It took me eight days to read a 322 page book, which is a long time for me. I didn’t care for the plot, and many times, it devolved into soapiness. It’s a shame because I would think there’d be so much you could do with a story about a true hermaphrodite during the Renaissance. This is the first of a two-part series. It ends in a cliffhanger, but I don’t feel any compulsion to read the second part.

Come visit my blog for the full review…
https://itstartedwiththehugos.blogspo...

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Lots of interesting themes here - too many, in fact. There was too much going on at the same time without enough explication. Rather than being a rich, meaty experience, the reader is subjected to thematic whiplash, and skating superficially over a whole bunch of interesting ideas without enough content. I wish I had loved this book; it's hard to find classical-themed science fiction.

[Marsha Valance · Rating 3 out of 5]

In which the hermaphrodite Ilario becomes a slave, an artist’s apprentice, a heroic general’s son/daughter, and pregnant.

[Alytha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finished Ilario by Mary Gentle a couple of days ago.

(Mary Gentle deserves much more love and internet presence, by the way, because she's a kickass writer)

The novel is set in the early 15th century in the same universe as Ash; A Secret History, which is almost like ours, except that magic exists, Carthage was captured by Visigoths at some point, and was later cursed by a Rabbi, so that a huge black cloud called the Penitence covers the land, and the Mediterranean up to Malta. Out of necessity, Carthage has conquered a lot of land in order to grow food, and they have evolved a very strong kind of technology, or magitech, including incredibly strong stone golems that move to commands of their owners. The Turks have chucked the Egyptians out of Egypt at some point, and the latter have now settled in Constantinople, called Alexandria-in-exile, where the Pharao-Queen Ty-ameny rules with a tiny but strong hand. (she must be an ancestor of Harry Dresden's friend Murphy)

Plot: the young hermaprodite Ilario flees from home (the court of a small Iberian kingdom), after almost having been killed by the own mother. (I see why the novel is written in first person, because otherwise you'd have to constantly come up with a fitting personal pronoun...) Ilario decides to travel to Rome to study under a famous master of a new style of art, and become a painter. On the way, s/he stops in Carthage in order to try some painting under the darkness of the Penitence. However, Ilario has barely made it through the city gates before being seduced by a guardsmen, and then poisoned by his mother, and sold into slavery. Fortunately, Ilario's new master, the Egyptian Rekhmire' (don't ask about the apostrophe...) is actually quite nice and understanding, and supports Ilario's ambitions, and they travel on to Rome, where Ilario manages to become an apprentice to Master...and that is only the beginning, as there will be more murderous relatives, slaves, a baby, Egyptians, mysterious visitors, golems, Etruscans, etc.

I really quite liked this novel. The setting is close enough to reality to feel familiar (if you paid attention to your history classes), while being strange and exotic enough to make me want to know more about it. Ilario being an artist, and thus a very good observer, means that we get a lot of visual impressions about things, people and surroundings, which make the text very vivid and accessible.

While one may argue that Ilario is a bit too successful although being rather naive and often rushing into things, there's enough lampshades hung on that to keep it out of Mary Stu territory. Rekhmire', for example, often responds to a harebrained plot by Ilario by saying that s/he should not trust his/her own decisions too much, as s/he spent most of his/her life being a slave and thus not able to take decisions. Ilario is incredibly lucky in finding a surrogate family to keep her/him out of trouble. Ilario does grow up to a certain extend in the course of the novel, although you still should get the Venetian glass out of reach if you're going to tell him/her something s/he's not going to like.

While the plot is sometimes rather slow, (the time in Venice drags along a bit between assaults, sickrooms, and a veeery long labour), the characters are well-defined ans fleshed-out, the politicy are reasonably sound, and the setting is really fascinating, if you're that kind of geek. There's also a bunch of extra geek references, like the ghost ships, the book printer, and Onorata, who apparently will grow up to be a mercenary leader, and meet Ash about 20 years later.

Another huge plus of the book is the humour. Pretty much everybody in this story is a deadpan snarker, which makes for nice reading and covers some plot weaknesses.

All in all, a very entertaining and funny, but also serious (and often graphic) read with a stunning setting. 8.5/10

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ilario: The Lions' Eye takes place in an alternate world and draws from real people and places. The book begins with Ilario arriving in Carthage. Fresh off the boat, and freed from a childhood of slavery in a king’s court, Ilario is quickly targeted by a man who convinces Ilario to sleep with him. This interaction pricked at me because I still don’t understand it, besides it setting up something unnecessary later in the book. I think it was mostly used as a device to tell us Ilario is neither wholly man nor woman. Ilario is a hermaphrodite and doesn’t feel more feminine than masculine, or masculine than feminine, and doesn’t have a set of preferred pronouns. In fact, when most characters address Ilario they use both sets in a single sentence, and Ilario never says otherwise.

What I really enjoy about this book is seeing the world through a painter’s eye. Ilario constantly compares buildings and colors with effects they could make in their work. When someone is angry, Ilario doesn’t focus on why they might be angry or how to quickly fix the problem, but how Ilario could translate the furrow of the brow, the clench of the fists.

So after being sold back into slavery, an Egyptian eunuch traveling the world in search of rare books pays to have Ilario travel with him as a scribe. Ilario, however, has different plans. Since they were a child, Ilario’s dreamed of being a painter. And because Rekhmire’ is a pushover for a master, Ilario gets their way. We meet Masaccio—Ilario’s hero in the New Arts—who Rekhmire’ pays for an apprenticeship with. Masaccio is drawn to Ilario’s look. As they often describe, “I’m too soft to be masculine and too hard to be feminine.”

The world building is strange in this book. Everything is told to us as if we should already know, and maybe we should, since it’s part of an existing series. I never read Ash: The Secret History. It’s not necessary to read this book since Ash takes place fifty years later, but was written first, and has nothing to do with The Lion’s Eye except that they exist in the same universe. So I’m guessing the world building happened there. We just have to listen while Ilario tells us about these places. I’m still confused by the affliction in Rome. Apparently something happened that the pope’s position has been cursed so the city can’t keep one and there’s a literal shadow eating half the land? I don’t know. But it’s interesting, at least.

Most of the conversations take place in the similar fashion: “Something bad has happened, what are we going to do about it, what would happen if we don’t do this, okay let’s just go to a different place.” It gets annoying after a while, but I can’t blame Gentle because I really enjoyed Ilario’s stubbornness throughout the entire book. That’s right, we didn’t get a main character who identifies themselves as stubborn and then rolls over for the entire book—no, Ilario constantly digs into the ground and disagrees with everyone around them. I loved it.

All in all, it was a decent book. I might pick up the second one, The Stone Golem.

[Nathalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this. The writing is good and the setting is interesting, but just couldn't get on with it and never managed to finish it. A big part of the problem is that the medical side of the character's DSD is not well researched and the sexual content felt voyeuristic and objectifying. Care needs to be taken when writing a character with a difference like this, otherwise it comes out feeling like a gimmick or a freak show, and unfortunately this is one of these instances. There was not much hook in what I managed to get through and as the book is enormous I just couldn't stick with it.

[Alys · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok. So I started this book thinking interesting premise, but good grief, Ilario/Ilaria is a petulant child; which is saying something since he/she is like 25 at the writing of the story. And the he/she reference? The main character is a hermaphrodite. The term, comes from the tale by Ovid of the son of Hermes and Aprhodite who was so loved by the nymph Salmacis that that she prayed for a complete union with him. Be careful what you ask for, eh? They were united bodily with the resulting mess being female AND male. So on to our story...I felt like the author sat down and said hmmm, I need a gambit for my story, let's make her/him a hermaphrodite. The tale leads off with our hero, who dresses as either sex depending on the circumstance, arriving in Carthage after a lifetime of slavery to the King of Spain? Well Pseudo Spain. The world of Ilario falls along the lines of our world with a similar history, but not quite. Carthage seems to remain a world power, without having fallen to the salting from Rome. Rome has some vestiges of glory, but Christianity took a strange turn there leaving the Papal Seat vacant due to some curse the author doesn't really explain very well. Anyway, here we are in Carthage with Ilario looking to become an artist, but the first thing he does is have sex with some guy he meets at the gate. Why? Because he can. You may at this point be wondering why I gave this story 4 star...because the author redeems herself. I think you could have made Ilario anything. The story's good points don't have anything to do with what Ilario is per se just that he is differnt. And you do come to be involved in Ilario's life and care what happens to him/her. I especially liked his father who appears from Spain, not having known Ilario existed. He loves Ilario regardless of his outward appearance. There's not much better then unconditional parental love. My only real complaint other than the randomness of Ilario's afflication is the book didn't really have a goal it seemed to me. Some people may like the whole this is just a picture in time of this individual's life, but I like some indication of what the point is of this whole story. But in the end I liked it. There's a second book coming out Ilario/The Stone Golem. I suspect I'll delve into it too.

[Speedtribes · Rating 1 out of 5]

I suppose it's unfortunate that I picked this book up immediately after I finished reading Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette's "A Companion to Wolves" which covers the same territory of gender roles, sexual identity and culture clash and despite its faults, was much better in every way.

Ilario: The Lion's Eye -- It is not as well written. I had difficulty immersing myself in the setting what appears to be an alternate universe Renaissance era Carthage/Spain/Rome (unhelped by the strange travelogue tone and pacing). I had difficulty in finding the setting either believable or even in any specific time frame. I found myself almost painfully irritated by the main protagonist, who I had difficulty sympathizing with and whom I thought kind of thoughtlessly stupid.

That's a lot of 'difficulties' to have to work through to finish a story.

I couldn't seem to stop reading the book, however-- perhaps because I was interested in what happened to the Egyptian eunuch, and the Soldier father figure. Mary Gentle's strengths didn't lie with the main character or plot, but rather in all the secondary characters that ran in and out of the background of the story.

Even so, I almost put the book down and swore off the sequel, if not for that terrible, deliberate cliffhanger of an ending. As much as I disliked the book, I may find myself heading to the library to get hold the sequel, just to find out what happened. I wouldn't recommend buying this, however.

[Shamashnuri · Rating 3 out of 5]

A standalone prequel to Ash: A Secret History, this doesn't really match up to its promise. This is more of a travelogue style of fantasy, with the main character visiting important places -- just because, really. In Ash, there always felt like there was a reason for the travelling. Here, it's to show off the world, but sadly it doesn't do it that well.

There isn't enough story for a book this length, which is a real shame. The main character's obsession with painting gets a bit wearying after a few hundred pages, not because it's a boring topic, but because every painting scene seems to be told in the same way. And the characters seem far too accepting of someone with Ilario's physical characteristics as a hermaphrodite for 15th century Europeans - even alternate history 15th century Europeans.

There is interesting stuff on gender in the book, including a trans woman, Neferet. I was sorry she wasn't a more prominent character, and sorrier she seemed to have the same voice as all the others.

The book certainly kept me turning the pages, but overall it's left very little lasting impression, unlike Ash. It's not among Mary Gentle's best work.

[Phoenixfalls · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted very much to like this novel. I root for authors that try to explore gender roles and sexuality, and those topics are front and center for Ilario, a true hermaphrodite. Gentle does some interesting things in trying to portray the different ways Ilario is treated when dressed as a man and when dressed as a woman, but she isn't entirely successful, and she makes it more difficult for herself by making Ilario annoying in this volume. He/she spends the entire novel running headlong into one disaster after another and being obnoxious. However, when not running into disaster, Gentle does allow Ilario to see the world with a well-realized painter's eye, and the world he/she sees and describes seems fascinating. There is a great deal of moderately skillfully drawn politicking, quite a few characters I liked a lot (though more when they were offstage than when they were front and center), and enough humor to keep me reading.

[Ithlilian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ilario is a man-woman that fled from her old life and her mother to journey to a new land to be an apprentice painter. Along the way she meets some people that are friendly towards her and some that want to kill her. There is a tiny bit of political intrigue and a tiny bit of gender exploration, and that's about it. I was enjoying myself well enough but I got to a point where I realized nothing was going to happen, and there wasn't much of a plot. Ilario is not likable, he-she acts like a spoiled 12 year old girl. I never got a feel for the gender stigma because no one really made fun of him-her. I really think I wasted hours of my life reading this. The painter was amusing, the Egyptian was nice, but the main character is irritating and the plot is non existent. There is a group of people traveling from city to city occasionally running into danger and getting hurt. Hopefully that will save you the need to read it.

[Mely · Rating 2 out of 5]

Set in the "First History" of the Ash series.I knew this was half a book going in, so I won't dock it for that; less satisfying is the central character, Ilario, who is a hermaphrodite fleeing the murderous schemes of a politically ambitious mother. Many people seem attracted to and/or fond of the young person, and I haven't the faintest idea why. I like that Gentle makes Ilario believably young and impetuous, but Ilario is also self-centered and not particularly thoughtful. Gender is also treated jauntily; I'm not convinced that, in such a patriarchial world, the young hermaphrodite would so proudly proclaim him/herself *both* rather than going for masculine privilege, or at least not without more internal conflict. The plot is picaresque, which is not from my taste, and I think a lot of it is supposed to be vaguely humorous; unfortunately, Grunts proved Gentle's sense of humor and mine aren't compatible.

[CAW · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not for those easily annoyed by what should be third-person written as first and probably requiring the reading of other novels from this world prior to it (I didn't; I remained confused about several aspects of the alt-Earth in question), but an intelligent sliver of shiny nonetheless.

The hermaphrodite protagonist's refusal to be gendered one way or the other by his-her peers is refreshing, as is her-his character in general. S/he does have the Best Dad Ever in terms of abundant love, acceptance, and armoured mercenaries, but other than that s/he doesn't get darlinged along in any wise, and the sense of him-her fighting for her-his dreams is strong and indeed inspiring. The other characters are fun, too, particularly the probable-spy who goes around blatantly being a spy with a papyrus-thin cover so than no-one thinks he's a spy because, well, if he was a spy he'd hide it better, wouldn't he?

[Fantasy Literature · Rating 3 out of 5]

For pure storytelling, don’t-want-to-stop-reading-it fun, Mary Gentle’s two Ilario books, Ilario: The Lion's Eye: A Story of the First History, Book One and Ilario: The Stone Golem: A Story of the First History, Book Two, are among the best I’ve read. I lived in Gentle’s world even when I wasn’t actively reading the books. I dreamt of her Mediterranean Renaissance. I fretted about Ilario. I couldn’t wait to get back to the books when I’d set them down. Gentle’s worldbuilding is extraordinary, her characters are complete individuals, and her plot compelling. This is fantasy with a heart and a mind.

Ilario is a hermaphrodite in every possible sense of the word. He (I shall refer to him as “he” for the sake of convenience only; I could just as easily use... Read More:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely well written and enjoyable book. Crazy plot, but well worth persevering with. The bottom line is that the book is about what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman (or at least the roles that society gives to each). Mary Gentle usually includes at least one character who challenges gender roles in her books; in Ilario, the title character is a hermaphrodite (both male and female sexual organs). There are also eunuchs, good and bad parents and more, all set in an alternate version of medieval Europe, where the Ancient Egyptians are ensconced in Constantinople, where a Visigothic Caliph rules in Carthage (sans the sun) and in Italy, the Etruscans still follow their ancient pagan religion.

[Hilary · Rating 2 out of 5]

More of a 1.5 of 5.0.

Completely a case of me missing the quote on the cover that mentions "[the] fair amount of polymorphous hot sexual action." Whoops. Not what I was expecting when I grabbed this at the library.

I think that I was supposed to empathize with Ilario's crappy situation/lot in life, but mostly I was annoyed with him. He's selfish, pouty, and irritatingly precocious. (I could have done without the first-person narrative, too. Whatever happened to good ol' fashioned third-person limited?)

However, I finished this. I've found that I have no patience for books I really, really dislike as of late. As such, I have to give Mary Gentle credit for writing an intriguing story.

[Tama Wise]

Looks like this book is getting a bad rap from Goodreaders ... I've liked Mary Gentle's previous stuff, so lets see if I can get through his hefty tome.

But the reviews here were right when they mentioned this book in the same breath as 'travel writing fiction', because it did feel a little like that. Having said that though, I was rather drawn into the world (if not a little bewildered, but this is Mary Gentle) and the characters, as well as their lives. Pity that I didn't get past the first few countries.

I would be interested in finishing this book, but without regular reading I'm too easily pulled away and drop books. This is one of them.

[Dearbhla · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a return to the world of Mary Gentle’s alternate world of mercenary captain Ash[1:] although this book is set in a different part of the world and 50 years earlier, there is no need to have read one to read the other. I’m a big fan of Ash, and this is very similar in feel, although it doesn’t have the alternate narrators or indeed the flashing between the past and the present. But the idea of a central character who doesn’t fit in their society, who is trying to be themselves even if they don’t really know who they are.

Full review; http://www.susanhatedliterature.net/2...

[Siobhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surly hermaphrodite painter grows up in alt-15th century. A study of gender and ownership, but i'm not convinced of its success--Ilario comes across as much more male than female in subtle ways, more of a 70/30 than a 50/50, despite a [spoiler] plot event which one would think would rise femininity ascendant. Still, I enjoyed the tale. This is the first book I've read by this author so not sure if the quirks are part of her voice or if smoother editing could be applied. Warning: Extreme cliffhanger ending!

[Capella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as good as Ash: A Secret History or The Black Opera, mostly because the detail was confusing at times and the story moved slowly because of the amount of detail involved. That said, as with all Mary Gentle books, it was thoroughly researched, beautifully rendered, and incredibly intricate. I especially liked that the main character was transgendered and was a strong lead who acted on the world instead of being acted upon. Mary Gentle's characters are always unique and this was no exception.

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based in the same environment as Ash, here Gentle takes us on what is really a grand family story. It's about mums and dads and children, even though there are mercenaries, golems, Cheng Ho and Renaissance painting. A fairly big plot hole in the middle of it all (why is that prime minister so important?) but there are some nice characters and interesting diversions. A bit long, perhaps, for the content. Rated M for adult themes, frequent coarse language and some violence. 3/5