Ilario, A Story of the First History is a novel by Mary Gentle, published as two novels in the USA, set in an alternate history where Carthage has become a powerful medieval empire.
Ilario, A Story of the First History is a novel by Mary Gentle, published as two novels in the USA, set in an alternate history where Carthage has become a powerful medieval empire.
Set in the same alternate medieval world as Gentle's Ash: A Secret History sequence, Ilario, A Story of the First History is more limited in scope. The protagonist, Ilario, is an intersex person seeking to serve as apprentice to a master painter, a path that takes Ilario from Iberia to Carthage, Rome, Venice and Constantinople. Described as "part picaresque, part travelogue, part prose chanson de geste ", the story serves to examine issues of gender, sexuality, and power. [1]
Roz Kaveney, reviewing The Lion's Eye for Time Out described the book as "action-packed, deeply intelligent novel a focus for intrigue, intellectual debate and a fair amount of polymorphous hot sexual action". [2] Strange Horizons found the book "something of a disappointment", with "precious few changes of tone". [1]
Alternate history is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than they were in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, alternative history stories propose What if? scenarios about crucial events in human history, and present outcomes very different from the historical record. Alternate history also is a subgenre of literary fiction, science fiction, and historical fiction; as literature, alternate history uses the tropes of the genre to answer the What if? speculations of the story.
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for the historical romance, it can also be applied to other types of narrative, including theatre, opera, cinema, and television, as well as video games and graphic novels.
Jane Seymour was Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII of England from their marriage on 30 May 1536 until her death the next year. She became queen following the execution of Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn. She died of postnatal complications less than two weeks after the birth of her only child, the future King Edward VI. She was the only wife of Henry to receive a queen's funeral or to be buried beside him in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
Paul Charles Dominic Doherty is an English author, educator, lecturer and historian. He is also the Headmaster of Trinity Catholic High School in London, England. Doherty is a prolific writer, has produced dozens of historical novels and a number of nonfiction history books.
Mary Rosalyn Gentle is a UK science fiction and fantasy author.
The Eye of Agamotto is a fictional, mystical item appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics and other media, particularly in their Marvel Cinematic Universe films, with its first appearance in Doctor Strange. The item appears in publications that feature Doctor Strange. The Eye of Agamotto and Agamotto in his caterpillar form also appeared in the Gold Key Dark Shadows comic book, Collinwood Possessed!. The Eye of Agamotto is the name commonly given to the amulet Strange wears on his chest, though the Eye actually resides within the amulet and is released from time to time.
The Plot to Save Socrates is a time travel novel by Paul Levinson, first published in 2006. Starting in the near future, the novel also has scenes set in the ancient world and Victorian New York.
The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories, published in October 2006 by Bloomsbury, is a collection of eight short stories by British writer Susanna Clarke, illustrated by Charles Vess. The stories, which are sophisticated fairy tales, focus on the power of women and are set in the same alternative history as Clarke's debut novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004), in which magic has returned to England. The stories are written in a pastiche of 18th- and 19th-century styles and their tone is macabre as well as satirical. The volume was generally well received, though some critics compared it unfavorably to Jonathan Strange.
Nisi Shawl is an African-American writer, editor, and journalist. They are best known as an author of science fiction and fantasy short stories who writes and teaches about how fantastic fiction might reflect real-world diversity of gender, sexual orientation, race, colonialism, physical ability, age, and other sociocultural factors.
Mary Robinette Kowal is an American author and puppeteer.
Shikari in Galveston is an alternate history novella written by S. M. Stirling. It is a prequel to The Peshawar Lancers.
"Alien space bats" ("ASBs") is a neologism for plot devices used in alternate history to mean an implausible point of divergence.
A hypothetical military victory of the Axis powers over the Allies of World War II (1939–1945) is a common topic in speculative literature. Works of alternative history (fiction) and of counterfactual history (non-fiction), including stories, novels, and plays, often explore speculative public and private life in lands conquered by the coalition, whose principal powers were Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy.
Ash: A Secret History is a fantasy novel by British author Mary Gentle, published in 2000. Set in the 15th century, the novel blends elements of fantasy, alternative history, and secret history. In the United States, it was published in four paperback volumes: A Secret History, Carthage Ascendant, Wild Machines, and Lost Burgundy.
Susanna Mary Clarke is an English author known for her debut novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004), a Hugo Award-winning alternative history. Clarke began Jonathan Strange in 1993 and worked on it during her spare time. For the next decade, she published short stories from the Strange universe, but it was not until 2003 that Bloomsbury bought her manuscript and began work on its publication. The novel became a best-seller.
Intersex people are born with sex characteristics, such as genitals, gonads and chromosome patterns, "that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies". Literary descriptions may use older or different language for intersex traits, including describing intersex people as hermaphrodites, neither wholly male or female, or a combination of male and female. This page examines intersex characters in fictional works as a whole, focusing on characters and tropes over time.
Intersex, in humans and other animals, describes variations in sex characteristics including chromosomes, gonads, sex hormones, or genitals that, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies".
This is the complete list of works by American science fiction author S. M. Stirling.
Ilario is a given name. Notable people with the name include:
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