Ash: A Secret History 89
| Ash: A Secret History | |
| author | Mary Gentle |
| pages | 1110 |
| publisher | Gollancz (UK) Avon Eos (U.S.) |
| rating | 9.5 |
| reviewer | Duncan Lawie |
| ISBN | 0380788691 |
| summary | A powerful, expansive, genre-blurring work, impressive in detail and astounding in scope. |
Mary Gentle wrote her first published novel, A Hawk in Silver, at the age of 18, though it took her some time to find a publisher. Her first adult science fiction work, Golden Witchbreed, suffered a similar hiatus. Her subsequent writing career has been informed by her late decision to embrace academia, exploring areas such as militarism, feminism, Plato and the Renaissance world view. She wraps these potentially dry subjects, though, with a delight in imparting (possibly twisted) information and an energy for entertaining. Her eclectic approach has carried her across genre boundaries; her latest work displays this characteristic and the richness such cross-fertilisation can bring.
Ash: A Secret History has been released in the UK as a single volume of over 1100 tightly packed pages, while the book's American publishers are putting it out in four parts, with the last part due before year's end (The Book of Ash: #1 A Secret History, #2 Carthage Ascendant, #3 The Wild Machines, #4 Lost Burgundy). At heart, this is the story of a female mercenary commander in Europe and North Africa in the late 1470s. Ash, who grew up in the baggage train of assorted mercenary companies, is a survivor of harsh conditions. As the book proper opens, she leads a company of 800 fighting men (and women), aided by an apparently miraculous inner voice which offers her explicit tactical combat instructions. Ash is an incredibly well-realised character. She is a soldier by training and inclination, but she is also a well-rounded human being. Her skills as a leader of people match her battle prowess and her ability to take quick advantage of a changing situation. This Demoiselle-Captain is a strong character, utterly convincing in her tone, her inner life and its visible expression in the text. She is the cornerstone of the novel, present in almost every page.
Ash's story is presented as an academic work, originally published by a University Press in 2001. This fictional outer story is described as a translation of medieval Latin manuscripts (the work of Dr. Pierce Ratcliff, professor of War Studies), a major revision and modernisation of the "Lost History of Burgundy." The book also includes correspondence between Ratcliff and his editor annotated by another hand and inserted in differing typeface within the main body of the text. These affectations are easy to overlook early on in the book as Ash leads her company on the battlefields of Europe and is rewarded with court intrigue. However, the unsettling differences between the history in the main text and our own history are increasingly the subject of Ratcliff's correspondence. This fancy of commentary allows modern academia to creep into the interstices of the book without unbalancing the unscientific world of miracles, acting as a regulator when the plot seems to wander off into the realms of fantasy or alternate history. The concreteness of Gentle's writing carries the story in incredible directions without ever challenging the suspension of disbelief. Looking back on the early chapters from the perspective of the book's end there is a sense of astonishment at how far the story has travelled. As sunny summer fades to horrific winter the tone becomes heavier, reflecting a growing seriousness, but the writing never loses its sense of balance between light and shade.
The solidity of the book comes from a combination of detail and character. Throughout, the reality of medieval life is clear. The characters live in a world where armour rusts and rain runs down inside every knight's plating; ice and bad luck are as dangerous as lances and arrows. The mercenaries' life is displayed through reference to the polyglot of languages they speak and the language they use. (Ratcliff confesses early on that Ash swears "rather a lot" and explains that he has used modern equivalents rather than medieval blasphemies). There is a wonderful precision in the terminology also; a generic word for the tools of war is never used where a specific one is available -- artillery includes cannon, arquebus (or hackbutt), trebuchet, bombard, mangonel, ballista and catapult -- and where necessary, Dr. Pierce Ratcliff provides a footnote to explain the term. Ratcliff and his correspondents gradually become just as real as the mercenary company, though they do not leap out of the first page; it is a wrench to recall that this may not be a translation and that Ratcliff is not really toiling away on it at a North African archaeological site.
Any attempt to provide a full precis of a plot as long and gloriously complex as that Ash: A Secret History has to offer must fail in the attempt, while revealing details which ought to be allowed to delight the reader firsthand. That plot includes perhaps a touch of sentiment, but this is no more than a balance for the harshness, holding the book in a dynamic tension rather than allowing it to slide into the unremitting horror of war. While the book may appear in the disguise of the BCF (Big Commercial Fantasy), it is not really so easy to pigeonhole. Neither is it the simple historical romance it first appears to be, or the alternate history it shows signs of becoming. Though the scientific roots of this work are well hidden in the first few hundred pages, Ratcliff develops theories which owe a great deal to high physics and hard science fiction. High drama and rich plotting in both time frames draw the book to an intense climax. The ending is shattered, splintered, hugely open to re-interpretation -- and the last revelations don't become clear until some time after the final pages are turned. Though I feel that Ash: A Secret History is science fiction, this book is so good at blurring genre boundaries, and is such an excellent work, that every genre will try to claim it as its own.
Readers intrigued by this book may be interested in this recent interview with Gentle.
american version (stay a way from meee-heee...) (Score:2)
Upon closer inspection, it was found that the only difference was that the Americanized book was hundreds of pages shorter to do translations such as colour->color.
Other sources claimed that Americans would rather be seen with a smaller book so as to appear more environmentally friendly.
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Re:Sounds interesting, but I'm annoyed by the US c (Score:1)
Preferably someplace that won't have any problems shipping to a US address.
Re:Sounds interesting, but I'm annoyed by the US c (Score:2)
Re:I don't buy it (Score:2)
Heard of Joan of Arc? Sure. Can I be positive about how much I've heard is accurate? No. Even if it is, does one exception change the fact that combat has historically been a male domain?
LK
No doubt. (Score:2)
At first glance I thought it was about the mighty Ash from the Evil Dead movies. Now, there would be a secret history worth reading, but I doubt it would fill 1K of sheets of dead tree.
On the other hand, it could have been worse, it could have been a secret history of Ash, the Pokemon trainer....
Re:I think i'll skip this one (Score:2)
GRUNTS, for those not in the know, is Gentle's answer to LORD OF THE RINGS. It would be a better answer if Gentle had managed to create real characters and an original story. Instead, GRUNTS reads like Gentle had watched FULL METAL JACKET one too many times. She seems to think that, merely because her characters talk and swear like Marines, in a fantasy setting, she's accomplishing something new and original.
hyacinthus
Re:american version (stay a way from meee-heee...) (Score:1)
It can't be this, cos it would be cancelled out by words like 'elevator' and 'faucet'.
Can't see many of those popping up, mind...
Re:I don't buy it (Score:1)
And when was the last time you saw a 20-40 pound sword? Even a scottish claymore (think Braveheart if you need a mental image) doesn't weigh that much. Granted, I've never weighed one, but I've held a 1.5 meter long sword, and even the 20-pound low end of your estimate seems too high. Go to a museum; see what they have to say. I'm betting you'll find swords to be surprisingly light.
And why such hostility towards feminists? Does the idea of a woman in hand-to-hand combat so disrupt your fragile self-image that you have to mock it as ridiculous and prove yourself ignorant? I'm male too, but at least I don't feel a need to prove myself in a "me tarzan, you jane" fashion.
Realism doesn't sell (Score:2)
I concur, what fiction needs is not realism, but believability.
A real life example. A friend of mine in high school had one of those weird old Chevrolet's with the engine in the back (Chevelle?). While out and about one evening, he was driving over a bridge with a marvelous sunset and decided to stop and watch, so he stopped and put the hood up in back of the car so that the people stuck behind him would think he had car trouble while he was busy watching the sunset. His friend who was with him said that maybe he should open up the trunk as not many people would think they were having car trouble while what looks like the trunk is open.
Or consider the Matrix. If the Matrix would have been 'realistic' to most of us geeks, it would not have been 'believable' to the average movie viewer.
Fiction needs to be believable, which in some but not all cases is also realistic.
Re:Sounds even better than the Hammer and the Cros (Score:1)
Um, actually, it's hardly alternate at all. A lot of Civil War etc. novels that are generally labelled 'historical' play far faster and looser with actual events than H&C did.
Re:As if Robert Jordan weren't popular? (Score:2)
Hey, the first book was excellent. The next two or three were pretty good as well.
They really have become quite pathetic since, I agree. It's just a collection of short stories now rather than any kind of compelling narrative.
Who else thought this was about /bin/ash? (Score:1)
It has been revealed that the code for
(flash to picture of a little girl tugging on a woman's skirt) Mommy, what does function fire_torpedoes() do?
Don't let this happen to you! Use
Re:Timeline by Michael Crichton (Score:1)
Re:I don't buy it (Score:2)
No, just unusual. Perhaps you have heard of a little teenybopper named "Joan of Arc" for instance?
Women didn't do combat. Why? Women were not strong enough.
You should go through the Norse sagas to find some striking counterexamples. However, Teutonic women are a special case, as any of you who have visited Nordic countries probably know already
Valkryies aside, effective women warriors have historically been archers, as any reasonably strong woman can pull a bow of the rather pathetic draws that historical bows were capable of handling. Also, being a good archer requires a lot more training and discipline than a footsoldier while being less individually glorious, which traits are more often to be found acceptable by women than macho male warriors, oddly enough
The reason there aren't more examples to draw from is that historically most cultures were not on a constant war footing and thus women could be relegated to babymaking and surplus male population to warmaking. In cultures where everyone had to fight, women were vital components of the order of battle in some position where their average lack of upper body strength wasn't particularly relevant.
And, to step away from direct combat, female ninjas were actually more prevalent and dreaded than male ninjas, contrary to current movie mythology; there are several recorded instances of ninja geishas with their koshigatanas taking out multiple samurai. Ninja geishas. Mmmmmm. Mmmmm.
A Clockwork Orange (Score:1)
The funny thing is, things seem the opposite now. Aren't American filmmakers (or at least filmmakers who get their funding in this country) usually pressured to change or tack on warm & fuzzy Hollywood endings onto otherwise hard and challenging films (Blade Runner, Brazil, countless others)? Sometimes the filmmaker refuses (Brazil), often not...
Re:The US edition... (Score:1)
Re:Oddly enough, *less* interesting than first tak (Score:1)
"This is my boom stick"
As if Robert Jordan weren't popular? (Score:1)
And you explain the success of Robert Jordan's godawful shit [amazon.com] how?
Jordan, like his rabid hero Rand Al'Thor, needs some crack. An overdose. Let Piers Anthony [amazon.com] finish the Wheel of Time.
Timeline by Michael Crichton (Score:2)
I think i'll skip this one (Score:2)
hmmm....a woman that leads an army around. she hears voices...and it all takes place during the time of the hundred years war...
a major revision and modernisation of the "Lost History of Burgundy."
who else do we know who fought for france's control of burgundy? anyone? anyone?
it would be wise to point out, additionally, that Joan of Arc was clearly Scyzophrenic
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
ahh, err? (Score:2)
Ash is great! (Score:3)
Curiously, though I'm British, I've been buying it in the US format set of four normal-sized paperbacks rather than the incredibly large UK single edition. (You may think Cryptonomicon was a large book. Ash dwarfs it!) I have to wait longer to get to the end - but the smaller books are more manageable to carry around. And the US saw parts 1 and 2 months before the UK edition was announced.
When it comes to medieval battle, Mary Gentle knows her stuff - and she used to put on displays of swordfighting at SF cons which were excellent. (None of your poncy rapiers - big swords, and even though these were blunted, they'd still hurt if you hit someone with them...)
This is an excellent book, and I think is probably the best thing Mary Gentle has ever written.
Would that be (Score:1)
(no, actually it sounds interesting... I'll put in on my list)
is it really that secret? (Score:2)
Re:I think i'll skip this one (Score:2)
>> the "Lost History of Burgundy."
> who else do we know who fought for france's
> control of burgundy? anyone? anyone?
Burgundy did. It was an independent country
of some importance in the early middle ages,
not becoming part of France until 1002, and
having considerable autonomy even thereafter.
The dukes of Burgundy were a power unto
themselves (even though they were closely
related to the French king) during the Hundred
Years War and even sided with the English
during part of that war. The last duke of
Burgundy with any real independence, Charles
the Bold, was finally suppressed by Louis XI
in the late 15th century.
Chris Mattern
History itself is not very probable. (Score:2)
Look at William of Wallace (the subject of Mel Gibson's Braveheart). Despite Mel wanting the title role, the real William of Wallace was somewhere around 6 foot 10 inches tall and weighed more than 300 pounds. When King Edward the Great had poor old William hung, they built a special gallows to make certain it would not break under his weight.
My point? Memorable events in history typically surround exceptional people and events. History is chock full of events that are improbable and not very likely to happen at all, the sorts of events that intelligent people immediately right off as urban legends when they hear a modern day equivalent.
So, given that today there exist women who are into body building that could likely kick the tush of some of the best mercenaries around in the 15th century, it is not all that unbelievable that a woman could have existed back then that had more or less the same physique as William of Wallace. Heck, compare the women's weight lifting world records today with the men's world records from fifty years ago. Which means, that the genotype is there for women to develop into mighty warriors, if they are exposed to the proper environmental condiditions.
Here, I think you show your ignorance of history. While women may have been regarded as baby-factories throughout large portions of medeival Europe, that did not mean that they did not also engage in physical labor.
As an example, in Industrial Era Britain, women were expected to work 12 and 14 hour days in factories, even when pregnant. Many women would work, go over to a corner to give birth and a mid-wife would take care of the child while the mother went back to work on the assembly line
And as a final point, I suppose that Joan of Arc couldn't fight worth or lead troops worth anything?
The full version (Score:2)
If you're unfamiliar with Mary Gentle's work... (Score:2)
(As an aside, I concur with this article. ASH is an excellent book and well worth the effort if you have the attention span and upper body strength to handle it.)
Re:I don't buy it (Score:1)
As for the societal structures demanding that women stay at home while men be breadwinners, oh yes, they're still around.
Re:Timeline by Michael Crichton (Score:1)
Re:I don't buy it (Score:2)
LK
Frame story (Score:2)
Frame stories are somewhat overused in movies these days but can be an interesting addition to a solid plot.
-Kahuna Burger
Re:As if Robert Jordan weren't popular? (Score:2)
But goddammit, he's still got the best-realized world I've seen in a long, long time, the best political landscape, and the most logical backstory.
I personally think the poor man's getting bogged down under the weight of his own complexity.
I just hope George RR Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series doesn't fall into the same trap.
Redhawk
Re:Sounds interesting, but I'm annoyed by the US c (Score:1)
On the other hand, almost exactly half of the British population is above average intelligence.
Obviously, the American publishers belong to the former group and the British publishers are in the latter.
Re:I think i'll skip this one (Score:1)
Sorry.
___
distorted view???? (Score:1)
Re:Um... Stephen King? (Score:1)
Heck, that's what they did with Lord of the Rings. Though I am now happy to see that there are almost as many editions that are either in one volume or six, which are really the more natural divisions than three.
___
Re:The US edition... (Score:1)
Anyway; what do you mean 'no great english authors'? There are lots of english authors who are, at least, very good (Mary Gentle, for one, who I know is english because she only lives 30 miles away from me). I could probably point out several, but I don't have the energy, so I will just say one word: Tolkein.
On second thoughts I'll expand upon that; J.R.R. Tolkein (English) wrote the Lord of the Rings which is widely considered to be one of the best books of the century.
Beat that.
ummm... (Score:1)
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
Re:Realism doesn't sell (Score:2)
Well, my theory is that the machines aren't just using the people for heat. The real purpose behind keeping millions upon millions of people alive is to use their brains for a giant beowulf cluster. So the Matrix is simply the collective consciousness of humanity.
Oddly enough, *less* interesting than first take (Score:1)
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Bid on me! [ebay.com]
Re:The US edition... (Score:2)
The ones I can think of off the top of my head are:
How many more do you need?
Re:The US edition... (Score:2)
FYI, Mick is an American slang derogatory term for a person of Irish descent. IIRC, its usage goes back the influx of Irish immigrants into the US during the Irish potato famine.
Mirriam-Webster's online dictionary [webster.com] says this about the word:
Re:I think i'll skip this one (Score:1)
Is Mary Gentle a nice person? Quite probably. I know that she posted to the newsgroup rec.arts.sf.written, when GRUNTS was the subject of contention, and she defended her work calmly and lucidly. (I _would_ insert, at this point, a Dejanews URL, but since any posts more than about a year old are "temporarily unavailable" through Deja, and have been so "temporarily unavailable" for quite some time, I can't.) Gentle's gentleness has little to do with the quality of GRUNTS, however...
Is GRUNTS funny? To some, obviously. For me, the joke of Orcs saying "fuck" every few lines and spouting tough-guy drill-sergeant dialogue grew old after the second chapter of it. I still remember a few lines as funny (e.g. the "Black Squads, Dark Squads, Ebony Squads, &c.,
Gentle, in that same Usenet discussion, said that she wrote GRUNTS in part to answer the weaknesses of Tolkien's work; I remember that one of the things she said was that THE LORD OF THE RINGS had barely a half-dozen female characters of any complexity, "and that's counting Shelob". She's right--but then, GRUNTS doesn't have any strong characters either! They're cliches themselves--different ones, from the usual hackneyed fantasy types, but cliches all the same.
As for GRUNTS being a "fucking JOKE", I will say, right now, that I stopped laughing at the "fucking JOKE" right after Gentle saw fit to give us murderous, thieving hobbits who enjoy a spot of cannibalism. I thought it revolting, I still think it revolting, and I'll not shy from telling anyone the same--even at the risk of being called a humorless "lame-ass whimpering uptight git" by someone who can't bear criticism of one of his beloved books.
hyacinthus
Re:I think i'll skip this one (Score:2)
A friend of mine loaned it to me. I loved it. It took most of the old stereotypes of fantasy and turned them on their heads.
I guess people who are too attached to their fantasy worlds will be shocked and revolted by this book. But those of us that enjoy being surprised, and don't mind a little gore, should love the book.
Have you always hated elves in D&D and other fantasy? Did you think the way the orcs presented themselves in 'Warcraft' was cool? Do you like dark Humor? Then check this book out. I've never read anything like it before.
Re:The US edition... (Score:1)
Another thing, carrying around a 1100 page book is hell, while a 300 page book is quite alright. =)
Re:Oddly enough, *less* interesting than first tak (Score:1)
Get a life, you sad man.
Confused? (Score:1)
How did the book get published in 2001, when it's only 2000 now?
Sounds even better than the Hammer and the Cross (Score:2)
Alternate history (vikings, 10th century).
Warfare and tactics (and trebuchets!)
An inner, supernatural voice guides the protagonist.
Interest in science.
All in all, a great read and a rare treat, although by no means perfect. I'll have to check out Ash to see if it is even better.
Re:Sounds interesting, but I'm annoyed by the US c (Score:1)
That American Adventure site is very interesting. I was not aware that tex-mex food was a popular choice en The Alamo when the Mexicans butchered the Americans for their stealing their land.
I thought us Americans were particarly bad at having a twisted view of history, but I guess the bug gets around.
Excuse me, but I've got to coon hunting with my dogs.
Re:I don't buy it (Score:1)
Re:I think i'll skip this one (Score:1)
But it isn't. Trust me. It would be difficult to explain why without introducing spoilers, but Ash is no Joan of Arc. Except in the sense of - darn. Even that would be giving too much away....
Furthermore, I'd categorise it as SF rather than fantasy. Swords and horses (and even a little Hermetic science) do not necessarily add up to 'fantasy'.
Re:I don't buy it (Score:1)
a bugg
flamebait? boo, hiss moderator (Score:1)
bad moderator, no Jolt.
George
Re:Would that be (Score:1)
Re:Timeline by Michael Crichton (Score:1)
Grab.
Re:Sounds interesting, but I'm annoyed by the US c (Score:2)
I believe so. FWIW, another notable "Yanks can't handle an ending like this" case is the omission of the last chapter of Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange. Apparently the chapter was seen at the time as being too "warm and fuzzy" for a jaded America who had just survived Nixon and Watergate, and so the publisher nixed the ending where the protagonist, now no longer young, has become socialized at long last. This chapter changes one's entire outlook on the book, imo.
Re:Sounds interesting, but I'm annoyed by the US c (Score:1)
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Re:I don't buy it (Score:2)
Not totally, but to some degree. For example of Conan, or Solomon Kane were to charge the bad guys with an AK-47 or a SAW that he found in some mystical lair, that would pretty much suck ass.
LK
Re:I think i'll skip this one (Score:2)
Yes she is. She's also a very interesting person with a highly developed, ironic, dry sense of humour. Which probably means her humour may not be appreciated by many people following this thread.
But heck - that doesn't matter. There's loads of books out there so if someone doesn't like one there's always another.
Anyway - I've exchanged emails with Mary about the existence of this thread and, if she can drag herself away from her kunes (a rare breed of pig she breeds) and find a computer with a working web-browser she might wander in here and explain some things for herself. Only maybe though because her piglets are very cute.
Mary Gentle (Score:1)
Apocryphal, but probably true
Re:English authors... (Score:1)
Sounds interesting, but I'm annoyed by the US cuts (Score:2)
As there is a US version, I can only assume that nobody will be importing this title so we'll all have to order them from amazon.co.uk [amazon.co.uk] or someplace. I hate buying an incomplete verion of anything.
One wonders who decided to make the cuts. Was it the US publisher, or did somebody in the UK decide that "those dumb yanks would never be able to understand this".
As an aside, an amusing British view of the US can be found at The American Adventure [207.5.43.11] theme park (warning: site requires flash). Did you know all Americans speak with southern-Ozark accents?
Re:Dilemna, dilemna, Ash or Harry Potter (Score:1)
Grunts and swords (Score:1)
People talking about the weights of swords:
Maybe you've weighed them on scales or something and what I'm saying won't help, but some swords may SEEM like they weigh 30+ lbs if they are blade-heavy. My housemate has a handle-heavy claymore that seems light, and my ex-roommate had a (some type of Japanese sword) with a small wooden handle and a thick single-edged blade that made it seem very heavy because of the lever-arm from the grip to the center of balance.
Instant Crisis
"Kicking a kitten... a grown man punting a kitten who was looking the other way... it was the bravest thing I've ever seen." -- Torg (Sluggy Freelance)
Re:Mary Gentle (Score:2)
I'm fairly sure it isn't legal to own an AK47 in the UK. Even if it were it wouldn't be legal for her to fire it in her backyard
However she almost certainly does "blast the living crap" out of things in her backyard with something which looks a lot like an AK47. I've seen and played with some of her "toys".
Then again the town where she lives is a distinctly dodgy place - even if she lives in one of the nicer parts of it.
Single volume to USA (Score:1)
You could try streetsonline [infront.co.uk]. For a hardback [infront.co.uk] copy at 19 UK Pounds, or a paperback [infront.co.uk] [Am. Eng. = "softback"] copy at 14.24 UK Pounds. They advertize US [infront.co.uk] shipping.
The review [zetnet.co.uk]referred to certainly makes me want to read the book. She sounds a very interesting character, strange obsession with degree courses notwithstanding. I'm interested to see how well the academic wrap of 'a translation of medieval Latin manuscripts (the work of Dr. Pierce Ratcliff, professor of War Studies), a major revision and modernisation of the "Lost History of Burgundy"' goes. A similar narrative device in Stephen Lawhead's [stephenlawhead.com] Celtic Crusade cycle can be a little jarring - though it does have a feeling of leading up to something.
- Derwen
Re:Oddly enough, *less* interesting than first tak (Score:1)
I, too, was disappointed. I was hoping for anime of the Saturday morning variety, not Princess Mononoke.
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Re:Sounds interesting, but I'm annoyed by the US c (Score:1)
yes, but what does she stand for? (Score:1)
Or is it one of those things where ASH stands for "Ash, a Secret History"?
I think the most logical conclusion here is that the GNU-like title is a socially-encoded hint to us that the author believes that information wants to be free, and wants to encourage bootlegging without angering the publisher.
(For the humor impaired, the 'girl.fiction' reference was a sarcastic swipe at childish misogyny (see dictionary.com before flaming), rather than an example thereof).
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Getting the UK version (Score:3)
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Wha? TV & Movie Theme Songs? Oh yeah....
Value is relative. (Score:2)
Considering that I already have my laptop, one or two technical books, a few files, a few notepads and my lunch stuffed into my briefcase, I think I'll gladly spend more money to read the slimmer tomes sequentially while riding the bus to work.
Of course I'd also be willing to pay far more for a laptop with a far less powerful CPU if it could rival my Palm Pro for battery life...
Just because the book is cheaper in one volume doesn't mean that one volume is better (and that works the other way around as well, I'm sure that some people would place a higher value on one volume for reasons other than price).
Re:I think i'll skip this one (Score:1)
Women Warriors in History (Score:1)
Joan d'Arc
Boudiccia
Kang Ke-Ching
Grace O'Malley
Bat Zabbai (Zenobia)
A whole nation known as the Amazons
While it is very true that women were traditionally a minority in armed combat, they were certainly not unheard of. Take a look at one of the Women Worriors [demon.co.uk] pages on the net, or do your own search next time that facts inconveniently stand contrary to your opinion and prejudice.
The REAL jabber has the /. user id: 13196
Re:I don't buy it (Score:1)
Sorry, I don't know of any links (I saw it on the History Channel). Can anybody help me out?
The show I saw had them digging up a 'city' of what appeared to be all women (with a few men in a 'sanctuary building' which was supposedly a holding pen for breeders or some such). And it seemed that there was a lot of weaponry and most of the women wore battle gear.
Re:I don't buy it (Score:1)
Or better yet, visit the Weapons Emporium [weaponsemporium.com]. Even the shipping weight of many of their 'Great Swords' and broad swords aren't up to 20 pounds. And that includes scabbards, sheaths and packing material.
And before you argue it, they are using the same construction methods and almost the same materials (with rust inhibiting carbon steel instead of iron) as they used back in that time period.
Aw! I thought it was... (Score:1)
Yeah, just cos everyone else is going to make a funny comment about AoD...
Re:I think i'll skip this one (Score:2)
Heh, now here's a same planet different worlds scenario. Not being a lame-ass whimpering uptight git like yourself, I thought GRUNTS! just fucking ROCKED.
"Pass me another elf, this one's split..."
All baiting aside, Mary is actually quite a nice person and GRUNTS! is parody. You know, humour? Like, a fucking joke?
(Of course, people who have actually been in war zones say that it's the most accurate portray of how real soldiers behave that they've ever seen in literature, so maybe it's not actually all THAT funny...)
Re:Getting the UK version (Score:1)
At 1.30 gmt Amazon UK is down with the following message:
Has the site been slashdotted by Americans over-eager for the single-volume version. How can you be so unethical? Does the matter of patents [slashdot.org] mean nothing to you??
- Derwen
Tolkien's nationality (Score:2)
What nationality would you consider a man born in South Africa to English parents (they moved to South Africa because Tolkien's father took a job there) who spent most of his life in living in England?
Re:Sounds interesting, but I'm annoyed by the US c (Score:1)
Re:Timeline by Michael Crichton (Score:1)
Rather, it has some very old ideas in it. The "many worlds" hypothesis for quantum mechanics has been around about forty years. Science fiction involving visiting those other timelines worlds is almost as old; there was even an original series Star Trek episode based on the concept. And even using the term "jumping" to refer to such trips predates Timeline's publication by at least ten years.
Steven E. Ehrbar
Re:Timeline by Michael Crichton (Score:2)
However, this book was poorly lacking in reality. It was the same old time-travel story (like that's never been done before) with a bunch of handwaving about quantum theory. If you know anything about quantum physics, you wouldn't laugh at this book, you'd be disgusted. I know I was.
Spinning triangular rods make people shrink so that they can fit into quantum foam and travel to another multiverse? Right.....
Re:Sounds interesting, but I'm annoyed by the US c (Score:1)
From the Article:
while the book's American publishers are putting it out in four parts, with the last part due before year's end (The Book of Ash: #1 A Secret History, #2 Carthage Ascendant, #3 The Wild Machines, #4 Lost Burgundy).
So you are going to miss anything; you'll just have to buy four books.
Maybe they were afraid you couldn't read a full page of text completely?
Sorry, just couldn't resist
That series was terrible after the first book. (Score:1)
Um... Stephen King? (Score:1)
That said, the 4 volumes may not be such a bad idea. People might be more likely to take a chance on a new author's book if it's normal paperback size. Then, if they like it, they buy the others, and voila! $$ for publisher and author! If the reader does not enjoy volume 1, they will not buy the others and their badmouthing of said author will likely be minimal.
That said, this book sounds interesting. I wish I still had an attention span :-)
Re:Sounds interesting, but I'm annoyed by the US c (Score:1)
There's also one other difference between the US and UK versions, but I don't remember why this is (or even if there is any reason), but the whole bit at the party with the guy who won a Rory for The Most Gratuitous Usage of the word "Belgium" in a Serious Screenplay, in the UK version the word was changed to just "Fuck" and a large chunk of humour excised in the process.
Re:Who else thought this was about /bin/ash? (Score:1)
Anyway, I'd rather use
ObTopic: So, if the heroine were to convert to Christianity, I guess she'd be a "Born-again Ash" too. <rimshot>
Ash Shell (Score:1)
I thought it meant the ash shell!