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'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 study: 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.… (more)
User reviews
I was enthralled by the three central characters:
The flaws of a character help bring that character to life. This is definitely true in the case of Ilario and his-her friends. I enjoyed immensely the sparring between the three main as they travelled through the various, magnificent and detailed locations in the book.
Yet the flaws of the book itself detracted just a little from my enjoyment. For instance, the nature of the relationship between Reckmire' as slave-owner, and Ilario as his slave, was a little confusing. Even in the beginning, it's arguable that Reckmire' thought of Ilario as a slave, much less treated him like one. And given that Ilario had only just been released from slavery, his-her reactions to a revived state of slavery weren't quite believable. This confusion of how the characters related to one another carried on throughout the novel. By the point where it is fairly evident that Ilario and Reckmire' are close, personal friends, Ilario's seeming distrust of this friendship from time to time was more frustrating than believable. Yet, other relationships, such as Honorius's with Ilario, were as strong as others were weak. The relationship between Ilario and his own slave, Ramiro Carrasco, was particularly poignant, for example.
So, the novel's saving graces far outweigh any criticisms I can find, and I recommend this to anyone who loves Gentle's other novels, or ancient history, or just a very good book.
All that said, a great read!
It would be tempting to say this is a story about someone wanting to learn the "new art" and his or her adventures. New Art in this sense is what we'd call perspective drawing as
But it is far, far more than that. Ilario is a hermaphrodite, and it contains quite a lot about the roles of men and women in society, from someone who is both and neither. It deals with slavery and life as a slave. It deals with love in a number of forms. It deals with growing up.
It also deals with bigger political issues in the context of the time - betrayal, espionage, Greek (well Carthaginian) gifts - not quite a trojan horse mind, international diplomacy and more.
It also, like Ash, deals with someone out of place - a hermaphrodite in this case rather than a woman mercenary captain, but also a lot of eunuchs and the like, dealing in that way with some very similar themes to Ash.
Rather than telling you what happens, get out there and read it. It's great, and although it's over 600 pages of quite dense reading (I'm surprised it's this short, it feels more like 900 pages), it's well worth it.