Ilario: The Lion's Eye (GOLLANCZ S.F.) - Hardcover

Gentle, Mary

3.48

321 ratings by Goodreads

9780575076617: Ilario: The Lion's Eye (GOLLANCZ S.F.)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0575076615 ISBN 13: 9780575076617

Publisher: Gollancz, 2006

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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: abandonment 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.

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Review:

"Ilario was born a functioning hermaphrodite, whose status in law and theology makes the protagonist of this action-packed, deeply intelligent novel a focus for intrigue, intellectual debate and a fair amount of polymorphous hot sexual action." (Roz Kaveney TIME OUT)

Gentle tells an absorbing tale, deftly swapping what was for what might have been. (Barbara Davies STARBURST)

When she's got you hooked, there's no beating Mary Gentle. (Rhianna Pratchett SFX)

"Her characterisation and world building is so good that the story seems plausible. A welcome and enigmatic addition to a writer with vision who still has the power to shock and amaze." (SFFWORLD)

The extraordinary gender sensitivity and flexibility Ilario embodies, novel shades of sexuality at every turn, and new angles on plain old heterosexuality in the bargain � factor all that in, and Ilario is the foremost SF/fantasy novel of gender in quite a while. (Nick Gevers LOCUS)

Book Description:

A prequel to the award-winning ASH, set 50 years earlier

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