Gentle's history isn't quite based on reality: Carthage has lost all light, and stone golems are gifted from one nation to the other. Yet, for all the splendour of its alternate history, it's the characters that really shape Ilario: The Lion's Eye.

I was enthralled by the three central characters: Ilario, Honorius and Reckmire'. Just as enthralled as I was by the characters in Ash, another of Gentle's novels that is also set in Ilario's world. Gentle writes with a lush hand, and her plot is intelligent and intriguing. Caught in the middle of the games of nations, Ilario is a misunderstood, ill-used hermaphrodite who just wishes to paint, and to live his-her own life after being freed from slavery. Of course, that isn't Ilario's fate.

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. ( )

Welcome back to the world of Ash, of Carthage under the penitence, and all the rest - albeit to a time before Ash.

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 opposed to the earlier Medieval drawing style, where people are drawn in a fashion that is very odd to the modern eye. This would, to some extent be true.

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. ( )

My Bookspotcentral review ( )

http://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2007/12... ( )

The book was not nearly as good as it could have been. The premise was interesting, but the writing was stilted at times. Overall, an "ok" read. ( )