Mary Gentle Books in Order

Earth envoy Lynne Christie visits Orthe to establish relations with its inhabitants, who fear the legacy of an ancient technological empire. Accusations that she belongs to the dreaded Golden Witchbreed transform her diplomatic mission into a fight for survival.

Teenager Holly discovers a strange coin that opens a path into adventures with the magical inhabitants of the Hollow Hills. Accompanied by her friend Chris, she encounters a hidden world beyond the familiar boundaries of everyday life.

Lynne Christie returns to Orthe as an adviser to an Earth corporation seeking the lost technology of the Golden Empire. Divided loyalties and escalating conflict force her to confront the consequences of outside interference on the planet.

This early collection gathers Mary Gentle’s imaginative short fiction, including the previously unpublished novellas Beggars in Satin and The Knot Garden. The stories bring together fantasy and science fiction, offering different paths into the speculative worlds of her longer work.

In a city ruled by intelligent rats and powerful gods, human prince Lucas arrives to study at the University of Crime. He and his classmate become entangled in a conspiracy threatening the city's precarious balance of power.

Rival factions struggle for control of an alternate seventeenth-century London where magic and alchemy shape political power. Architect Casaubon and mage White Crow receive competing requests for help as a fragile truce masks dangerous personal and public conflicts.

Orc captain Ashnak and his war band prepare for another battle in which their employers expect them to die. This darkly comic fantasy follows the expendable soldiers of evil as they confront heroes, military incompetence, and their own survival.

This anthology approaches fantasy through its villains rather than its familiar heroes. Mary Gentle and Roz Kaveney assemble stories by multiple writers, with Gentle’s Cartomancy framing tales of enemies, questionable quests, and the figures usually left on the losing side.

Valentine White Crow and Casaubon return in a science-fiction story set in an alternative London. This collection pairs their adventure with Black Motley and the shorter works What God Abandoned and The Road to Jerusalem.

Mercenary captain Ash fights through an alternate fifteenth-century Europe, guided by a voice she believes belongs to a saint. A modern scholar's study of her life uncovers evidence challenging accepted history and suggesting a stranger source for her guidance.

Carthage's armies sweep across a darkened Europe, leaving Burgundy resisting the invasion. Warrior Ash must confront a powerful stone intelligence linked to the voice guiding her, while the enemy general presents an unsettling connection to her own identity.

With Dijon near collapse and the Visigoth army at its gates, Ash refuses the machinery threatening humanity. A fragile hope within the besieged city offers a means of resistance as darkness tightens its grip on Burgundy.

Ash returns from Carthage to find Dijon besieged by the armies of her rival, the Faris. With Burgundy's ruler trapped inside and sinister machines threatening humanity, she must decide whether to risk her forces in a rescue attempt.

This omnibus follows Earth envoy Lynne Christie on Orthe, a world scarred by the destruction of an ancient technological civilization. Her efforts to understand its inhabitants draw her into intrigue, divided loyalties, and conflicts threatening renewed catastrophe.

After arranging the French king's assassination, duelist Valentin Rochefort flees toward England with unexpected companions. Conspirators there blackmail him into another royal murder plot, while visions of possible futures complicate his choices and loyalties.

Mary Gentle’s collected short fiction brings together the stories from Soldiers and Scholars with work previously unavailable in book form. New afterwords and a revised Cartomancy framing story connect tales moving between science fiction, fantasy, and their shifting boundaries.

Fleeing an Iberian court, aspiring painter Ilario travels to Carthage, a city beneath perpetual darkness. A determination to paint the visible world encounters slavery, powerful religious authorities, and pursuers carrying the dangers of Ilario's past.

Freed from service at an Iberian court, intersex artist Ilario flees a mother's murderous efforts to conceal a family secret. The journey toward training as a painter leads through Carthage, where enslavement threatens that fragile independence.

Artist Ilario seeks safety for a new daughter while assassins and powerful enemies threaten the family. A journey from Venice toward Constantinople and beyond draws together political negotiations, unlikely allies, and the unresolved dangers of Ilario's origins.

In an alternate nineteenth-century Naples, music can produce miracles and threaten catastrophe. Librettist Conrad Scalese is recruited by the king to create a counteropera against a secret society's apocalyptic performance, with only six weeks to complete the task.