A Secret History
core novel 1999 Ash: A Secret History
Record
| First published | 1999 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.63 (795 ratings, collected 2026-09-13) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780380788699 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
A Secret History, published by Mary Gentle in 1999, opens the four-volume Book of Ash. Ash is a peasant girl who grows up scavenging in the camps of a mercenary company in an alternate fifteenth-century Europe, rising through sheer competence to command her own company by the age of nineteen. Like Joan of Arc, whom the novel invites comparison to, Ash hears a mysterious voice in her head that advises her on tactics and warns her of danger in battle, though neither she nor anyone around her can explain where it comes from. As Ash's company is drawn into the growing conflict between Burgundy and an expanding, technologically strange Carthaginian empire advancing out of North Africa, the novel is framed as a rediscovered historical document, complete with a modern translator's commentary that hints the history it describes may not be quite the one we know.
Where it sits
- Universe: Ash: A Secret History
- Series: Ash: A Secret History (The Book of Ash) core; position 1 of 4 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Mary Gentle
Notes
- From the series record (Ash: A Secret History (The Book of Ash)): One continuous novel, published as a single volume in the UK (Gollancz, 2000) and split into these four US paperback volumes (Eos, 1999-2000); each volume is catalogued separately here since each was published, sold, and rated individually, the same treatment already applied to The Lord of the Rings' three volumes.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series Ash: A Secret History (The Book of Ash): position 1 of 4: next Carthage Ascendant (2000)
Sources
← Ash: A Secret History dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.