GENTLE, Mary

(1956-)

   UK writer who began publishing with a fantasy for young adults, A Hawk in Silver (1977; rev 1985 US), and who came to general notice with her Orthe sequence - GOLDEN WITCHBREED (1983) and Ancient Light (1987) - which, despite the fantasy ring of the first title, is sf. The protagonist of both volumes, a woman diplomat/entrepreneur in the complexly defined employ of an Earth dominated by vast corporations, comes to Orthe in an attempt to open the planet to exploitation, but discovers the densely described humanoid Orthean culture a seeming match for the desires of her masters. Her trek across Orthe, which takes much of GOLDEN WITCHBREED and which is replicated in feel in Ancient Light, gives the sequence the typical plot-structure and landscape of PLANETARY ROMANCE, though MG is, in fact, far less entranced by scene-setting than are the creators of the modern form (e.g., Jack VANCE). The final import of the sequence - despite the sf pleasures entailed in the discovery of an ancient race whose technological hubris once seared the world, and of a huge ancient artifact (BIG DUMB OBJECTS) - is anything but conducive to any sense that Orthe isa planetary Secret Garden. The protagonist is older in the second volume, Orthean culture has been fatally touched by the allure of humanTECHNOLOGY, disturbances transform the old comity, which is now torn by ethnic conflicts, and the revanchist descendants of the ancient Golden Witchbreed do finally use the secret weapon which gives that second volumeits title. The Secret Garden - which lies at the heart of the true planetary romance - becomes, in MG's hands, the Third World.Some of the stories assembled in Scholars and Soldiers (coll 1989) are sf, but in the late 1980s MG turned to FANTASY, and in the White Crow sequence - Rats and Gargoyles (1990),The Architecture of Desire (1991) and Left to his ownDevices (coll 1994) - created an ALTERNATE WORLD or multiverse whose scenery and idiom were superficially reminiscent of Michael MOORCOCK's metaphysical romances; but MG was far more interested than Moorcock in the arguments that might sustain such a universe, deriving a rationale to sustain them - like John CROWLEY before her - from Renaissance Neoplatonism. In the first novel, it is seen that the world is sustainedin the memory of a cabal of gods. In the second, set in an alternate England which mirrors Cromwellian times, the female protagonist begins, atgreat cost to herself and others, to outgrow the toys of MAGIC; MG has always been an author of FEMINIST inclinations, and she presents the sins committed by the White Crow in this novel as non-gender hubris and complacency. Less urgently, the third volume - whose long title story is set in a NEAR FUTURE but decidedly alternate London - expands the scope but comes fairly close to treating the Temporal Adventuress exploits of the heroine as self-justifying. It still may be hoped that the harsh, flexible urgency of MG's fantasies will shape an equally complex new sf vision.

   JC

   Other works: The Weerde \#1 * (anth 1992) ed with Roz KAVENEY; Villains! * (anth 1992) ed with Kaveney; Grunts! (1992), a parodic sf/fantasy.

   See also: GODS AND DEMONS; MILFORD SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS' CONFERENCE; PSEUDO-SCIENCE; SHARED WORLDS.