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Other Works |
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| The
Journeyer - In his old age, Marco Polo was nicknamed
"Marco of the millions" because his Venetian countrymen
took the stories of his travels to be so many lies. As he lay dying,
a priest offered him a last chance to confess his mendacity, and Marco,
it is said, replied "I have not told the half of what I saw and
did."
Now Gary Jennings has imagined the half that Marco left unsaid. From the palazzi and back streets of medieval Venice to the sumptuous court of Kublai Khan, from the perfumed sexuality of the Levant to the dangers and rigors of travel along the Silk Road, Marco meets all manner of people, survives all manner of danger, and, insatiably curious, becomes an almost compulsive collector of customs, languages and women. In more than two decades of travel, Marco was variously a merchant, a warrior, a lover, a spy, even a tax collector - but always a journeyer, unflagging in his appetite for new experiences, regretting only what he missed. Here - recreated and reimagined with all the splendor, the love of adventure, the zest for the rare and curious that are Jennings's hallmarks - is the epic account, at once magnificent and delightful, of the greatest real-life adventurer in human history. |
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| Spangle
- Gary Jennings has outdone himself in this rich and eventful novel
about the adventures of a nineteenth-century circus troupe. We are
taken from the embittered and impoverished post-Civil War South to
the glittering and decadent capitals and courts of Europe, from the
turbulent new kingdom of Italy to the grim empire of the Russian Tsar,
and finally to Paris under wartime siege.
FLORIAN'S FLOURISHING FLORILEGIUM OF WONDERS reads the sign on the circus wagon. We are taken behind the scenes to learn the tricks of the trapeze artist, the language of the lion tamer, and the secrets of the strongman's strength. Spangle is more than thrilling, for it is also a vivid tour of nineteenth-century Europe, from its stolid innkeepers to its absinthe-drinking poets and - even more - a portrait of a continent on the brink of convulsive change, of three empires that will topple before half a century has passed, of the emergence of the new nations of Germany and Italy - in short, the birth of modern Europe. Spangle is full of fascinating circus lore, thrilling feats of artistry and bravery and erotic entanglements. |
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| Raptor
- is the "memoir" of Thorn, a Goth, who narrates his tempestuous
exploits and adventures, from his unorthodox sexual awakening in a
monastery and a convent; through his exciting journey across Europe
with Wyrd, a Roman centurion turned hunter and woodsman, to his comradeship
with Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, whom he serves as field marshall
and diplomat at a time when the Roman Empire, in sad disarray and
process of disintegration, is taken over by the enlightened Theodoric.
Thorn's stunning secret life, makes him unique among the protagonists of major fiction, and demonstrates Gary Jennings's rare insight into the complexities of human nature. |
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As
Gabriel Quyth (*Before completing Raptor, Gary Jennings penned a novel of the hilarious chronicle of the exploits of an all-too-zealous missionary. The Lively Lives of Crispin Mobey was written under the pseudonym Gabriel Quyth (a name he had used when writing for a family weekly in New Jersey). |
