BookRank

Reading order

Ash: A Secret History reading order

Mary Gentle

  1. A Secret History1999
  2. Carthage Ascendant2000
  3. The Wild Machines2000
  4. Lost Burgundy2000
4 volumes
Volumes
1999–2000
Published
about 45 h
Reading time
Completed
Status

Quick answer

A Secret History
Start withA Secret History1999 · Volume 1 of 4
Buy the first volumeListen to the audiobook

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Publication order

4 volumes1999–2000Completed

  • Mary Gentle’s huge historical fantasy, one novel published in Britain as a single book and in the United States in four volumes.
  • Ash, a scarred young woman who captains a mercenary company in fifteenth-century Europe, fights in a war that history does not remember, against a Visigoth empire in Carthage that uses stone golems.
  • Between chapters, a modern historian translating her chronicles starts to realise his sources describe a past that cannot have happened.
  • Muddy, violent and ingenious; it won the BSFA Award.
  • No volume has enough ratings yet.
  • Read in order.

A plan for the whole series

4 volumes, 2,451 pages, about 45 hours. At 45 min a day that is about 9 weeks.

  • The thickest volume runs 1,112 pages. One volume is one stage: a break after it, not the next volume.

Stages

3 stages, with 2 short books from outside the series between them. You finish around January 10, 2027, 13 days later than in one go.

  1. Stage 120 habout 4 weeksby November 25, 2026
    • 1. A Secret History1999 · 1,112 pages · 20 h
  2. BreakMaus · Art Spiegelman · 295 pp. · score 9.05 h, by December 4, 2026. A short book from another shelf, so you come back to the series hungry.
  3. Stage 216 h21 daysby December 25, 2026
    • 2. Carthage Ascendant2000 · 432 pages · 8 h
    • 3. The Wild Machines2000 · 426 pages · 8 h
  4. Short breakThe Fire Next Time · James Baldwin · 120 pp. · score 8.82 h, by December 29, 2026. A short book from another shelf, so you come back to the series hungry.
  5. Stage 39 h12 daysby January 10, 2027
    • 4. Lost Burgundy2000 · 481 pages · 9 h
  6. The end of the series
    January 10, 2027
In one goDecember 28, 2026about 9 weeks
In stages, with breaksJanuary 10, 2027about 10 weeks · +8 h of other books

We count 1.1 min per page, the pace of an average novel reader. Faster? Move the slider.

How this plan is calculated

The plan comes from the pages and ratings of each volume: we split the series into stages of about three weeks’ reading, size each break to the stage before it, and read the chance of finishing from how many readers rate the last volume compared with the first. How we work out the plan →

Every volume in order

Read: 0 of 4

No volume in this series has enough ratings to enter a ranking yet, so the list carries no scores — the order and the volumes are still complete.

  1. A Secret History
    A Secret History1999Start hereBuy
    –Not ranked yet
  2. Carthage Ascendant
    Carthage Ascendant2000 · 3 ratingsBuy
    –Not ranked yet
  3. The Wild Machines
    The Wild Machines2000 · 2 ratingsBuy
    –Not ranked yet
  4. Lost Burgundy
    Lost Burgundy2000 · 3 ratingsBuy
    –Not ranked yet

Order checked by hand · Order and years: Wikidata (CC0). Spotted an error? Tell us. · Data updated October 28, 2026

Frequently asked questions

Which Ash: A Secret History book is the longest?

“A Secret History” is the longest at 1,112 pages; the shortest is “The Wild Machines” with 426 pages.