Congratulations! You are High-Brow, Violent, Experimental and Cynical! These concepts are defined below.

Mary Gentle is a UK author whose work has received some acclaim. Her great break-through came with 1984 fantasy novel Golden Witchbreed,which depicts the travels of a UK envoy on a planet, Orthe, where theinhabitants have, by choice, abandoned a high-tech society for aseemingly less advanced way of life. Though nominally science fiction,the novel is generally called fantasy, partly because Orthe has the feelof a fantasy world. Nothing is what it first seems to be on Orthe,however, and the envoy's journey across the planet gradually reveals avividly imagined alternate society, where nothing is everover-simplified or, for that matter, easy. Gentle revisited Orthe in1987, when the sequel Ancient Light was published.

Since then Gentle has written the White Crow sequence, starting with Rats and Gargoyles(1990), which has received some acclaim, not least from otherwriters; China Miéville, for example, put it on his list of "50 sciencefiction and fantasy novels socialists should read". She has alsowritten Grunts! (1992), a novel set in a Tolkien-like fantasyworld, but told from the point of view of the orcs, as well as severalother books.

Gentle is not one to shunaway from difficult issues in her works and is equally unafraid ofdiscussing and depicting violence. Neither has she settled to writingthe same kind of story over and over, and, while being at her best agreat entertainer, she has the ability of twisting and bending fantasyenvironments and themes at her will, making unafraid a key-word of her career as a writer.

You are also a lot like Gene Wolfe.

If you want something more gentle (no pun intended), try Philip Pullman.

If you'd like a challenge, try your exact opposite, J K Rowling.

Your score

This is how to interpretyour score: Your attitudes have been measured on four different scales,called 1) High-Brow vs. Low-Brow, 2) Violent vs. Peaceful, 3)Experimental vs. Traditional and 4) Cynical vs. Romantic. Imagine thatwhen you were born, you were in a state of innocence, a tabula rasa whowould have scored zero on each scale. Since then, a number ofcircumstances (including genetical, cultural and environmental factors)have pushed you towards either end of these scales. If you're at 45 or-45 you would be almost entirely cynical, low-brow or whatever. Thecloser to zero you are, the less extreme your attitude. However, youshould always be more of either (eg more romantic thancynical). Please note that even though High-Brow, Violent, Experimentaland Cynical have positive numbers (1 through 45) and their oppositesnegative numbers (-1 through -45), this doesn't mean that eitherquality is better. All attitudes have their positive and negativesides, as explained below.

High-Brow vs. Low-Brow

You received 9 points, making you more High-Brow than Low-Brow.Being high-browed in this context refers to being more fascinated withthe sort of art that critics and scholars tend to favour, rather thanthe best-selling kind. At their best, high-brows are cultured, able to appreciate the finer nuances of literature and not content with simplifications. At their worst they are, well, snobs.

Violent vs. Peaceful

You received 27 points, making you more Violent than Peaceful. Please note that violent in this context does notmean that you, personally, are prone to violence. This scale is ameasurement of a) if you are tolerant to violence in fiction and b)whether you see violence as a means that can be used to achieve a goodend. If you are, and you do, then you are violent as defined here. At their best, violent people are the heroes who don't hesitate to stop the villain threatening innocents by means of a good kick. At their worst, they are the villains themselves.

Experimental vs Traditional

You received 5 points, making you more Experimental thanTraditional. Your position on this scale indicates if you're morelikely to seek out the new and unexpected or if you are morecomfortable with the familiar, especially in regards to culture. Notethat traditional as defined here does not equal conservative, in thepolitical sense. At their best, experimental people are the ones who show humanity the way forward. At their worst, they provoke for the sake of provocation only.

Cynical vs Romantic

You received 19 points, making you more Cynical thanRomantic. Your position on this scale indicates if you are more likelyto be wary, suspicious and skeptical to people around you and the worldat large, or if you are more likely to believe in grand schemes, happyendings and the basic goodness of humankind. It is by far the mostvaguely defined scale, which is why you'll find the sentence "you arealso a lot like x" above. If you feel that your position on this scale is wrong, then you are probably more like author x. At their best, cynical people are able to see through lies and spot crucial flaws in plans and schemes. At their worst, they are overly negative, bringing everybody else down.



I would love to read a story narrated by the Torturer of the Dark Lord. =D