Barbara Hambly

[rune]

I've not heard of this author before and recently picked up The Darwath Trilogy in a sale.

Are her books any good, what will I expect when I come to read this series

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Never heard of her, but this site seems a good starting point: http://www.barbarahambly.com/
She seems to have quite a range based on the write-up here, from straight fantasy to historical fiction, contemporary settings as well as horror and romance elements.

 

[dwndrgn]

I've only read her fantasy fiction and enjoyed it. She tells a good story - they are light and easy to read. I would suggest that you would like her series The Windrose Chronicles. She likes to blend contemporary with fantasy and does it pretty well. What I remember about reader her books was that she throws in normal, common and everyday laughter and pain that many fantasies don't. Much like Diana Gabaldon, she includes the minor things that if you thought about them while reading you'd wonder why they weren't included. It is hard to give an example of this but give her a read and see what I mean. Also, rune, from what I know of your likes in reading you would probably enjoy Diana Gabaldon as well. Her Outlander series is excellent - mostly historical fiction with a bit of the fantastic as well with time travel, witches, good/evil spirits and such.

 

[rune]

Thanks for the link, interesting to look at


I like an easy read so Diana Gabaldon peeped my interest I do tend to like a strong fantasy feel to a story though and how historical are her books (I dont like historical stories)

 

[BAYLOR]

Ive read the Trilogy and found them to be quite good. I think of them as cross between Lord of the Rings and H P Lovecraft.

 

[The Ace]

I read them a few years ago. Not great, but not a complete disaster either.

Hambly is another Stephen Donaldson - and her output is very much, "Could do better."

 

[Montero]

Well, I found Darwath very inventive. They were also some of her early works. She is one of my favourite authors - yet Stephen Donaldson is one I've never got on with, so don't really get them being linked.

Dragonsbane is one of my favourites, closely followed by the Ladies of Madrigyn.

She has a long series set in New Orleans with hints of voodoo - Benjamin January series. Appealed less to me but very well done.

She has an ongoing vampire series - which has a brilliantly atmospheric historical settings - it has vampires who were "made" at various periods, in an early Edwardian setting. Gives very tight thought to the impact of the historical background on the various vampires. The two main human characters are a former secret agent and his wife who is a doctor.

 

[BAYLOR]

They did do a 4th book in the series.

 

[Montero]

If you are talking Darwath, there were fourth and fifth.
Mother of Winter
Icefalcon's Quest

 

[BAYLOR]

If you are talking Darwath, there were fourth and fifth.
Mother of Winter
Icefalcon's Quest

Are they as good as the first three books?

 

[Montero]

Yes.

Mother of Winter is mostly focussed on Gil and Ingold.
Icefalcon's Quest is mostly focussed on the Icefalcon (not surprisingly)

Incidentally, Barbara Hambly has also self-pubbed a number of short stories and novellas set in all of her worlds. I've not yet read them - was hoping for a paper copy not an eBook but doesn't look like they will come out in paperback.

 

[Verity]

I first came across Barbara Hambly as a Star Trek writer. She wrote Ishmael, a Spock-centric story which was a crossover between Trek and Here Come the Brides (which starred Mark Lenard as the antagonist - who also played Spock's dad, Sarek, of course). She also threw in lots of references to characters from various TV Westerns of the time. It was great fun! I think there was some problem with copyright, though, when it first came out.
I liked the Darwath series, too, and some day I'll get round to trying the Benjamin January series.