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meganbmoore) wrote2008-04-28 06:07 pm
Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly
Ten years ago, John Aversin, Lord of Alyn Hold, slew a dragon with the aid of his lover, the witch Jenny Waynest, making him the only living dragonslayer. When a new dragon attacks the kingdom, a young scholar named Gareth sets off to find him, claiming to be sent by the king to summon John to the capital. What Gareth finds, though, crushes most of his dreams. Far from being a tall, handsome knight in a majestic keep, John is an average, bespactacled, affable scholar who works in the dirt, and Alyn Hold is a dumpy little village. Just as bad, John doesn't have a proper lady as a mistress or a wife, but rather a short, frank witch who lives just outside of town. His dreams, they are crushed! Shattered! This isn't right! Woe! Thankfully, a few close calls snap him out of that, and soon Gareth is learning that not stepping out of a ballad doesn't make a person any less heroic, and that it's often better to fight smart than to worship the rules of chivalry.
Instead of being all about the dragonhunting, the dragonhunting takes a backseat to the court intrigues, Gareth's growing past his youthful ideals, and Jenny's continued struggle between her love for John and their sons, and her love for magic. The book hits a lot of my kinks, but primarily the clash between practical reality and heroic ideals, without bashing the heroic ideals, or mocking the person who has them, and also with featuring an old married couple as the leads. Ok, they're neither old now married, but they've been together for over a decade and have two kids, ok? I love fiction that portrays an actual couple as interesting and as still having problems, romantic or otherwise, and getting through them, and have never understood this mass conviction that people turn boring once they've gotten together and settled down. It's no accident that Zoe and Wash are my favorite part of Firefly, or that Raven's Strike and Raven's Shadow(featuring a married couple with teens who tag along with their mother who sets off to tear the world apart when some fool abducts her husband) are my favorite Patricia Briggs books.
Anyway, I have now read and liked the three Barbara Hambly books I was specifically recced, but have been warned not to blindly get her books, as she's apparently of uneven quality. Anyone want to rec more?
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The Sword series is as long as the Wolf Blood series, i.e. six books and it always has the same hero and heroine (the hero tells the story from his point of view), a male sword dancer named Tiger, born in the desert (think Arabian patriarchy and 1001 nights) who while he is the best at what he does (think Wolverine) used to be a slave and can actually accept that other fighters might be better than him (not that he doesn't get turned on by the fact that it's a woman who turns out to be better than him). He meets Del (I think it was Delilah) from the frozen North (think Viking culture) who came to the South to rescue her brother and has some very weird deals going on with her sword (as in magic). The first three books basically deal with them getting together, getting thrown into horrible situations and getting out of them because of Del's quest.
The next three books go after the mysterious background of Tiger and how he gets out off becoming a god/Messiah to a large amount of people.
Sword-Dancer, Sword-Singer, Sword-Maker, Sword-Breaker, Sword-Born and Sword-Sworn.
Hmm, I guess it's one more than the Lindskold after all. Still they've less pages. I'm not sure if you can get them anymore as the first one came out in 1986.
They're really good in the getting together and yet always being surprised by your love-interest way and the adventures are not too shabby either. I personally think they are her strongest books (except maybe for her Robin Hood retellings).
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I was lucky enough to meet Barbara Hambly at a science fiction convention up in Dunedin back in... 1994, I think. She really got into the party atmosphere (this was a convention of about 200 people, tops, and was held in a hotel building) and the big highlight was after the official convention finished, a dozen or so of us sloped off to the pub on the ground floor; she tracked us down and gave us a reading of a short story she'd had sold but which hadn't been published yet. Afterwards, she told us about the events that inspired The Ladies of Mandrigyn, and while it was interesting, what was most interesting was that "Mandrigyn" is pronounced completely differently than I'd imagined it would be: she pronounced it something like "MAN-dra-jin".
As for uneven quality... I think the issue is more that she writes so many different sorts of stories that there's bound to be some that Just Aren't Someone's Thing, more than being actively bad. I've only read about a dozen of her books, though...
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And it's always great when authors(and other celeb types) remember that they're normal people.
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_A Free Man of Color_ (not SFF, historical mystery) is good in the "well-written" sense, but is way depressing.
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What's A free Man of Color about?
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I loved Dragonsbane. Loved it so much. But I read the sequel and it was a morass of depression and woe. I won't ever read anything more in that universe; only the first one exists to me.
I've read the first Raven book, but not the second, but anything that author (whose name escapes me atm) writes is on my to-read list.
What other Barbara Hambly have you read?
I've enjoyed Julie E. Czerneda (for science fiction) in the past, and am about to re-read and see if her books hold up on a second reading. I also have The Mageborn Traitor by Melanie Rawn. I'm curious to see how it will be. (I'm also concurrently making my way through jPod by Douglas Coupland, Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, and a history of the golden age of piracy that's in the car so I can't check out the title or author right now.)
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I am odd in that, even before the Unfortunate Plot Point in the Mercy books, I prefer Brgg's high fantasy to the Mercy books, though those are how I "met" her.
The other Hamblys I've read are Silent Tower and Silicon Mage.
Is the Rawn book part of the Exiles series? If so, I liked the first 2 books, but don't think I've ever seen the 3rd in the trilogy. I haven't read Czerneda, but like Gaiman. Haven't read Anansi boys yet, though.
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The Ladies of Mandrigyn. The first book is excellent: feminist but shonenish. I'm pretty sure it would be up your alley. The two sequels aren't as good, but still fun and don't take the shine off the first.
The Time of the Dark, The Walls of the Air, The Armies of Daylight. Similar to the Antryg/Joanna books; also wonderful. There are two sequels, which... hmmm... I like Mother of Winter, but most people don't. It's very dark. Icefalcon's Quest should be skipped; it has some great characters but is really dark and depressing.
Crossroads is a Star Trek (original) novel which I like quite a bit. It's dark. Her other media tie-ins are forgettable.
Those Who Hunt the Night, Traveling With The Dead. Very good gaslight Victorian vampire novels. Clever and unsentimental.
Dog Wizard is a sequel to the Antryg/Joanna books. It's got some good bits but not up to the first two. Stranger at the Wedding is peripherally related. It's good, mostly light but the villain is extremely creepy.
Her mysteries are depressing for historical reasons.
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Not too predictable, am I?
"The Time of the Dark, The Walls of the Air, The Armies of Daylight. Similar to the Antryg/Joanna books; "
What are these ones about?
I'm not big on vampires these days, but I do like Victorian and gaslight. The mysteries sound good, but also heavy and depressing. (I MIGHT actually have A Free Man of Color somewhere in the booksale boxes.)
Time of the Dark
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