Wednesday’s reading post is here! I have been really enjoying reading the Darwath series by Barbara Hambly again. This week I finished the second book and am halfway through the third. I have also found out that Hambly has added two more books to the original trilogy, so I have just bought them as ebooks and am looking forward to reading them soon.

The cover on the left is for the ebook that I have just finished, while the one on the right is for the paperback that I have downstairs on the shelf!

Here is the blurb for Barbara Hambly’s The Walls of Air #02 Darwath series:

“Once upon a time, Gil and Rudy lived simple lives.

Until they met Ingold, Gil was an ordinary PhD candidate and Rudy was a drifter, whiling away his life riding motorcycles under the California sun. But wizards have a way of complicating things. Ingold brought them across the Void, where an evil known as the Dark threatened to devour civilization whole.

Civilization’s hopes rested on an infant prince, and to protect him Gil and Rudy had to draw on newfound powers — she as a warrior, he as a wizard. With Ingold’s help they escaped the Dark, and led a hardy band of survivors to a far-away keep, where humanity could be safe for a time.

But now that time is past, they have been found, and there is nowhere to hide from the Dark.”

And this is my response on Goodreads:

The Walls of Air by Barbara Hambly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I first read this series back in the 80s and have re-read it a few times since then. Coming back to it now for nostalgia reasons, I am so glad that I decided to do this. The first volume was great, but this one takes the story much further with epic journeys and huge shocks. Of course I remembered a lot of the plot, but I noticed a lot more: the character development, the world building, the careful plot arcs.

The book is definitely of its time and some things that were OK for the 80s probably are not so acceptable now (the developing relationship between a powerful man in his 60s with a woman in her 20s, no matter how strong she is).

One tiny quibble. This ebook version has various errors, but they did not detract from my enjoyment of the book.

View all my reviews

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When I have finished the third book, which I will write about next week, I will take a break from all of this nostalgia and try something new from the library. I have quite a few ebooks waiting on the library app!

Happy reading to you all!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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