The Librain……retired

We have reached the first November reading post already! This week I am writing about two books in the Darwath series by Barbara Hambly. Regular visitors might remember that I have been recently rereading the first three books that I first came across decades ago. Then I discovered that Hambly added two more books to the original trilogy in the 1990s. And I hadn’t known about them, let alone read them already! I was so pleased and quickly went to download them. Anyway, here they are…

So, we shall begin with The Mother of Winter, Darwath #04. This is the blurb…

“A RETURN TO THE REALM OF DARWATH…

Five years after the departure of the Dark from Darwath strange occurrences begin to develop in the Vale of Renwath. There are geological upheavals and an increasing amount of ‘slunch’ – a heavy, inedible, juiceless fungus. Cave bears, woolly mammoths and sabretooths seem to be flocking to the area. Even stranger are the sightings of ‘thaght’n’ – creatures who possess a kind of magic which even magician Rudy Solis cannot defeat or deceive. Thus as Gil, who crossed the void from present day California, and her lover, the wizard Ingold, return to the Keep from the flooded delta city of Penambra, they realise that something is desperately wrong …

Something, somewhere, is attempting to terraform the world by the use of  magic to accelerate the rate of chilling until the temperature reaches the point that it – whatever ‘it’ is – finds comfortable …”

And here is my response on Goodreads…

Mother of Winter by Barbara Hambly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was so pleased when I found out that Hambly had written two more books in the Darwath series. As I had just been re-reading the first three after a break of many years, the discovery was like the cherry on top of the cake! Hambly has clearly developed as a writer over the intervening twenty years or so from the first book in the series to this one.

It was so nice to get re-acquainted with my favourite characters in a setting five years on from the original trilogy. They are facing new enemies and obstacles in this book. The plot is exciting and gripping, although I continue to wonder how Ingold Inglorion manages to survive, given the detailed descriptions of his numerous injuries at several points in the tale!

All in all, this was a really enjoyable read.

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When I finished this book, I went straight on to Icefalcon’s Quest, Darwath #05, feeling a little sad that this is the final book in the series. Oh, I am such a sentimental reader! I grow to love some of the characters in long series and feel rather bereft when I have to leave them. That’s probably why I reread my favourite books so often.

Here is the blurb…

“The Icefalcon’s first mistake was to rescue the old man named Linok. His second mistake was to leave Tir, his young charge in the old man’s care…

Linok was not as he seemed, and when he disappeared, snatching Tir away with him, the Icefalcon begins a desparate quest to rescue his charge. But this will be no ordinary struggle, for against the Icefalcon come hellish furies – an army of ghostly soldiers horrifically constructed, demons of the air and magic so dark it terrifies him. There is also Hethya, the young woman who was once in Linok’s care. She claims to be possessed by a spirit who lived in the Time of the Dark and believes it knows the secret in the crypt below the Keep, the target against which all the forces of darkness are gathering…”

Once again, I enjoyed being drawn in to the world of Darwath and this is what I wrote on Goodreads…

Icefalcon’s Quest by Barbara Hambly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This final book in the series was my least favourite, but there were definitely good parts of the book:

* The Icefalcon’s character had not been very developed in the preceding books. We were told quite a lot about his appearance, skills and weapons, but he seemed to be quite distant and austere. In this book, he really grew as a person and it was really interesting to read about the changes.

* There were intriguing descriptions of magical technology that had been, apparently, hidden away for thousands of years of years, but were resurfacing for a variety of reasons.

* Many parts of the plot were exciting and well written as were the descriptions of the various settings.

* It was nice to encounter well-loved characters from the previous books now and then. I also enjoyed reading about Tir and how he was growing up.

However, some sections of the book did not work well for me. The “spirit walking” became irritating and there was a strange jump in the plot with the arrival of our hero-wizard. Also, everything was too rushed at the end to kind of round off the tale.

It is definitely worth reading this book if you have read the rest of the series first, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a standalone.

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Right, so that’s the end of this week’s post! I wish you all Happy Reading.

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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This is the last Reading Roundup post for October – wow! I have been really enjoying working my way through old favourites from my younger days. One of the things that I love about books is that you can discover new aspects of the plot or characters each time you read them. This has definitely been the case for me with these wonderful books.

So last week I finished the final book in the Darwath trilogy, The Armies of Daylight, and then found out that Barbara Hambly had written two more books in the same world! I felt so happy to think that I could read more about her great characters such as Gil, Rudy and Ingold Inglorion. Anyway, here is the blurb for Armies of Daylight…

“Since the Dark Ones returned, the world has been laid to waste.

The wizards have been slaughtered, cities destroyed, and people have scattered in terror.

Few have witnessed more of the destruction than Rudy and Gil — two ordinary Californians who found their way across the Void, and took up arms in defence of a strange and magical world. She learned the ways of war, while he found within himself the powers of a great wizard. Both of them will need all their strength to survive this final challenge. Ingold, the master wizard, has devised a spell to hide the user from the deathly stare of the Dark, and he intends to use it to strike at their very heart.

Finally, Rudy, Gil, and the rest of mankind’s survivors will take the offensive, bringing an end to this terrible war, for better or for worse.”

And here is my response on Goodreads…

The Armies of Daylight by Barbara Hambly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a great ending to the original trilogy (two more books set in this world were added some years afterwards). The characters continue to develop as do the political shenanigans. Hambly is so insightful with her understanding of how humans might behave in such terrible circumstances: their world crumbling around them, having to flee their homes, the death of family members and friends, terrifying alien creatures devastating and crushing human existence, law and order falling apart.

Gil and Rudy use their different skills, learning and knowledge from the modern day USA to help solve mysteries and support the battle for human survival. Great stuff!

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I am writing this post at 12.00 UK time. Later on today, I may finish the next book Mother of Winter, Darwath #04. If that happens, I will try to add the details to this post. If not, I will write about it in next week’s Reading Roundup. Mind you, I am really enjoying the book and don’t want to spoil the experience by rushing to the end!

Happy reading everyone!

Love and best wishes,

Anne 

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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.

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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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Welcome to this week’s post. I have now gone way past my Goodreads target for the year – 50 books. Because I am working my way through old favourites, some of them haven’t registered on my count, so I have actually read quite a lot more.

This week I returned to another favourite from my youth: Barbara Hambly’s Darwath series. I read the first three books in my twenties and it has been interesting to revisit the first one in the series…

I thought I would show you the newer ebook “cover” and an older version as a comparison! Anyway, as you can see, the book I read was Time of the Dark by Barbara Hambly, #01 Darwath Series. Here is the blurb…

“A California medieval scholar is pulled into a far-off magical world—and a fight to save mankind—in this novel by a New York Times–bestselling author.As a student of medieval history, Gil Patterson is a woman familiar with dark stories. She knows well the Crusades, the Black Death, and the other horrors of the Middle Ages, but it is another kind of atrocity that has begun to haunt her dreams. She sees forces of evil assaulting a beleaguered kingdom, whose kind people are on the brink of annihilation, and awakes each morning in a cold sweat. Gil dismisses the dreams until a wizard appears in her apartment. He has crossed into her dimension, passing through the fraying fabric of the universe, to ask her help. For mankind to survive he must protect an infant prince, whom he plans to hide in Gil’s world. The student of history is about to get much closer to evil than she ever imagined.”

And this is my response on Goodreads…

I have had to use a screenshot image above because the usual HTML code wasn’t there. Anyway, you can get the gist. I will definitely be reading the rest of the series before turning to a different book. There are a few in my ebook collection that look interesting.

Happy Reading to you all!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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