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Originally Posted by Indio777
Her two-book series that involves a dragon is much "lighter." First book is Dragonsbane. Yeah, I know, yet another fantasy about dragons. But she adds enough new elements to make it interesting. And still a bit of romance.  So if these are on sale again, might consider trying that. |
Barbara Hambly is one of my favourite authors, and I quite literally own nearly everything she's written (minus media tie-in novels) in two languages.
However, the "Dragonsbane" series (technically grouped as the Winterlands books) runs to four volumes thus far, and I really, really wouldn't call them "lighter", considering the direction the follow-up trilogy takes. (Basically, if one thought that Darwath sounded too grimdark, the demon queen portion of the Winterlands saga goes much, much grimdarker.)
For prospective readers who want a more optimistic series with more romance-y elements in them, I highly recommend Bride of the Rat God (standalone set in 20s Hollywood), The Windrose Chronicles (80s era computer programmer kidnapped to a Regency-esque magical world) and the standalone sequel (follows a different character in the same world and can be read alone) Stranger at the Wedding, which is an excellent mystery w/strong romantic elements, and the Sun Wolf and Starhawk books, which feature a more classical fantasy setting amidst a mercenary group.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Indio777
Although she is still writing. She basically switched from fantasy to mystery awhile back with her Benjamin January series. The protagonist is a Creole in early nineteenth century New Orleans.
But I see she has recently put out some more titles in her James Asher series. Again nineteenth century, this time in England. Asher is an academic who is also a spy for the British government who ends up working with vampires. Yeah, I know yet MORE vampire books. But her first ones in the series were written years ago (80s?), well before the current vampire craze. I thought they were quite good. Perhaps the more recent titles are in response to the vampire craze. I haven't read them, so no idea as to how good they are.
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They're still quite good, although some of the story direction has gone in a way I wouldn't have thought it would have after the original books.
The Asher & Ysidro novels got picked up not because of the vampire craze recurrence (or at least not solely because of that), but because Hambly's Benjamin January novels (excellent and recommended to those who haven't tried them before) have done so well with the sales in their Severn House revival that the new publisher which is known for doing mainly mysteries went and offered a contract to pick up and continue the Asher books because they were her most mystery/suspense-ish available series and thus more likely to be commercially viable (apparently the bottom has kind of dropped out of the epic fantasy market).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Indio777
Sorry to wander off topic, but I kind of like this author. . Hopefully her stuff will be on sale again soon. |
In the meantime, if you've ever had a burning desire to read some follow-ups to her classic fantasies, one can pick up new novellas written in her old universes directly from the author, who's been writing and selling them directly from her website as
The Further Adventures Of (a little pricey, at $5 a pop, but they do support the author directly).