Prisoner of Midnight by Barbara Hambly
Prisoner of Midnight (2019) is the eighth novel in Barbara Hambly’s JAMES ASHER series, which began in 1988 with Those Who Hunt the Night. It has been nominated for the Locus Award for Best Horror Novel. I had never tried this series before, but having enjoyed her (non-paranormal) BENJAMIN JANUARY mystery series, I decided to give Prisoner of Midnight a shot.
(And now that I’ve read it, I can say that there are some common themes. Both series feature a fiercely intelligent male/female pair solving crimes, and explore prejudice as both a cause of violence and an impediment to the investigation.)
Hambly weaves enough backstory into the narrative that a new reader can catch up, and it’s smoothly integrated, so longtime fans of the series won’t ha... Read More
Magic Time by Marc Scott Zicree & Barbara Hambly
Magic Time is the first book of a fantasy trilogy helmed by Marc Scott Zicree. This book is co-written with Barbara Hambly. Each of the subsequent books in the series is written with a different writer. Magic Time was published in 2001, and it is not aging well.
I had a difficult time getting through Magic Time. It narrowly missed achieving Did Not Finish status. When I did finish it I realized that all this book did was set up Book Two.
Zicree’s book is a post-apocalyptic fantasy in the mode of The Stand and Swan Song, although the cause of the cataclysm that brings magic into our world springs from a covert government experiment gone wrong. Wi... Read More
More books by Barbara Hambly
Darwath — (1982-1998) Publisher: For Gil, it started with the dreams; of a city being abandoned because of some nameless horror that was slowly invading, and of the wizard Ingold, who later appeared in her kitchen. For Rudy, it started with an ill-fated beer run that linked him with Gil and Ingold and drew him into a world unlike his, where the infamous Dark was invading. A world where academic Gil became a warrior and punk/artist Rudy a mage, and where everyone was working to reach a haven from the Dark.
Sun Wolf and Starhawk — (1984-1990) Publisher: When the women of the City of Mandrigyn, led by Sheera Galernas, hired the mercenary army of Captain Sun Wolf, to help them rescue their men from the mines of evil, he refused. Little did he realize how insistent the ladies could be, and how far they would go to persuade him to train them against the evil of Altiokis…
Winterlands — (1985-2002) Publisher: When the Black Dragon seized the Deep of Ylferdun, young Gareth braved the far Winterlands to find John Aversin, Dragonsbane — the only living man ever to slay a dragon. In return for the promise of the King to send help to the Winterlands, Aversin agreed to attempt the nearly impossible feat again. With them, to guard them on the haunted trip south, went Jenny Waynest, a half-taught sorceress and mother of Aversin’s sons. But at the decadent Court, nothing was as expected. Rebellion threatened the land. Zyerne, a sorceress of seemingly unlimited power, held the King under an evil spell, and he refused to see them. Meantime, the dragon fed well on the knights who had challenged him. In the end, Aversin, Jenny, and Gareth had to steal away at night to challenge Morkeleb, largest and wisest of dragons. But that was only the beginning of the perils they must face.
The Windrose Chronicles — (1986-1994) Publisher: In her latest novel, The Silent Tower, Barbara Hambly has written a complex tale of dark magic, mystery and deadly danger involving a woman computer programmer who struggles to help a condemned wizard save — or perhaps destroy?—two worlds…
James Asher (Vampire) — (1988- ) Those Who Hunt the Night was published as Immortal Blood in the UK. Publisher: Someone — or something — is killing the vampires of London while they sleep during the day. Don Simon Ysidro, the oldest of the London vampires, hires Dr. James Asher, a retired member of the British Secret Service, to find this killer. Asher, who accepts this job for the price of his wife (Lydia)’s life, delves into the shadowy world of the vampires to find a killer that increasingly seems to be one of their number.
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Sun-Cross — (1991-1992) Publisher: When Rhion the banker’s son met the Master Wizard Jaldis, Jaldis said, “Come.” Rhion came, leaving everything behind to answer the call in his blood. And through long years of drudgery and persecution, he had no regrets. Thus he became a wizard. A noble burned out Jaldis’ eyes to please some god; Rhion made magic glasses so he could see. Together, they opened the dark well to the Abyss between universes, and a cry for help came from a world that had lost all magic. Could that happen to their world? Though forced to flee again, Jaldis was determined to reach that world through the Abyss, to help and to find how the magic was lost. Rhion had nightmares over that. Jaldis was blind without magic. Rhion could not let him go alone. Yet the Abyss terrorized Rhion. Guided only by a voice without magic, they might land on the wrong world or drift forever in the hell of the void. And how could they ever return? The idea made Rhion shudder to the depths of his soul. Yet he was sure that someday the nightmare must come true!
Raven Sisters — (2002-2005) Publisher: Barbara Hambly makes her Warner Aspect debut with a major fantasy novel that works as an allegory for the feminist movement. The Yellow City is in crisis. The wells are running dry, and the Sun Mages have been unable to call the rains. Frustrated and impotent, Mages across the land can no longer work the magic that once ran their empire. Now the magic lies solely in the hands of a few women the first ever to have developed magical powers. The mens’ anger knows no bounds and that hatred spills over in a series of violent attacks. Now, Raeshaldis, SummerConcubine, and Pomegranate Woman, three uneducated and unskilled women, must band together and use their new powers to save both their country and themselves.
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(1951- )
