Ich sag's mal so: Wäre Barbara Hambly nicht vor dem radikalen Ende zurückgeschreckt, das sie Ende Kapitel 17, Anfang Kapitel 18 anlegt, DER SCHWARZE DRACHE wäre ein legendärer, ein maßgeblicher Fantasyroman geworden, der weit über die 1980er-Jahre hinausgestrahlt hätte.
So bleibt es einfach ein guter Roman mit lebendigen Hauptfiguren, spannenden menschlichen Dilemmata und angenehm sinnlich erfahrbarem Weltenbau.
Was ganz schön viel ist.
"Wir leben in einer sterbenden Welt, Gareth. Tag für Tag geht etwas verloren."
Barbara Hambly
Stand Seite 58 ist das Buch auf ebenso schöne wie überzeugende Weise von Verlust geprägt, von Mangel, von einem Bewusstsein der Figuren für das, was es zu bewahren gilt, aber wahrscheinlich nicht bewahrt werden kann, während die Zeiten immer rauer werden. Das macht den vierzig Jahre alten Fantasy-Roman sehr gegenwärtig.
(Der schwarze Drache)
Um das hier glasklar festzuhalten: @nisjasper ist schuld!
DRAGONSBANE (1985)
Acrylic - 28” x 18”
I loved this book—the protagonists and dragon are very engaging and held my interest right from the start. 1/4
#fantasy #fantasyart #sff #illustration #barbarahambly #dragon #delreybooks
Always nice to come home to copies of a new publication! Here’s A Celebration of Star Wars, for which I got to write a chapter on Barbara Hambly’s Children of the Jedi, the Gothic, & the Legends-era tie-in novels!
#starwars #scifi #barbarahambly
Buy a copy at Blurb Books here: https://www.blurb.com/b/11967973-depaul-pop-culture-conference-a-celebration-of-st
or at Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/DePaul-Pop-Culture-Conference-Celebration/dp/B0D25LDP3X/
Preliminary sketch for DRAGONSBANE the book by Barbara Hambly
https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/dragonsbane/
#fantasy #fantasyart #sff #illustration #preliminarysketch #barbarahambly
Because I finished book #14 last night:
I am so full of love for the Benjamin January series of novels by #barbarahambly that I want to grab people by their shoulders and yell "READ IT!" into their faces. But I will refrain.
Instead I'll say: it is, ostensibly, a "historical mystery" series, but that undersells it. It uses the experiences of a free man of color in 1830s New Orleans to explore issues of race, gender, class, power, solidarity, & identity.
That makes it sound too heavy-handed, but this is not a preachy series--those ideas are integrated into the stories themselves, driven by the choices the characters make.
So much of the focus is on the ways in which people with differing levels of power & social status both can & can't overcome the chasms between them through the bonds of friendship, respect, & love.
Add into that actually interesting mysteries, a unique setting grounded in meticulous research, & enjoyable prose.
They are the books of my heart!
For #WorldBookDay:
This is a marvellous murder mystery which makes the most of its very specific setting amid the backlots of Hollywood silent movies in the 1920s.
Pacy, colourful, wryly observed and buoyed by Hambly's meticulous attention to the little details that make places and people feel real.
I just picked up the sequel, One Extra Corpse.
Short #BookReviews: Tippecanoe and Murder, Too
#BarbaraHambly
#DeathAndHardCider #BenjaminJanuary
https://deborahjross.blogspot.com/2023/01/short-book-reviews-tippecanoe-and.html?spref=tw
Frank Böhmert
Michael Whelan
K.L. Noone
lirazel
Mair Rigby
Iain Clark
DeborahJRoss