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Fantasy. Fiction. HTML: A murderous force threatens a far-off magical world, and an ordinary Californian is drawn into the battle to save mankind 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. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's personal collection..… (more)
User reviews
Nice purple prose that created an atmosphere.
Could have focused more on the real world ecology of what was happening, would happen.
Intrigued to see how this would develop (will probably read the next one).
Bit cheesy, but tasty cheese ;-)
(2) Characterization: The
(3) Overall: Still pretty good as far as these things go.
Gil is a history student writing up her thesis, She suffers from a few
She is not the only person aware of that cabin though. Ruby is a lowlife artist - not quite a biker gang member, but of that ilk. He happens to be there as the old man arrives from across the void. he can scarcely believe his eyes and refuses to accept that the man could be a wizard. But being basically good natured, and experienced with kids, is happy to assist in return for some food. He is not happy at the prospect of leaving a baby with a clearly delusional old man. However he doesn't get much chance to argue the situation because suddenly one of the Dark has followed the wizard across and all of them are pitched back across the Void into the 'other' world - it being imperative that the Dark do not discover how unaware earth is. Gil and Rudy's only concern is to get back to earth which the wizard Ingold assures them he'll be able to do again very soon. Before that happens though, the Dark attack again en mass, and Gil and Rudy's world views are changed forever.
The writing is excellent, descriptive and immersive with a well developed world that can stand on it's own - rather than as is too often the case, only existing for the heroes to pass through it. the characters are also great, with distinct personalities even for most of the supporting characters. There are no stereotypes or crude generalisations. Even better the 'bad guys' act for believable reasons of their won rather than just being generically evil for no reason.
The only slight downside is that Gil ends up as a sword wielding fighter. This just doesn't mesh with her prior life at all, hence she shouldn't have anywhere near the muscle mass necessary for such a role. I applaud the author's reversal (understated and simply accepted) of traditional gender roles, but they do usually have some basis in reality, and skipping over this grates somewhat. Also of course being the beginning of a trilogy most of the story is not resolved. This is annoying but at least all the plot points do reach a natural pause. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series!
This is a universe crossover that is better than the average genre attempt. I like the writing as it is accessible and thoughtful, and the story is not hackneyed. The central magician is both typical and not - the invariable mysteriously powerful and other the other hand, approachable. There are two "this world" characters who cross, and both being atypically crafted, their "other side" roles are also atypical. I am being deliberately obtuse so as to not spoil anything for a first time reader. You'll see what I mean if you decide to read the series. And if you don't, you're missing something.
For my Year of Nostalgic Rereads, this series is a welcome return. For that, I bump it one more star.
Of course, the story is far more than that. The Dark is feeding on the other world's people and must be kept from entering our mundane world. And there is Rudy, also from the mundane world who gets taken into Darwith. There is darkness and horror -- this nearly qualifies as dark fantasy. There are politics and religion. The characters grow and change.
I was worried that my decades-old memories wouldn't live up to today's reading. I am so glad that I still love this book. On to the next one!
Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys well-written fantasy.
The portal fantasy aspect also poses a problem, in that it doesn't seem necessary beyond a bit of wish-fulfillment for Earth-bound readers ("Wow, maybe I too would become a superstar by being whisked into another world!") and also inspires the author to write one of the main characters' dialogue in a southern Californian idiot mode that clashes horribly with the way everyone else talks. I kept thinking of Ursula Le Guin's essay "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie".
To top it all off, there's a big world-threatening mystery (the Dark and why it's their "time" again) that gets very little development beyond a few creepy visions and some night-time attacks. The outsider status of the two main characters positions them well to ask questions like, "what the hell ARE these things?" (they do not resemble any Earthly creatures), but no... they don't. Sigh.
I first read this trilogy back in the '80s, and I recall that there is more explanation in the other two books. I may pick them up to at least refresh my memory, but I can't say I'm really drawn in this time. A reread of one of her later books might be a better idea. Some of them are great!