What do you think?
Rate this book
James Asher #7
Pale Guardian
During the carnage of World War One, James Asher joins forces with the vampires of Europe to counter an even deadlier threat.
The vampires call them The Others. Neither living nor dead, the revenants are mindless and unstoppable and in the carnage of the First World War, governments already running short of men to throw into battle might be very interested in soldiers who don t ask questions and are hard to kill. Front-line volunteer nurse Lydia Asher is horrified to learn that someone has found a way to control revenants, and is creating them for this purpose.
Back in London, Lydia's husband, former spy James Asher, is even more appalled to learn that revenants are beginning to show up in England, on the loose. Since revenants devour vampires, the vampires of Europe most of whom are at the Front, feeding completely unnoticed on the dying join forces with the Ashers to find the source of the threat before the world is overwhelmed.
The vampires call them The Others. Neither living nor dead, the revenants are mindless and unstoppable and in the carnage of the First World War, governments already running short of men to throw into battle might be very interested in soldiers who don t ask questions and are hard to kill. Front-line volunteer nurse Lydia Asher is horrified to learn that someone has found a way to control revenants, and is creating them for this purpose.
Back in London, Lydia's husband, former spy James Asher, is even more appalled to learn that revenants are beginning to show up in England, on the loose. Since revenants devour vampires, the vampires of Europe most of whom are at the Front, feeding completely unnoticed on the dying join forces with the Ashers to find the source of the threat before the world is overwhelmed.
248 pages, Hardcover
First published December 30, 2016
26 people are currently reading
320 people want to read
About the author
Barbara Hambly
205 books1,591 followersaka Barbara Hamilton
Ranging from fantasy to historical fiction, Barbara Hambly has a masterful way of spinning a story. Her twisty plots involve memorable characters, lavish descriptions, scads of novel words, and interesting devices. Her work spans the Star Wars universe, antebellum New Orleans, and various fantasy worlds, sometimes linked with our own.
"I always wanted to be a writer but everyone kept telling me it was impossible to break into the field or make money. I've proven them wrong on both counts."
-Barbara Hambly
Ranging from fantasy to historical fiction, Barbara Hambly has a masterful way of spinning a story. Her twisty plots involve memorable characters, lavish descriptions, scads of novel words, and interesting devices. Her work spans the Star Wars universe, antebellum New Orleans, and various fantasy worlds, sometimes linked with our own.
"I always wanted to be a writer but everyone kept telling me it was impossible to break into the field or make money. I've proven them wrong on both counts."
-Barbara Hambly
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
September 12, 2017
I love Barbara Hambly, and I love her vampires.
This book takes place during WWI. Lydia Asher, a doctor who is volunteering at the front and who also happens to know that vampires exist (to her sorrow), is well aware that vampires are feeding on soldiers out in no man's land. They are one of the many scavengers who have been attracted to the carnage at the front. While Lydia is repulsed by the vampires and fearfully respects them, she knows she's not their target when easier pickings are to be had. But then she comes across a different sort of undead monster in one of the trenches. It's been called revenant, ghoul, other things, and it differs from vampires in that it isn't intelligent or possibly even sentient except for a hive mind that comes into being when enough of these things are together. It's also contagious, much more so than vampirism, which is created with time and care and doesn't always work.
Meanwhile, Lydia's husband James (a spy and linguist) recovers back in London from the couple's last encounter with the undead. He's quite a bit older than Lydia and can't shake off the effects of injury and illness as quickly as he used to. He's also responsible for their child, a toddler.
Lydia and James spend most of the book separated. Lydia ends up working with several vampires in France at the front, including Don Simon Ysidro, her old resented protector. James ends up working with Grippen, the Master Vampire of London, as they track yet another revenant loosed in that city.
It's a bit frustrating to have these two apart yet again for most of the book. Lydia is still going in circle about Ysidro. She's drawn to him and repulsed at the same time. I think I've read her inner conflict one too many times at this point. "He's a killer!" "I should hate him.... but somehow I don't". "Ugh, I hate myself." It's about time to admit that maybe you've become more complicit than you like, Lydia, even if it's for the best of reasons.
This book feels kind of like a retread of several other stories in the series. Just like in the very first book, someone has had the not-so-brilliant idea that vampires or revenants could be useful as soldiers, and must be stopped. The mad scientist who abuses monsters to make monsters has been seen here before. I don't like the revenants, which have appeared before too, as much as the vampires. They are mindlessly ravenous, which isn't as interesting as an intelligent predator, and are more disgusting too. Lots of description of just how bad these things smell, fishy, rotten, ratty... pretty much every gross thing you can think of combined. With the vampires, there's always a back story. When were they turned? How? What sort of vampire are they- entirely inhuman at this point, regretful for their actions, world weary? Revenants are just rotting hunger.
And as I mentioned, Lydia's relationship with Ysidro hasn't changed. I think that at this point there needs to be something there to drive this relationship to a different place. I don't think these two should end up together or anything like that. But Ysidro has never, in six books, tried to harm Lydia and has tried to abide by her restrictions upon him to the point of putting himself at a disadvantage. He hasn't ever given Asher or Lydia reason to doubt his trustworthiness. Yes, he drinks human blood and has killed probably thousands of people. But I like him! :) That's the interesting part of the vampire for me- the curious empathy that they can arouse despite their nature.
Asher is given an offer that he's going to eventually have to come back to by Grippen, who'd like to have him as a fledgling vampire. This is a really interesting new development, and I'm interested to see where it goes. Naturally, a spy would be a good vampire and a useful tool for a vampire master. And Asher, who is getting older and weaker, will probably also be more and more tempted.
There was nothing in this book about the translation of "The Kindred of Darkness", a plot thread that I was interested in and which could well move the story forward. I hope that the next book picks up this point. It's hard to keep a series fresh and keep tension going, and this book shows the difficulty of that. But I'll keep reading.
This book takes place during WWI. Lydia Asher, a doctor who is volunteering at the front and who also happens to know that vampires exist (to her sorrow), is well aware that vampires are feeding on soldiers out in no man's land. They are one of the many scavengers who have been attracted to the carnage at the front. While Lydia is repulsed by the vampires and fearfully respects them, she knows she's not their target when easier pickings are to be had. But then she comes across a different sort of undead monster in one of the trenches. It's been called revenant, ghoul, other things, and it differs from vampires in that it isn't intelligent or possibly even sentient except for a hive mind that comes into being when enough of these things are together. It's also contagious, much more so than vampirism, which is created with time and care and doesn't always work.
Meanwhile, Lydia's husband James (a spy and linguist) recovers back in London from the couple's last encounter with the undead. He's quite a bit older than Lydia and can't shake off the effects of injury and illness as quickly as he used to. He's also responsible for their child, a toddler.
Lydia and James spend most of the book separated. Lydia ends up working with several vampires in France at the front, including Don Simon Ysidro, her old resented protector. James ends up working with Grippen, the Master Vampire of London, as they track yet another revenant loosed in that city.
It's a bit frustrating to have these two apart yet again for most of the book. Lydia is still going in circle about Ysidro. She's drawn to him and repulsed at the same time. I think I've read her inner conflict one too many times at this point. "He's a killer!" "I should hate him.... but somehow I don't". "Ugh, I hate myself." It's about time to admit that maybe you've become more complicit than you like, Lydia, even if it's for the best of reasons.
This book feels kind of like a retread of several other stories in the series. Just like in the very first book, someone has had the not-so-brilliant idea that vampires or revenants could be useful as soldiers, and must be stopped. The mad scientist who abuses monsters to make monsters has been seen here before. I don't like the revenants, which have appeared before too, as much as the vampires. They are mindlessly ravenous, which isn't as interesting as an intelligent predator, and are more disgusting too. Lots of description of just how bad these things smell, fishy, rotten, ratty... pretty much every gross thing you can think of combined. With the vampires, there's always a back story. When were they turned? How? What sort of vampire are they- entirely inhuman at this point, regretful for their actions, world weary? Revenants are just rotting hunger.
And as I mentioned, Lydia's relationship with Ysidro hasn't changed. I think that at this point there needs to be something there to drive this relationship to a different place. I don't think these two should end up together or anything like that. But Ysidro has never, in six books, tried to harm Lydia and has tried to abide by her restrictions upon him to the point of putting himself at a disadvantage. He hasn't ever given Asher or Lydia reason to doubt his trustworthiness. Yes, he drinks human blood and has killed probably thousands of people. But I like him! :) That's the interesting part of the vampire for me- the curious empathy that they can arouse despite their nature.
Asher is given an offer that he's going to eventually have to come back to by Grippen, who'd like to have him as a fledgling vampire. This is a really interesting new development, and I'm interested to see where it goes. Naturally, a spy would be a good vampire and a useful tool for a vampire master. And Asher, who is getting older and weaker, will probably also be more and more tempted.
There was nothing in this book about the translation of "The Kindred of Darkness", a plot thread that I was interested in and which could well move the story forward. I hope that the next book picks up this point. It's hard to keep a series fresh and keep tension going, and this book shows the difficulty of that. But I'll keep reading.
April 6, 2017
Hambly has now plopped the reader and her main characters smack dab in the early parts of World War I.
It is early 1915: Dr. Lydia Asher is with the medical corps on the front, as an x-ray specialist and general operating room assistant. Her husband, Jamie, is back in England, still hampered by a near fatal bout of pneumonia. Of course, this being wartime, well meaning (but totally misguided) people think to use uncanny creatures to give their side an edge in the fighting. Yes, my friends, we are talking revenants, aka zombies, as a weapon of war.
So the race is on (both in England and France) to identify the who, what, how and why behind the appearance of these creatures. As well as which highly placed governmental officials have signed off on the project to weaponize revenants. On the English political front the Irish are using the chaos of war to further roil the waters. There are signs that the Irish republican faction may also be interested in revenant warriors.
Of course it can't be an Asher book without vampires. Don Simon Ysidro is in France, helping and protecting Lydia. Grippen, the master vampire of London. 'assists' James in tracking the revenants in London.
Major points to Hambly for her ability to evoke the squalid conditions on the battle front. The flooding, the rats, the mud, the stench, the psychological horrors are all presented just a little too clearly. (We won't even get into discussing the food---yuck).
I'm not sure whether Hambly intends to drag us, battle by battle, year by year, through WWI or not. I do hope that this is not the last we see of James, Lydia and Don Simon Ysidro.
It is early 1915: Dr. Lydia Asher is with the medical corps on the front, as an x-ray specialist and general operating room assistant. Her husband, Jamie, is back in England, still hampered by a near fatal bout of pneumonia. Of course, this being wartime, well meaning (but totally misguided) people think to use uncanny creatures to give their side an edge in the fighting. Yes, my friends, we are talking revenants, aka zombies, as a weapon of war.
So the race is on (both in England and France) to identify the who, what, how and why behind the appearance of these creatures. As well as which highly placed governmental officials have signed off on the project to weaponize revenants. On the English political front the Irish are using the chaos of war to further roil the waters. There are signs that the Irish republican faction may also be interested in revenant warriors.
Of course it can't be an Asher book without vampires. Don Simon Ysidro is in France, helping and protecting Lydia. Grippen, the master vampire of London. 'assists' James in tracking the revenants in London.
Major points to Hambly for her ability to evoke the squalid conditions on the battle front. The flooding, the rats, the mud, the stench, the psychological horrors are all presented just a little too clearly. (We won't even get into discussing the food---yuck).
I'm not sure whether Hambly intends to drag us, battle by battle, year by year, through WWI or not. I do hope that this is not the last we see of James, Lydia and Don Simon Ysidro.
April 29, 2020
I’m afraid that ghastly cover illustration is supposed to be depicting Ysidro. I tried to keep the book face down whenever I wasn’t reading it.
Another entry in this series with fantastic characters and a particularly vivid historical setting: this time, the trenches of WWI France. The plot, however, is just a retread. Somebody is again trying to exploit the vampires, or the revenants; to use the creatures of the night against their enemies, while being strangely confident that their tools won’t turn on themselves. Lydia and James are trying to stop them, again. I found it pretty implausible this time.
The Ashers continue to be preoccupied with guilt and angst because they repeatedly seek help and protection from the vampires. At the end Lydia tells Ysidro to never darken her door again for any reason, but I can guess how long that will last.
Another entry in this series with fantastic characters and a particularly vivid historical setting: this time, the trenches of WWI France. The plot, however, is just a retread. Somebody is again trying to exploit the vampires, or the revenants; to use the creatures of the night against their enemies, while being strangely confident that their tools won’t turn on themselves. Lydia and James are trying to stop them, again. I found it pretty implausible this time.
The Ashers continue to be preoccupied with guilt and angst because they repeatedly seek help and protection from the vampires. At the end Lydia tells Ysidro to never darken her door again for any reason, but I can guess how long that will last.
February 4, 2017
I enjoyed it, but I do think it's rather tiresome to have Asher and Lydia constantly in a moral quandary about working with, being protected by, etc. vampires. I could have done without that bit (for the last few books). Get over it already.
Aside from that, this book seemed rather more disjointed than the last two, but that may be due to it being set at the Front in WWI. A nice installment in the series, but never going to be my favorite.
Aside from that, this book seemed rather more disjointed than the last two, but that may be due to it being set at the Front in WWI. A nice installment in the series, but never going to be my favorite.
November 4, 2023
WWI is in full swing and Lydia Asher is in France attending to the ill and assisting the surgeons night and day. Rumors are going around among the injured officers that something evil is out there, something not human. James Asher is still recovering from pneumonia in England but discovers that an evil beyond comprehension is on the loose....a foul, fetid thing, with no conscience or reasoning that lives to eat and detroy. The vampires know these beings as the Others...a sort of evil distant cousin. Could it be that the British or French are trying to harness the power of these beings and create more in an effort to win the war? Is this why young injured German soldiers are disappearing without a trace? The Ashers find themselves once again partnering with Simon Ysidro, Grippen and other vampires to figure out who is behind the plot and find themselves in a race against the clock to put an end to to the scheme. Fast paced and full of action, this 6th volume in the James Asher series does not disappoint!
June 14, 2018
If I take issue with anything in these books, it's that the Ashers' home circle is so sparse, someone only has to be mentioned to turn out to be a key player in some way, either a secret enemy or an unexpected ally. There simply aren't enough people; there are the Ashers, there are the vampires, there are the nameless incidentals, and there are usually 4 0r 5 new characters - or even fewer - half of whom will turn out to be important.
I halfway expect Rhys the minstrel to turn up again. I surely would not be surprised.
I think perhaps this series has grown a book at a time, without much groundwork getting laid for an overarching plot or destination, and it doesn't make for a very well-realized world. So far as continuity goes, each new book sort of juggles the weak theme of 'do we kill him, how do we live with ourselves, but he's our friend.' At least in this book, that's been resolved, somewhat. Lydia going ON and ON about her crisis of conscience, and never coming to any conclusion, has tired me out. It's such a pity! When it was introduced in the second book it was powerful; dragging on for the next 5 volumes robbed it of any dramatic tension it ever had. At least she's made a decision, and the only real one.
And Simon, of course, being a very parfait knight, will follow and protect her regardless. His character is both consistent and touching. I don't see how HIS dilemma is solved, short of heroic self sacrifice, and I really hope it doesn't come to that.
The marriage of the vampire and zombie genres was VERY well done. The realistic portrayal of life at the front - Hambly's knowledge as a historian shines - coupled with the likelihood of vampires flocking there to feed, in a world where they are real, make for the most satisfying addition to this series in a few books now.
Read this book in a single sitting. Good fun.
I halfway expect Rhys the minstrel to turn up again. I surely would not be surprised.
I think perhaps this series has grown a book at a time, without much groundwork getting laid for an overarching plot or destination, and it doesn't make for a very well-realized world. So far as continuity goes, each new book sort of juggles the weak theme of 'do we kill him, how do we live with ourselves, but he's our friend.' At least in this book, that's been resolved, somewhat. Lydia going ON and ON about her crisis of conscience, and never coming to any conclusion, has tired me out. It's such a pity! When it was introduced in the second book it was powerful; dragging on for the next 5 volumes robbed it of any dramatic tension it ever had. At least she's made a decision, and the only real one.
And Simon, of course, being a very parfait knight, will follow and protect her regardless. His character is both consistent and touching. I don't see how HIS dilemma is solved, short of heroic self sacrifice, and I really hope it doesn't come to that.
The marriage of the vampire and zombie genres was VERY well done. The realistic portrayal of life at the front - Hambly's knowledge as a historian shines - coupled with the likelihood of vampires flocking there to feed, in a world where they are real, make for the most satisfying addition to this series in a few books now.
Read this book in a single sitting. Good fun.
July 8, 2017
These books are pretty good alt history but I sometimes I wish that I could tell James and Lydia to frankly fuck offerino as I am reminded upwards of three times or more a chapter of why vampires are all evil and why all of them, especially Ysidro, should be hunted down and killed friend or not.
Which apparently they'd feel bad about. But they should definitely be genocided anyway. Did I remind you that vampires were definitely evil? Oh yes, I remember that situation a book ago when they did [insert x bad thing again which I have never gotten over] and I should have definitely had the patience to kill them. Ysidro saved me a while ago which I am definitely grateful for but he should still definitely be killed because he is evil and bad. Oh yes, I definitely appreciate it but DID I REMIND YOU THAT WE SHOULD DEFINTELY HUNT DOWN AND KILL YSIDRO AND ALL THE REST OF THE VAMPIRES, I HEARD THAT YOU DIDN'T COMPREHEND WHAT I SAID THE FIRST TIME. BUT. THEY. ARE. DEFINTELY. EVIL.
And every time the book baits you into thinking that Lydia and James have gotten over it, they haven't. I'm not sure if the Ysidro case is a severe form of Genre Blindness but a jerk move is still a jerk move no matter how they frame their opinion and makes me wish that I could find something better to read.
Which apparently they'd feel bad about. But they should definitely be genocided anyway. Did I remind you that vampires were definitely evil? Oh yes, I remember that situation a book ago when they did [insert x bad thing again which I have never gotten over] and I should have definitely had the patience to kill them. Ysidro saved me a while ago which I am definitely grateful for but he should still definitely be killed because he is evil and bad. Oh yes, I definitely appreciate it but DID I REMIND YOU THAT WE SHOULD DEFINTELY HUNT DOWN AND KILL YSIDRO AND ALL THE REST OF THE VAMPIRES, I HEARD THAT YOU DIDN'T COMPREHEND WHAT I SAID THE FIRST TIME. BUT. THEY. ARE. DEFINTELY. EVIL.
And every time the book baits you into thinking that Lydia and James have gotten over it, they haven't. I'm not sure if the Ysidro case is a severe form of Genre Blindness but a jerk move is still a jerk move no matter how they frame their opinion and makes me wish that I could find something better to read.
August 9, 2019
I know many readers have found Lydia's obsession with not being seen in her glasses in previous books to be somewhat tiresome, but I think the payoff comes in the emotional weight of seeing an exhausted and determined Lydia openly wearing them while working at a medical station near the front in WWI. It's great character development, and it's a small personal detail that helps bring home the gravity and horror of the war.
I also enjoy the parallels to Dracula, which start out with a male character as the focus, but gradually shifts to his wife as the main heroine. James is still an interesting and crucial voice, but Lydia has become the star of the show.
I also enjoy the parallels to Dracula, which start out with a male character as the focus, but gradually shifts to his wife as the main heroine. James is still an interesting and crucial voice, but Lydia has become the star of the show.
April 24, 2019
The seventh book in the James Asher series, which stars an ex-spy/current Oxford linguistics professor; his wife Lydia, a former heiress who renounced Society in order to become a medical researcher; and their buddy/more than platonic third partner/monster they've both sworn to kill, Don Simon Ysidro, a 400 year old Spanish aristocrat and vampire.
The previous book, Darkness on his Bones, ended with the opening shots of WWI. In Pale Guardian it's now 1915 and Lydia has volunteered as a front-line nurse (her own research and expertise on X-rays not counting for much, as a woman) placing her in the trenches of northeastern France. Also with her is pretty much every single vampire from Europe or further abroad; why bother putting themselves in danger by hunting back home when they can easily hang out on the front lines and eat some of the hundreds or thousands of soldiers dying daily? Ysidro is also there, having promised to protect Lydia. James remains back home in Oxford, recovering from pneumonia.
Ysidro, Lydia, and James all separately encounter revenants – a form of zombie-like undead that's as dangerous to vampires as to humans – and as they investigate their origins, begin to fear that the British government is planning to use the revenants as a weapon of war. Which is horrifying enough, even without the extremely likely possibility that things will go wrong and the revenants will overrun London, Paris, or the whole world. Whether ends do justify their means is a major theme, and not only in regards to the scientist eventually revealed to be leading the revenant project. Lydia is constantly forced to examine her own reliance on and regard for Ysidro, who after all is killing humans nightly and psychically manipulating others to enable his lifestyle. Just because he's always been kind to her and they have a special understanding doesn't erase that reality.
I've enjoyed all of the Asher series, but Pale Guardian is a real high point. The descriptions of the trenches are vivid and horrifying, the cold immorality of the governments conducting WWI contrasts wonderfully with the vampires, and the climatic action sequence (in the underground chambers of a former convent) is full of absolutely delicious angst and desperation and last-minute rescues. And also a vampire on a motorcycle. I'm pretty sure Hambly is conscious of the ridiculous potential of her genres and occasionally choses to indulges in it, for which I love her.
In short: WWI, vampires, mad scientists, spies, and evil government agencies. What more could you want out of a book?
The previous book, Darkness on his Bones, ended with the opening shots of WWI. In Pale Guardian it's now 1915 and Lydia has volunteered as a front-line nurse (her own research and expertise on X-rays not counting for much, as a woman) placing her in the trenches of northeastern France. Also with her is pretty much every single vampire from Europe or further abroad; why bother putting themselves in danger by hunting back home when they can easily hang out on the front lines and eat some of the hundreds or thousands of soldiers dying daily? Ysidro is also there, having promised to protect Lydia. James remains back home in Oxford, recovering from pneumonia.
Ysidro, Lydia, and James all separately encounter revenants – a form of zombie-like undead that's as dangerous to vampires as to humans – and as they investigate their origins, begin to fear that the British government is planning to use the revenants as a weapon of war. Which is horrifying enough, even without the extremely likely possibility that things will go wrong and the revenants will overrun London, Paris, or the whole world. Whether ends do justify their means is a major theme, and not only in regards to the scientist eventually revealed to be leading the revenant project. Lydia is constantly forced to examine her own reliance on and regard for Ysidro, who after all is killing humans nightly and psychically manipulating others to enable his lifestyle. Just because he's always been kind to her and they have a special understanding doesn't erase that reality.
I've enjoyed all of the Asher series, but Pale Guardian is a real high point. The descriptions of the trenches are vivid and horrifying, the cold immorality of the governments conducting WWI contrasts wonderfully with the vampires, and the climatic action sequence (in the underground chambers of a former convent) is full of absolutely delicious angst and desperation and last-minute rescues. And also a vampire on a motorcycle. I'm pretty sure Hambly is conscious of the ridiculous potential of her genres and occasionally choses to indulges in it, for which I love her.
In short: WWI, vampires, mad scientists, spies, and evil government agencies. What more could you want out of a book?
September 20, 2025
Why is Hambly constantly coming up with needless excuses to separate the Ashers? (And especially to get rid of James. He's always randomly sick, injured, kidnapped, out of the country for an unrelated or unnecessary reason.) For a married couple, they sure seem to never spend any time together or work as a team. And double the frustration as James is by far the superior protagonist.
Also, what's with the fake relationship drama/water treading that never goes anywhere or does anything? So much for Asher vowing to never work with vampires again . . . or to kill them all, etc. And then, in this book, Yeah, right, like that's going to stick.
And also, have you noticed it ever makes sense when the characters do this? *Why* did Lydia say that? It clearly is going to have no more impact than any other proclamations. Why has Asher said what he's said -- when for their entire respective books previous, all their thoughts have led to the opposite conclusions?
Ugh.
For that matter, why can they never stay in England for more than two seconds?
But beyond those gripes, I like the books. On the other hand, I'm too disgusted to continue, based on the summary of the next one.
Also, what's with the fake relationship drama/water treading that never goes anywhere or does anything? So much for Asher vowing to never work with vampires again . . . or to kill them all, etc. And then, in this book, Yeah, right, like that's going to stick.
And also, have you noticed it ever makes sense when the characters do this? *Why* did Lydia say that? It clearly is going to have no more impact than any other proclamations. Why has Asher said what he's said -- when for their entire respective books previous, all their thoughts have led to the opposite conclusions?
Ugh.
For that matter, why can they never stay in England for more than two seconds?
But beyond those gripes, I like the books. On the other hand, I'm too disgusted to continue, based on the summary of the next one.
May 8, 2017
For as long as I can remember James Asher has been concerned that unscrupulous governments (ie everyone's governments) will try and use the undead to further their own ends. Well, here we are in 1915 and his worse fears are being realised.
This book focuses on Lydia mainly. I found her wartime experience interesting, and the plot enjoyable. However, Lydia and James's misgivings about working with Simon Ysidro are getting a little old to be honest. I'd actually quite welcome Lydia becoming a vampire now.
This book focuses on Lydia mainly. I found her wartime experience interesting, and the plot enjoyable. However, Lydia and James's misgivings about working with Simon Ysidro are getting a little old to be honest. I'd actually quite welcome Lydia becoming a vampire now.
February 18, 2019
Another excellent entry in Hambly’s James Asher series. Lydia is at the Front in France, working in the hospital tents; James is in England, recovering from pneumonia. Both of them encounter revenants - and there should be none in either England or France. Where did they come from, why, and - perhaps worst of all who is responsible?
Hambly’s writing is always solid; anything she writes is never less than ‘very good’. And I certainly enjoyed Pale Guardian. So why not five stars? It’s hard to say. There seemed to be something missing - maybe it was the fact that James and Lydia spend virtually the whole book apart, so we don’t get any of their interaction. Maybe it’s that it’s quite a short book with a lot of action taking place in two locations (London and France) so it’s harder to feel connected.
In any event, it’s well worth reading - but possibly not the best in the series.
Hambly’s writing is always solid; anything she writes is never less than ‘very good’. And I certainly enjoyed Pale Guardian. So why not five stars? It’s hard to say. There seemed to be something missing - maybe it was the fact that James and Lydia spend virtually the whole book apart, so we don’t get any of their interaction. Maybe it’s that it’s quite a short book with a lot of action taking place in two locations (London and France) so it’s harder to feel connected.
In any event, it’s well worth reading - but possibly not the best in the series.
October 17, 2017
Another book about Lydia, James, and Ysidro is always welcome, and this is no exception to that. This book delves even further into their odd friendship, adding new layers, which is impressive considering all the text that has gone before. The series has at last reached World War I, and the book gets much mileage out of the unutterable horror of that war, which makes the predations of vampires seem tame by comparison. The historical research is excellent as always, although as a very minor point I did catch a couple of Americanisms that should have been Britishisms (yard instead of garden, for example). Anyway, there's a reason I've been reading this series for 27 years, and I'll keep reading for as long as it goes.
January 26, 2023
During WWI, James Asher is recovering from pneumonia, in London, earned during the last adventure and his near-death. He encounters a revenant on the streets!
Lydia is on the front line, in France, running the fluoroscope (early X-ray) and helping treat the wounded. She encounters a revenant in no-man's land!
Plans are underway in France, England, and Ireland to exploit the revenants for political purposes and only James and Lydia, with the help of Don Simon Ysidro the vampire, even understand the danger. The revenants must be destroyed... and even WWI can't be allowed to get in the way.
Lydia is on the front line, in France, running the fluoroscope (early X-ray) and helping treat the wounded. She encounters a revenant in no-man's land!
Plans are underway in France, England, and Ireland to exploit the revenants for political purposes and only James and Lydia, with the help of Don Simon Ysidro the vampire, even understand the danger. The revenants must be destroyed... and even WWI can't be allowed to get in the way.
October 10, 2018
Grim setting (not that I was expecting sunshine and daisies from a book both about vampires and set in the trenches of the first World War) and suspiciously pat ending. Barbara Hambly does this sometimes; brings the bad guy in from left field at the very end, and every time she does it feels rushed to me.
Also: this is book seven. Stop whining about how vampires kill people and you hate yourself for associating with them. That ship has sailed. Every single book these constant reminders that the Ashers feel bad about working with vampires. I don't care. Get over it. It's tiresome.
Also: this is book seven. Stop whining about how vampires kill people and you hate yourself for associating with them. That ship has sailed. Every single book these constant reminders that the Ashers feel bad about working with vampires. I don't care. Get over it. It's tiresome.
June 7, 2017
A solid entry in the series after a shaky #6 (story good, structure annoying), this makes good use of both worldbuilding and characters from previous books and the WWI setting to create a creepy, chilling tale of what the intersection of vampires and modern warfare might really look like. As always at the end of one of these books, though, I sincerely doubt that this is the last Lydia and James will see of Don Simon, Grippen et al, no matter what they say on the subject...
September 4, 2018
The horrors of war, and the horrors of The Others, as somebody has the bright idea of trying to use a vampire to control the zombie like revenants and use them as WWI cannon fodder. Her usual sense of historical accuracy is somewhat let down by having a vampire hunter collecting clippings from The Sun, a paper that either folded in 1909, or wouldn't be founded until 1949 and letting the Americanism 'bully beef' be used instead of the English corned beef.
May 16, 2017
I have read other works by this author but not this series. This is the current book but I was able to enjoy it without the back story. Now I'll read the rest
The heroine and her husband are involved in WWII. Excellent read
The heroine and her husband are involved in WWII. Excellent read
April 16, 2018
One of the best of the series
This edition of the Asher Series ties in a lot of the threads of the previous books. The character development of the three principle characters against the background of the Great War continues to entice.
This edition of the Asher Series ties in a lot of the threads of the previous books. The character development of the three principle characters against the background of the Great War continues to entice.
April 25, 2023
Another well-written entry in the James Asher series. This one truly confronts the ambiguity of having a vampire 'friend'. James is ill and is unable to travel to France with Lydia and Don Simon takes it upon himself to be her protector.
May 24, 2017
Wonderful
Against the backdrop of WWI the horror of Vampires and Revenants pales. I love this series and look forward to every book and each word. I hope there are more...
Against the backdrop of WWI the horror of Vampires and Revenants pales. I love this series and look forward to every book and each word. I hope there are more...
October 29, 2018
Very good series. Like her work
January 29, 2019
Glad to have rediscovered this series. Great historical detail of WWI, a tense tightly-written plot and vampires. Looking forward to the next book!
May 18, 2019
Deliciously pulpy with the characters I have grown to fully appreciate. This feels like a fitting end to the story though I can’t imagine not having any additional episodes.
October 24, 2021
The story is grim, almost too dark for my current mental state, but it is good to see good triumph, even fictional good.
January 19, 2023
Sentence fragments and elliptical thinking. I am here for both.
April 9, 2017
I enjoyed this book but felt there was too much of Lydia. I enjoy James and Simon together,more humor and action.
April 20, 2017
Where are all the vampires during WW I? At the front, of course, where there is an almost limitless supply of dying soldiers to feast on. Heroine Lydia is at the front too, as a volunteer operator of a fluoroscope, taking X-rays of injured soldiers before surgery. She and her vampire companion, Don Simon, investigate whispers that vampires are not the only hunters on the battlefield. Back in England, Lydia's husband Jamie discovers that one of the zombie-like Others they encountered in China is loose in London. This is a exciting and well-written tale full of the historical details that Hambly is known for.
June 10, 2017
Я большой фанат этой серии и этих героев, но их вечный треугольник Джеймс - Лидия - Симон меня утомил за семь книг. Если чувства не разрешаются хоть каким-нибудь финалом, они должны перегореть. То, что было таким горько романтичным и безнадежным, превратилось в безакусную жвачку. Сколько уже можно доить тему безнадежной любви и нравственных метаний с заламыванием рук на тему "меньшего зла". Особенно фальшиво это выглядит, когда героиня умудряется обзывать вампиров монстрами, работая в полевом госпитале во время сражений первой мировой войны. С ее газовыми атаками и массированным бомбардировками. Кто там монстры еще спорный вопрос.
May 5, 2018
Pale Guardian is the seventh in the Asher series and I gather there may be more to come yet.
Dr Lydia Asher is at the Front, enduring the sights and smells of World war One as she tends to the wounded. James Asher is at home, recovering from a persistent and recurring pneumonia. Staking out vampires is clearly as dangerous and as violent as spying and possibly the strain is beginning to show.
Lydia is well aware of the fact that vampires are present, feeding on the mortally wounded. One of these, however, is very much on her side, her pale guardian Don Simon Ysidro. There is a new threat at foot: mindless revenants.
When James Asher encounters one in London too, it seems that the couple will have to ensure that neither the British nor the Germans find a way to create undead cannon fodder that can be controlled.......
Asher reluctantly joins forces with Grippen once more, the British master vampire of London. The Ashers have both vowed to destroy all vampire kind, their being obligatory predators on human beings. The fact that Ysidro has always behaved towards them with great integrity is neither here nor there.
The vampires are aware of their superb unswerving rectitude, but from their perspective, the Ashers are nothing more than mignons in servitude to them, just as they have used other humans in times of need.
The question of whether or not this good author might not have other intentions for her characters other than just sharing the moral high ground of the Ashers might be interesting in novels to come: James has been offered the chance to turn vampire himself for the first time in this series.
The horrors of war are depicted unsparingly enough, Hambly's style invokes the kind of magical realism and keen lack of illusion that might be found in, say, Wells.
There is an element of a whodunnit too in Pale Guardian, as an old foe of Asher's is unmasked.
It will be interesting to see which direction Hambly takes in the next novel within this series.
Dr Lydia Asher is at the Front, enduring the sights and smells of World war One as she tends to the wounded. James Asher is at home, recovering from a persistent and recurring pneumonia. Staking out vampires is clearly as dangerous and as violent as spying and possibly the strain is beginning to show.
Lydia is well aware of the fact that vampires are present, feeding on the mortally wounded. One of these, however, is very much on her side, her pale guardian Don Simon Ysidro. There is a new threat at foot: mindless revenants.
When James Asher encounters one in London too, it seems that the couple will have to ensure that neither the British nor the Germans find a way to create undead cannon fodder that can be controlled.......
Asher reluctantly joins forces with Grippen once more, the British master vampire of London. The Ashers have both vowed to destroy all vampire kind, their being obligatory predators on human beings. The fact that Ysidro has always behaved towards them with great integrity is neither here nor there.
The vampires are aware of their superb unswerving rectitude, but from their perspective, the Ashers are nothing more than mignons in servitude to them, just as they have used other humans in times of need.
The question of whether or not this good author might not have other intentions for her characters other than just sharing the moral high ground of the Ashers might be interesting in novels to come: James has been offered the chance to turn vampire himself for the first time in this series.
The horrors of war are depicted unsparingly enough, Hambly's style invokes the kind of magical realism and keen lack of illusion that might be found in, say, Wells.
There is an element of a whodunnit too in Pale Guardian, as an old foe of Asher's is unmasked.
It will be interesting to see which direction Hambly takes in the next novel within this series.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews