From the Bookshelf of Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library…
Find A Copy At
Group Discussions About This Book
No group discussions for this book yet.
What Members Thought
A very nice traditional fantasy story that deliberately throws over a handful of clichés - for instance, our heroes are middle-aged lovers, prosaically named John and Jenny, and the dragon slayer is wry and academic rather than imposing and martial.
More typical is Gareth, the indignant court messenger who comes seeking a hero out of a ballad and finds a man as much involved with pig farming as lording. Also, the beautiful yet evil witch who has enthralled the king is a predictable villain. But I ...more
More typical is Gareth, the indignant court messenger who comes seeking a hero out of a ballad and finds a man as much involved with pig farming as lording. Also, the beautiful yet evil witch who has enthralled the king is a predictable villain. But I ...more
Really terrific. This is my first Hambly book, and I was so impressed. I had to put the book down for a moment at page 172, and I was amazed to find that so much had been conveyed in so few pages, and yet the pacing never felt rushed, and the characters and the world they lived in seemed so fully fleshed out. The focus on "mature" lovers/adventurers was also a refreshing change from so much of fantasy, and the exploration of the internal war between the idealized self and the mundane self was th
...more
Hambly establishes herself as a master of combining Fantasy with modern emotion and consequences beginning with her book Dragonsbane. From the spectacle wearing hero and the menopausal witch who bore his children, Hambly makes light of idea of perfect players in deadly situations that is prevalent throughout the genre. Instead she shows petty teenagers with a flare for drama, puffed up royal courtiers under a veneer of political corruption and backwoods heroes that you admire because they are mo
...more
My favorite of Hambly's novels. Jenny Waynest and Lord John Aversin are not the usual fare for a love story.
...more
Very good fantasy from Hambly, much better than its sequels, which were published years later.
My son might get this book for Christmas!
Apr 14, 2008
Brett
added it
Jul 19, 2008
Eoghann Irving
marked it as to-read
Sep 12, 2009
Amber
marked it as to-read
Dec 12, 2009
Gaijinmama
marked it as to-read
Aug 27, 2011
Erin
marked it as to-read
Oct 08, 2011
James
marked it as on-my-wishlist-sff-2
Apr 01, 2013
Carrie
marked it as to-read
