Re-reads: Barbara Hambly's Darwath trilogy

[bookzombie]

I've been doing a bit or re-reading recently. I picked up Barbara Hambly's 'Darwath' trilogy at Eastercon this year, which I haven't read since they were originally published in the UK  in 1985 (they were some of the very few BH books I didn't already own - I must have borrowed them from someone?)

I'm not going to talk much about the content, as pennski hasn't read them yet, but I'm more interested in what I remember about them after 30 years. There were three important plot points I remember very clearly - though one of those isn't actually confirmed until pretty much the last chapter and I remember as being much more significant. But there's one hugely important relationship that I have absolutely no memory of at all. I also have no memory of the resolution of the main storyline, nor how much an asshole one of the protagonists is at times (I'd also note that I remembered one of the two protagonists as being the more important character and the other being secondary, but in fact it's the other way around.)

What does still impress is that - at a time when there were huge numbers of highly derivative high fantasies being published - there is a genuinely different threat, with no Dark Lord or evil masterplan and, in fact, could be seen as a natural disaster. There is also a wonderful chapter half way through the third volume where one of our protagonists explains What Is Going On which made me smile with genuine pleasure as I read it. So, yeah, overall I'd still recommend them, though with a certain caution; they are definitely stories of their time in some respects (some of the aforementioned assholeness of one of the protagonists may be only noticible because I am better educated about certain issues than I was at 18!)

Oh, and we have a number of female warriors in a medieval-ish setting and no-one mentions it as strange. This was 30 years ago! Why are we still having this conversation?

Comments

[coth.livejournal.com]

Because there is a whole new generation coming to the ideas for the first time as the world gets richer, people get better educations, and new possibilities open to them. It's a sign of hope, not despair.

[lcohen]

i own these but i have to confess, i remember nothing whatsoever about them, though i do have the faintest memory of mother of winter (because there are five darwath books). with early hambly, i find that i conflate two of the series--i can keep ladies of mandrigyn straight because it's the first hambly book i ever read and it was such a revelation at the time. (i reread that not too long ago--it held up pretty well but yeah, one of the characters is something of an asshole in that book, too.) i like that hambly doesn't have easy solutions with no personal cost. looking at the wikipedia entry on her to see if i could figure out which books were the darwath books, i spotted some books of hers that i haven't read. to the library!!!!

[frostfox.livejournal.com]

One of my favourites, I re-read them every couple of years.
I love the Honking Big Clue as to the reason for the disaster peppered through the books (right from page one of book one) and, as you said, the reaction of the assembled cast when it is pointed out to them. Yay for scholars!
It's the details of the lives of the small folk, as well as the high and mighty, which make it so interesting, and her disaster reportage is just chilling and terrifying, as terrifying as what the people are running from.
Oh, and The Icefalcon is still cool.

FF