Hambly, Barbara Books

The Road to Madness

H. P. Lovecraft, John Jude Palencar, Barbara Hambly

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 32 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

DEL REY ANTHOLOGY OF LOVECRAFT'S BEST 5 out of 5 stars.
21 of 21 people found this review helpful.

This is an anthology of some of the best works of Howard Philips Lovecraft (HPL), a pulp horror- and science fiction- writer of the 1920s and 30s. Lovecraft had a distinctive style of writing, meant to convey through description an atmosphere of awe and wonder of the universe, which he believed a rational mind would experience as horror. His works have influenced generations of writers including Stephen King, Brian Lumley, Ramsey Campbell, and Robert Howard. The content of THE ROAD TO MADNESS is some of HPLs most evocative, chilling, and enduring tales. And I almost missed them.

You see, I thought I had everything by Lovecraft. But I would catch allusions to things like the "Martense kin", "the U-Boat", and Arthur Jermyn. I couldn't find these references in any of my books, when I realized I was missing THE TOMB. Rather than buy this out-of-print book, I picked up ROAD TO MADNESS. It has served me well as a general collection of the most enduring elements of Lovecraft's fiction. The 3 Del Rey collections (ROAD TO MADNESS, BEST OF HP LOVECRAFT, DREAM CYCLE OF HP LOVECRAFT) are pretty comprehensive of HPLs corpus. I am posting below a list of the contents of THE ROAD TO MADNESS under the heading of other sources for the same stories, to let you decide how much overlap it has with other anthologies you might own.

AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS AND OTHER TALES
"At the Mountains of Madness "
"The Evil Clergyman"
"The Shunned House"

THE DOOM THAT CAME TO SARNATH
"The Crawling Chaos"
"The Festival"
"In the Walls of Eryx"
"memory"
"Nathicana"
"The Tomb"
"The Tree"
"Under The Pyramids"

THE LURKING FEAR AND OTHER STORIES
"Dagon"
"Arthur Jermyn"
"The Lurking Fear"
"The Moon-Bog"
"The Temple"
"The Unnameable"
"The White Ship"

THE TOMB AND OTHER TALES:
"The Alchemist"
"The Beast in the Cave"
"The Book"
"The Festival"
"He"
"The Horror at Red Hook"
"In the Walls of Eryx"
"Poetry and the Gods "
"The Street"
"The Tomb"
"The Transition of Juan Romero"
"Under the Pyramids"

[Possibly no other source]
"Cool Air"
"Herbert West, Reanimator"

Editorial Review:

"There is a melancholy, operatic grandeur in Lovecraft's most passionate work," writes Joyce Carol Oates in The New York Review of Books, "... a curious elegiac poetry of unspeakable loss, of adolescent despair, and an existential loneliness so pervasive that it lingers in the reader's memory, like a dream, long after the rudiments of Lovecraftian plot have faded." Del Rey has reprinted Lovecraft's stories in three large-format paperbacks. This third volume collects one poem, one story fragment, and 26 tales not included in the first two, including "Herbert West--Reanimator," "The Lurking Fear," "Dagon," "The Unnameable," and the classic short novel "At the Mountains of Madness." Introduction by Barbara Hambly. Beautiful cover art by surrealist John Jude Palencar.

Renfield

Barbara Hambly

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Way below Barbara Hambly's other works 2 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

I pre-ordered the book as soon as it was announced on the basis of Ms Hambly's previous vampire books. What a disspointment that one was! The only thing "for" the book is the original point of view from the servant's eyes, not the vampire, and that's all. The language is good as should be expected but the characters are barely there, their actions not always following any logic (even twisted one) and the plot is simply weak. The overall impression was boring, boring and boring. If you want to have great pleasure with Hambly's vampire books, read her 2 Don Ysidro ones - they have all that Renfield lacks.

Inconsistent (some spoilers) 2 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Some of the earlier reviews some it up: the story is slight compared to the original Stoker novel and compared to Hambly's other work. It compares well to many of the host of truly embarrassing vampire novels that throng the shelves today, but that's to be expected of Hambly, a novelist with a gift for imagining truly and seeing with her own eyes. The narrator is neither truly sympathetic--a madman already, he's now made a murderer by Hambly--nor truly monstrous in the best vampire tradition. It's foreshadowed that Renfield's not going to get back together with his family, but we don't feel for him enough to care much. And Rensfield's decisions--if the point is to make us feel he had no other choice, that he's a tragic victim, we just don't get that. If he really loathes his vampire existence so much, would he be heading off to India with the Bride of Dracula, and would the last line of the book be an ecstatic anticipation of new and yummy insect life? Would he relinquish his staking plans so comfortably? If the point is to show us a self-deluded madman who can make any selfish or brutal choice seem justifiable, and perhaps to draw connections between Renfield and contemporary figures who do the same thing, then it's better done in ateen novel about date rape, from the rapist's point of view. If the point is to comment on the narrow choices of Victorian women (given Rensfield's reason for his murders), that theme comes and goes in a manner almost waffling. The book's not "bad"--Hambly doesn't do bad--but it really is...inconsistent.

What I'd really love to know is how this came to be: was Hambly re-reading Dracula one night and got obsessed? Was she pondering Renfield's rather odd motives and decided to craft some for him? Did her publisher suggest doing more with the vampire-prone audience? I don't suppose I'll ever know, but I surely am curious.

Editorial Review:

Renfield is confined to an insane asylum, but he still answers his Master's calling, setting the stage for the ultimate battle between good and evil, and the living and the dead.

Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes

Barbara Hambly, Kim Newman, Barbara Roden, Bob Madison, Christopher Sequeira, Chris Roberson, Peter Calamai

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Ghosts May Apply! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is a collection of Sherlockian tales in which, to quote David Stuart Davies' Forward, "Ghosts may apply." Each of the tales involves some `supernatural' element, a Djinn, a Vampire, a painting, quite a variety of individuals and items. In fact, Chico Kidd and Rick Kennett's "The Grantchester Grimoire" is only the second pastiche I know of that pairs Holmes and Hodgson's Carnacki the Ghost Finder in a single tale. Further, each tale is written by one who knows Holmes and Watson intimately, which makes them disturbing at the very least.

The stage is set by the opening tale, "The Lost Boy," by Barbara Hambly. When the Darling children disappear, Mr. Darling consults Sherlock Holmes and Mrs. Darling goes to an old friend who, like her, knew Peter Pan from her youth. At the end of this sad and lovely story, one is left wondering who, exactly, was "The Lost Boy" of the title.

Each of the tales has its own context and viewpoint. Nothing carries across from one to the next except the certainty that things will be not quite what they seem. The sheer nastiness of the villain in Christopher Sequeira's "His Last Arrow" is balanced by the delight of an aged Holmes in his (2nd?) meeting with Count Dracula in Bob Madison's "Red Sunset." Martin Powell's "Sherlock Holmes in the Lost World" gives new meaning to `Non-stop Adventure' with a surprise villain thrown in as an extra. Strictly speaking, Chris Roberson's "Merridew of Abominable Memory' has no supernatural element, but it is a true horror story and it fits right in with the rest of the collection.

As is true with most anthologies, some tales appeal to one taste and some to another. This group seems well mixed, with a variety of approaches and themes. I have mostly commented on those stories that appealed to me. There was, however, one perfectly marvelous tale by Kim Newman called "The Red Planet League" that deserves special attention. It is told by "...your humble narrator - Colonel Sebastian `Basher' Moran ..." and it is worth the reading if only for the delicious villainies of `Basher.' Of the eleven tales included, all are worth reading and several will stand up to re-reading. The only bad feature I found was the quality of the binding on my copy, which seems to induce cover curl.

Reviewed by: Philip K. Jones, October, 2008.

Editorial Review:

The fabled tin dispatch box of Dr. John H. Watson opens to reveal eleven all new tales of mystery and dark fantasy. Sherlock Holmes, master of deductive reasoning, confronts the irrational, the unexpected and the fantastic in the weird worlds of the Gaslight Grimoire.

"A wonderful addition to the bookshelf of any fan of
Sherlock Holmes or of the supernatural. Terrific stories, great variety, genuine
chills: it's all here."
- Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of HOMINIDS

"This book contains eleven of the most ingenious, imaginative and inspired
exploits yet committed to paper. Wonderful stuff!"
- Roger Johnson, BSI, Editor, The Sherlock Holmes Journal

Contributors:
Barbara Hambly
Christopher Sequeira
Barbara Roden
M. J. Elliott
Martin Powell
Chico Kidd & Rick Kennett

Traveling with the Dead

Barbara Hambly

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Dark temptations 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

I picked up Barbara Hambly's vampire novels in a fit of boredom, and was unable to put them down. They are dark and rich as a Black Forest cake. The characters, human and inhuman, are enticingly complex and fascinating.

Once again, professor and ex-spy James Asher and his obsessively scholarly bride are swept into the intrigues of the vampires. Dark secrets unfold as Asher tracks the ruthless agent Karolyi and the world-weary vampire Earl of Ernchester -- not realizing that his wife has enlisted the aid of the oldest and most dangerous of the London vampires to rescue him from the trap into which he is stumbling unaware.

Alliances shift among the living and the dead, and through this tangle Lydia Asher and her inhuman companion must weave their way and find their peace. And as James draws closer to the secret of the Deathless Lord, he finds his only way out is through the deadliest path of all.

Try, if you can, to read each novel in one sitting -- alone.

Editorial Review:

Down through the deathless centuries, the vampires had drunk human blood for sustenance and for sport. They preyed where they willed, for no mortal humans could resist their unclean powers. But now came the ultimate perversion, the unthinkable: someone was conscripting the vampires into the secret services of a foreign power.

No government agency or bureaucrat could control the Undead. The idea was absurd, as Dr. James Asher knew all too well.

Years in His Majesty's service had taught Asher the finer points of espionage. And he knew the secrets of the vampires--a familiarity hard-won in unwilling service to Don Simon Ysidro, oldest and most subtle of the hunters of the London night. What Asher didn't know was why one of England's established vampires would risk everything to travel across the European continent at the behest of a ruthless spymaster.

But he could see the terrifying potential of such an unholy alliance...

Sisters of the Night

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Something for every taste 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Fourteen original short stories by award-winning authors such as Tanith Lee, Jane Yolen, Larry Niven and Barbara Hambly explore a dark sisterhood of blood. The past, the present and the future are all stalking grounds for these women who hunt the night. Hambly and Greenberg have taken a rather simple subject - female vampires - and collected fourteen tales from a diverse group of authors, which seek to illuminate the life, if it can be called life, of the female of a deadly, and sensual species.

As Hambly says in her introduction, there was no way to know in advance what she would find. Would the stories sent by men be dramatically different in focus and treatment from those of the women writers? And in the end, it seems to me that for the most part, there is a kind of unity of thought expressed in these stories which are at the same time, all quite different from each other. That unity - a real sense of what it means to be female first and foremost - is the thread that truly makes this volume fascinating. These creatures are women first, and vampires second.

In this volume you'll find all manner of vampire. Michael Kurland checks in with the most familiar take on the subject in his old-world, but deliciously perverse "In the Blood." Diana Paxson gives us a myth with the feel of a Norse saga and Pat Cadigan scrapes nerve endings raw with a contemporary tale of life and death on the trash-heap in "Sometimes Salvation." Tanith Lee offers her special brand of slow, languid, gorgeous horror in "La Dame" and George Alec Effinger even manages to work in a little cyberpunk with "Marid and the Trail of Blood. To my way of thinking, though, the true stand-out in this book is the last, shortest story, a powerful, stark, wrenching piece entitled "Sister Death" by Jane Yolen. If any of the stories have you in tears by the end, it will be this one.

If you're a fan of vampires or of horror, this book is a good bet. There's something for every taste here, and the over-all theme is well served by the editorial choices. Buy it.

Editorial Review:

They're everywhere. And nowhere. From ancient days to here and now, stalking nocturnal forests, city lights, and suburban PTAs. They're blessed and cursed, feared and adored. One may be your officemate, a stranger on the street, your best friend's mom -- your lost dream. Your destiny. Or you.

Midnight Mass and Other Great Vampire Stories

Tanith Lee, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Esther Friesner, Barbara Hambly, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, F. Paul Wilson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Vonderful! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

A must for mavens of the vocally-told vyrdolak tale, this marvelous anthology includes narratives ranging in time from the Medieval to modern, with plots from the whimsical to the romantic to the horrific. The performers are well suited to their individual tasks and deliver intriguing portrayals and readings. Especially noteworthy is Stephanie Beacham's multiple class/ethnic depictions of British characterizations in "Madeleine." The collection includes:
"Bite Me Not or Fleur de Fur" by Tanith Lee; performer Susan Anspach; a castle is accosted by a nocturnal nemesis.
"Food Chain" by Nina Kiriki-Hoffman; performer Karesa McElheny; the maternal is eternal.
"Moonlight in Vermont" by Esther Friesner; performer Joe Barnett; a teenage vampire stakes his life on Yankee ingenuity.
"Madeleine" by Barbara Hambly; performer Stephanie Beacham; a vicious Victorian vampire finds that her cruelty may have undreamed of consequences.
"Victims" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch; performer Richard Cox; a political operative is vamped by a vampire.
"Seat Partner" by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro; performer Loretta Swit; a lover of vampire lore encounters a count.
"Midnight Mass" by F. Paul Wilson; perfomer Theodore Bikel; a priest and a rabbi wage holy war against unwholesome denizens of the dark (contains graphic violent and sexual images).

Editorial Review:

From the horrifying to the humorous, some of today's finest authors share stories about one of mankind's oldest imagined evils, the vampire. The contents of this original audio production include "Bite Me Not, or Fleur de Fur" by Tanith Lee, "Food Chain" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman, "Moonlight in Vermont" by Esther Freisner, "Madeleine" by Barbara Hambly, "Victims" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, "Seat Partner" by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, and "Midnight Mass" by F. Paul Wilson.

Immortal Blood

Barbara Hambly

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

This Vampire Would Never Consent To An Interview!!! 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Something is very amiss in London in this book set in Victorian times. Somebody is killing the Vampires who sleep by day and feast by night. University Language Professor James Asher is employed by Lonon's most powerful Vampire, Don Yisidro to track dowm the killer. The author takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the streets and back alleys of London into a world of Darkness which James fears he will never return from. This book is full of unexpected twists and turns and would have to be my favourite Vampire novel. Just writing this review makes me want to read it again. Ms. Hambly captures the atmosphere of times past with a deft hand and proves that she is a wonderful Storyteller.