Mother of Winter

By Barbara Hambly

Five years after defeating the Dark Ones, the embattled inhabitants of the once-great Keep of Dare face a yet more deadly foe. An icy-cold force was spreading across the northlands, spawning strange creatures that killed everything in their grisly path . . .

Archmage Ingold Inglorion believed the source of this monstrous evil lay in the decadent lands to the south. With him traveled Gil Patterson, the scholar-warrior from Earth who had forsaken her own universe for love of the mage.  Determined to aid him in his quest, she was cursed to become the instrument of his death.

Ingold's apprentice Rudy Solis was left behind, the sole wizard standing between the Keep of Dare and the nightmare creatures besieging it. Rudy struggled tirelessly with wavering magic to ward off the virulent attacks of the ice mage's minions. But when someone attacked the widowed queen--the woman he loved--Rudy was forced to plumb the ultimate secret locked in the black crystal heart of the Keep of Dare . . . and so decide the fate of the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jul 20, 2011
• ISBN: 9780307801449

Barbara Hambly

Barbara Hambly was born in San Diego. Her interest in fantasy began with reading The Wizard of Oz at an early age and has continued ever since. She attended the University of California, Riverside, specialising in medieval history and then spent a year at the University at Bordeaux in Southern France as a teaching and research assistant. She now lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews for Mother of Winter

[librisissimo · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Substance: Reasonably interesting, didn't depend too much on having read the preceding books. Pretty standard mage-world and characters, although having two "transplants" from California is a change.Style: Straight narrative. The American characters allow the author to run some "inside" jokes, and protect against the crime of inappropriate references which often occurs in sf and fantasy (not really anachronisms, since they are "universal" in nature).

[karlstar_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Hambly returns to the world of Darwath, and the unfinished series that originally ended with The Armies of Daylight. In that book, while the original premise was resolved, there was clearly more involved. Hambly now explains the reasons for what was going on in the previous series, and it is up to Rudy, Gil and Ingold to once again resolve this latest puzzle. Another excellent novel, Hambly does a very good job with characters that are strong but not overly powerful, in serious situations that aren't always cliff-hangers. Good classic style fantasy. This is dangerous and somewhat Lovecraftian, but not 'dark' by today's standards. Its all the better for it.