Mother of Winter

By Barbara Hambly

A RETURN TO THE REALM OF DARWATH…

Five years after the departure of the Dark from Darwath strange occurrences begin to develop in the Vale of Renwath. There are geological upheavals and an increasing amount of 'slunch' – a heavy, inedible, juiceless fungus. Cave bears, woolly mammoths and sabretooths seem to be flocking to the area. Even stranger are the sightings of 'thaght’n' – creatures who possess a kind of magic which even magician Rudy Solis cannot defeat or deceive. Thus as Gil, who crossed the void from present day California, and her lover, the wizard Ingold, return to the Keep from the flooded delta city of Penambra, they realise that something is desperately wrong …

Something, somewhere, is attempting to terraform the world by the use of magic: to accelerate the rate of chilling until the temperature reaches the point that it – whatever 'it' is – finds comfortable …

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Jan 30, 2014
• ISBN: 9780007468997

Barbara Hambly

Barbara Hambly, though a native of Southern California, lived in New Orleans for many years while married to the late science fiction writer George Alec Effinger. Hambly holds a degree in medieval history from the University of California and has written novels in numerous genres.

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.