The Time of the Dark

By Barbara Hambly

A whirlwind fantasy classic set in the richest world imaginable, with unforgettable characters and the highest stakes – The Time of the Dark is the first book in Barbara Hambly’s epic Darwath Trilogy.

Gil Patterson is a woman familiar with dark stories.

As a student of medieval history, she knows the Crusades, the Black Death, and the horrors of life in the Middle Ages. But it is another kind of darkness has begun to stalk her dreams: when she falls asleep she sees forces of evil assaulting a beleaguered kingdom, whose kind people are on the brink of annihilation, and awakes each morning in a cold sweat.

Gil dismisses the dreams until a wizard appears in her apartment. He has crossed into her dimension, passing through the fraying fabric of the universe, to ask her help. For mankind to survive he must protect an infant prince, whom he plans to hide in Gil's world. The student of history is about to get much closer to evil than she ever imagined.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: May 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9780008378691

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 The Time of the Dark

[karlstar_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is my favorite series by Barbara Hambly, and one of my favorite fantasy series. The concept starts out in an ordinary way, 2 people from our world find themselves in a fantasy world. From there it pretty quickly goes its own way. In the fantasy world, the Dark struck thousands of years ago and destroyed civilization, nearly exterminating humans. Now it seems they are back, though as usual, many people do not want to believe it, and they are unprepared. The wizard Ingold Inglorion needs help preparing his people and uncovering the mysteries of how the ancient kingdoms survived. An excellent fantasy story. Don't look for elves or dwarves in this one, but it still will appeal to anyone that likes fantasy.

[velmeran · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love this series. It incorporates the human fear of the dark, the dream of a world where even the most outcast of us can find a place, magic, high adventure, the heroes journey, strong characters, strong female characters, love, and more.This book brought us into the stories with fully created, relatable characters. It draws you into the action like the first downward motion of a roller coaster, leaving you poised near the top of the next hill to begin book two.

[shevdon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a book I return to, again and again.It is my comfort read: the book I pick up when I am too tired to read something new. That sounds odd given the subject matter, but within moments of picking it up, Hambly's prose is invisible to me and I am trudging down the road with the refugees, blinded by snow, freezing and wondering what's out there in the darkness....I can recommend this book on so many levels. The characters are people you come to know, like friends. Their voices become familiar, their mannerisms comforting. The setting is rich and gritty, you can smell the animal dung, taste the bitter smoke on the breeze and hear the chitter of the dark as they float between the trees. In many ways this is an archetypal fantasy book. It contains all the fantasy tropes, the wise mage and his apprentice, the warrior, the princess. Yet each of these is new and fresh, even ten years later. Each develops throughout the book, and the series as a whole, so that by the end we feel we've grown with them. For the writers among you, especially those writing fantasy, this is a lesson in how it's done. The real challenge will be maintaining a critical view without getting lost in the story and waking up four hours later thinking, "where did the time go?"There are so few books I read ten years ago that have stood the test of time. My tastes have changed and my standards have risen. This remains, though, one of my all time favourites. If you've never read fantasy and you want an introduction that will bring the genre sharply into focus and leave you hunting for more, this is a great place to start.

[jean_sexton-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Back in the early 1980s, I walked into a bookstore and fell in love with a cover. It showed a wizard, seated at what looked like a kitchen table, with a staff in one hand and a beer can in another with a bag of potato chips at his feet. I immediately bought the novel, this very book. I read it and loved it as it featured a strong, capable female character. Gil Patterson was a scholar who was drawn into another world and made a place for herself.Of course, the story is far more than that. The Dark is feeding on the other world's people and must be kept from entering our mundane world. And there is Rudy, also from the mundane world who gets taken into Darwith. There is darkness and horror -- this nearly qualifies as dark fantasy. There are politics and religion. The characters grow and change. I was worried that my decades-old memories wouldn't live up to today's reading. I am so glad that I still love this book. On to the next one!Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys well-written fantasy.

[sdmouton · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I like reading Barbara Hambly books. I like re-reading them especially, as her books put me in a nostalgic frame of mind - remembering afternoons spent in the library searching for, then reading unread sci-fi paperbacks, folded into the most convenient chair.

[razinha-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Unlike another recent Nostalgic Reread, this one, while dating itself slightly with a some temporally specific anchors meant to connect to reader to the characters (and possibly confusing to newer readers 30 or so years down the road), stood the time test. Engaging and entertaining, I remembered along the way why I recalled this as a favorite from long ago.

This is a universe crossover that is better than the average genre attempt. I like the writing as it is accessible and thoughtful, and the story is not hackneyed. The central magician is both typical and not - the invariable mysteriously powerful and other the other hand, approachable. There are two "this world" characters who cross, and both being atypically crafted, their "other side" roles are also atypical. I am being deliberately obtuse so as to not spoil anything for a first time reader. You'll see what I mean if you decide to read the series. And if you don't, you're missing something.

For my Year of Nostalgic Rereads, this series is a welcome return. For that, I bump it one more star.

[reading_fox · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent alternate world fantasy. I'm not sure where first came across this as a title, but I eventually bought the book as part of the Humble Bundle sale, and it was remarkably good, by far the best in the selection.Gil is a history student writing up her thesis, She suffers from a few particularly vivid dreams of the same strange medieveleske location where a castle's inhabitants are preparing to fight some mysterious enemy emanating from the depths, but the dreams are interspersed over several weeks and she thinks nothing of it particularly. One evening however she discover the old man form her dreams in her kitchen. He needs a safe location for an infant - just for a night - before he can travel back across 'The Void' to his dreamworld. The transition is taxing and the old man would spare the infant too much exposure. He knows of Gil from the dreams and beseeches her aid. Gil as it happens knows of an old cabin that would be ideal location away from the intrusions of her world. She is not the only person aware of that cabin though. Ruby is a lowlife artist - not quite a biker gang member, but of that ilk. He happens to be there as the old man arrives from across the void. he can scarcely believe his eyes and refuses to accept that the man could be a wizard. But being basically good natured, and experienced with kids, is happy to assist in return for some food. He is not happy at the prospect of leaving a baby with a clearly delusional old man. However he doesn't get much chance to argue the situation because suddenly one of the Dark has followed the wizard across and all of them are pitched back across the Void into the 'other' world - it being imperative that the Dark do not discover how unaware earth is. Gil and Rudy's only concern is to get back to earth which the wizard Ingold assures them he'll be able to do again very soon. Before that happens though, the Dark attack again en mass, and Gil and Rudy's world views are changed forever. The writing is excellent, descriptive and immersive with a well developed world that can stand on it's own - rather than as is too often the case, only existing for the heroes to pass through it. the characters are also great, with distinct personalities even for most of the supporting characters. There are no stereotypes or crude generalisations. Even better the 'bad guys' act for believable reasons of their won rather than just being generically evil for no reason. The only slight downside is that Gil ends up as a sword wielding fighter. This just doesn't mesh with her prior life at all, hence she shouldn't have anywhere near the muscle mass necessary for such a role. I applaud the author's reversal (understated and simply accepted) of traditional gender roles, but they do usually have some basis in reality, and skipping over this grates somewhat. Also of course being the beginning of a trilogy most of the story is not resolved. This is annoying but at least all the plot points do reach a natural pause. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series!

[benkaboo-51322 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Pulply.
Nice purple prose that created an atmosphere.
Could have focused more on the real world ecology of what was happening, would happen.
Intrigued to see how this would develop (will probably read the next one).
Bit cheesy, but tasty cheese ;-)

[lquilter_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

(1) World-building and plot: Hambly did a great job of setting up the spookiness of "the dark" -- the attacks at night, the sense of creeping horror, the stairway leading down. But once it became a bit more of a survival narrative, the story lost some of its momentum. (2) Characterization: The "people from our world" experiencing "their world" is a cliche that doesn't particularly add to it, but it's nice to see the female academic become a female warrior. I just don't get Hambly's thing with younger laconic women and older uber-powerful men though. (3) Overall: Still pretty good as far as these things go.