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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Ooof.,
This review is from: Dragonshadow (Winterlands, No. 2) (Mass Market Paperback)
Uhh.. uh... okay. I loved "Dragonsbane", despite seemingly every other reviewer on amazon.com yowling that it was boring boring boring. And I have nothing against characters suffering, or flaws, or tension.. but this is overdoing it. After more than half a book full of endless sex, violence, and angst (it takes no time starting off on a down note, though it's still incredibly boring) it gets almost routine, but not routine enough so that you don't care. Just so that you're bored *and* sickened at the same time. I only slogged through the entire thing because I had hopped for some sort of closure, but it seems as if I'll have to go out and fetch yet another sequel. Boring hack and slash. It's a bad combination. Yeesh... either save them or kill them already... Also, the endless parade of characters.. they're all given names, and some are given descriptions, but most of them are pointless. Like all the family members and the mages who have.. like.. one line, then get posessed by demons and killed. With all fairness to Barbara Hambly, it was really well written and she probably took a lot of time and effort on this, but content is everything... This is a book where things happen.. but nothing really happens. You'll just have to wait for the sequel.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
I wish she had never written this book!,
By So Many Books (Indiana, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Dragonshadow (Winterlands, No. 2) (Mass Market Paperback)
I read Dragonsbane (the first book about John and Jenny who are the 2 main characters in these stories) many years ago and really enjoyed it. When I recently found out that Barbara Hambly had written a sequel to their story, I could not hardly wait to read it. What a disapointment! I wish I had never picked up this book, and just left the characters where they were at the end of Dragonsbane. I can take some hardships happening to the characters in the books that I read, but this was terrible. I have since got the 3rd book in this series from the Library (thank goodness I did not buy it) and "skimmed" through it first to see if anything finally got better. Believe it or not, it was worse than Dragonshadow. When I do get a chance to read, I would like to finish the book and feel uplifted instead of depressed. Please pass on Dragonshadow unless you like a lot of unresolved heartache in your stories.
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
As Painful as Real Life - But Still Excellent,
This review is from: Dragonshadow (Winterlands, No. 2) (Mass Market Paperback)
I've always considered Barbara Hambley to be one of the undiscovered gems of the fantasy field. She can write better prose than 90% of them, and her plots take hackneyed devices (magic, wizards, dragons, demons) and make them into something unique. Dragonsbane, a standalone from relatively early in her career, is a perfect example of this - the Dragonsbane of the title, John Aversin, is not a noble knight, but a scholar, who slays dragons because he has to protect his people. His wife, Jenny, is a witch who loves him yet feels that their bond only hinders her efforts to become a master mage. Hambley did a wonderful job of exploring their characters, while delivering a thrill ride of a plot.Now, many years later, she's written a sequel which is very different in tone. John and Jenny discover that a mage has been using demons to enslave dragons and mage alike, and is allied with a rebel army that seeks to conquer the kingdom. The mage manages to capture their son, Ian, and soon he is possessed as well. John and Jenny team up with Morkeleb to stop the plot, but the price is much higher then they could have ever anticipated... What makes Dragonshadow so different from Dragonsbane is mostly the tone. Dragonbane, while putting its characters through the wringer, basically has a happy ending. Dragonshadows is far different. But the ending does not feel forced. In real life, people don't go through incredibly tramatic events unchanged; they pay a price, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Both John and Jenny literally go through Hell, and they are both intensely scarred by the experience. But while this is painful for the reader, who cares about the characters immensely, it also brings about a deeper and more realistic experience. And there is the promise of a sequel to this book, so even the downbeat ending is not totally without hope. This book is like a trial by fire; painful many times, but bringing a great sense of satisfaction. Lightyears ahead of most wish-fulfillment fantasy, and a great read as well (I finished it in two days!) I highly recommend it.
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