Customer Reviews

Knight of the Demon Queen

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

During the past few years, Hambly has spent much of her time sending her characters to hell, sometimes figuratively (in her mystery series (Graveyard Dust, et al)) and sometimes literally, as in this series. Decades ago, many characters might have experienced such a journey, but most of them would emerge unscathed, except for the rare one such as Frodo. A more recent trend is to see how much damage, physically, emotionally, and mentally, a character can endure and yet return. While not completely dark as that, the separate travels of Jenny and John are something you would rather stay home and read about rather than experience yourself. The hells include the usual physical difficulties, but also the ones of figuring out who to trust, how to survive in different environments, and having to worry about personal survival, the survival of those that you love, and at the same time worrying about the future of the land that you live in.

I cannot recommend that anyone start the series with this book. Knowledge of what happened before is vital. As it is, since it has been months since the previous book, trying to separate out the various minor characters and determining whether they are important enough to worry about and why, is very difficult.

On the other hand, Hambly brings us, among her hells, a new world, a mix of Blade Runner with the cities of Walter Jon Williams, a place that is not our own, but one that might be one of our own future hells. That piece is very well done.

I hope that Hambly can bring about a conclusion of all this in the next book. Besides the concerns we have for the main characters, the lights are going out across the land, even without this plague of demons. While I do not expect a solution to all the problems facing Jenny and John, some more immediate than others, it would be good to allow them some peace and a chance to regroup.

I thought "Dragon Shadow" (the previous book in this series) was brilliant but depressing. It could have been subtitled, "When Bad Things Happen to Good People". However, things get much worse for Jenny and her bespectacled husband, Lord John in "Knight of the Demon Queen". The book opens with their son's attempted suicide. Lord John's people begin to die from a demon-caused plague...and the situation deteriorates from there. Lord John goes hunting for a demon on a world that resembles a half-drowned, New York City of the near future. His only allies are wired-in, wannabe wizards in a world of violent gangs, bad smells, and screaming, in-your-face-24-hours-a-day drug ads.

Ugh. Get me out of this world, and don't send me back!

Jenny spends her part of the novel trying to come to grips with her loss of magic. At least she gets to hang around with a dragon.

At any rate, Hambly leaves us hanging at the end of "Knight of the Demon Queen". We don't know whether Jenny and Lord John are alive or dead. They seemed to have jumped from Purgatory straight into Hell. And here I am, still waiting for a reasonably happy ending. I'll read the sequel, but I wish I'd skipped "Knight of the Demon Queen".

There is a rhythm to science fiction/fantasy, and especially to Ms. Hambly's works. In a word, three is supposed to be the charm. As you turn page after page, the excitement builds because you are finally going to get a resolution of plots and subplots. I did not realize until the very final paragraph that this third book in the Dragonsbane series would not be the end. Like others whose reviews I have read here, my reaction ranged from disappointment to downright anger.

But although it is easy to point to the ending as the problem with the experience of reading this book, I think that's just what sticks in your mind. The fact is that there have been other of Ms. Hambly's books -- notably any of the Darwath Trilogy or Windrose Chronicles -- which I never wanted to end. This was not such a book. There were times, particularly during the cyberpunk portion of the book, where I continued slogging along ONLY for the promise of resolution. I do not expect sunshine and roses in my fantasy reading -- God knows that The Mists of Avalon has a definite dark side -- but like some other reviewers, I had the sense that there was an almost sadistic strain to the way this book tortures the two main characters. One can only hope that the tone and mood of the book does not reflect something equally dark going on in the author's life; in the past, even in the midst of hardships, fears and difficulties, there has been a life affirming warmth and strength to her characters (think of Joanna trapped in the crystal, or Antryg in the silent tower).

I have read, and will contine to read, anything Barbara Hambly sets down on paper. I just hope I feel better about it in the future than I did when suffering along with Jenny and John here.

You'll never get what you expect from a Barbara Hambly book. Perhaps this is why her books haven't degenerated into predictable series fiction. This is a case in point, as the continuance of her series seems likely to kill every character in it, or at least destroy them in other ways. John the Dragonslayer remains a vivid, honest character caught between his personal life and the open need of the starving and bandit-plagued Winterlands who depend upon Lord John to defend them. His mate Jenny is torn between her need for magic and her desire for a human life, and in the first book DRAGONSLAYER she found she needed both. DRAGONSHADOW saw Jenny possessed by a demon, whose addictive magic made her betray everything she loved and whose defeat left her a scarred, despondent cripple, yearning for the demon's touch. KNIGHT OF THE DEMON QUEEN drags John and Jenny behind it screaming into all the Hells that exist or that men can make for each other. She's rough on her characters, our Barbara. And on the basis of this book, I hereby promote Ms. Hambly to goddess, since the last thing I expected was a cyberpunk episode in a 'Dragon' book. I wish it was longer, but I'm glad I didn't have to wait 2 years for it; evens out in my opinion. But maybe I just can't resist a world in which heroic deeds tend to be done by men who wear glasses ...

Warning! This is obviously a 600 page book that someone cut in half to generate sales and take advantage of Ms. Hambly's fans, of which I have been one for many years now. That said, it is still well worth reading. She has strayed quite a lot from the first book in the series, but John (our hero) is still recognizable and engaging.. Jenny isn't. If at all possible, borrow it from the library (I did) or wait a couple years until the SF Book Club comes out with a 'double' containing this book and its' inevitable sequel. Unless money is a minor concern for you (must be nice), in which case you should go ahead and buy it.. :-)

It's been several weeks since I read this book. I have been trying to find words to describe my reaction. "Dragonsbane" is one of my favorite books, and Hambly one of my favorite authors. I truly respect what she has done with "Dragonshadow" and "Knight of the Demon Queen".

This is a gritty, hard world where there are a thousand ways to die, and no one thinks of magic as soft, friendly, or fun. If you are looking for an escapist fantasy world, don't look in this series. It will make YOUR daily grind look like a trip to an amusement park.

At the end of "Dragonshadow", our heroes have achieved their goals at great personal loss. This book continues just where the previous ended, down to the sleep deprivation and deep grief. As a case study in how families deal with grevious events, it is interesting. As an observation of how Jenny and John deal with these terrible events, it is heart-wrenching. I don't think I would have survived if John wasn't bent on raising the spirits of all those about him... including the Demon Queen.

But that ending is very hard to take. In fact, my mind is still rejecting it. There's a voice deep inside me saying "But wait! She'll explain it in the sequel! Things will be all better then!" I will not go into more detail in order to avoid spoilers.

I would encourage those who like Hambly and loved "Dragonsbane" to put this book on a shelf for a while and see if a sequel is forthcoming. However, I suspect it is not. Anyone want to start a support group for readers of this book?

Dragonsbane is one of my favorite books. Jenny and John are wonderful characters, strong, but not too strong, noble and believable. Dragonshadow confused me a bit the first time around, but a second, slower read put things to right. Knight of the Demon Queen started out darker than the other two and tended to stay that way. I enjoyed further development of Jenny and John's children. Their relationship is heartwrenching: with John wondering if the things Amayon(the demon that once possessed Jenny) did with Jenny's body were with her will and Jenny suspecting that her husband dreams of Aohila, the beautiful, deadly Demon Queen.

When disaster strikes, John has no choice but to become Aohila's knight, for the safety of his world and the ones he loves. His narrations are occaisionally hilarious. Especially when interacting with his irksome demon guide and Aohila. John and his jokes keep this novel from being totally dark. On his journey, he ends up with demon bunnies and cyberpunk gang wars. From the wannabe wizards in the Hell of Walls, he gains new understanding of Jenny's plight with her lost magic...a most satisfying development. But upon return to home, things go utterly downhill.

Jenny, struggling with loss of her magic and the demon Amayon, doesn't want the responsibility of turning away the present disaster. Her two sons are getting in all sorts of trouble and one very dangerous demon might not have gone behind that Burning Mirror... And back in Belmarie, Lady Trey just isn't looking like herself.

I really liked this book and I think anyone really liking this series will, too. I would certainly suggest reading it. Just watch out for that last line! That was absolutely criminal...ending the book there. That there might not be a sequel is a horrifying thought. I certainly hope it's not true.

I really look forward to Barbara Hambly's work. I expect a lot from her and each time I buy a book it worries me that this may be the sell out. Strangely, the fact that this book seems more like an interlude than a novel comes as some comfort in that regard. The fact that a bunch of stuff happens but nothing really moves forward is a disappointment. The main characters were already strong enough to carry a story, a large group of new characters are introduced but never developed or carried forward. Thinking you were at the climax of a trilogy, this book was a bit of a disappointment, however it was still good escapist literature; colorful and interesting, but no new character moves forward to complicate the next story and John and Jenny are frankly getting a bit tired. Good grief I'm getting tired of watching them abused. It's hard to imagine how this series can resolve happily, thankfully that's Barbara's problem and not mine. Can't give this author up.

Barbara Hambly has a gritty style that I adore. Even this book's dreary Hell of Walls techno-world is an interesting addition and commentary on our lives. Her characters, John and Jenny, are regular people just trying to do the right thing in impossibly difficult situations. I admire their courage, their sense of humor, their will to do the right thing. I found myself swept up in their adventure and wanting to help.

But at the end of Knight of the Demon Queen, Hambly leaves those characters in hopeless situations. I wish I had known there was another book in the series before I finished this one. As it was, this book left me horribly depressed and feeling it was a mistake to read it.

I enjoy most of Hambly's books and as a (very) amatuer fiction writer, I appreciated the conflict and tension she creates in "Night of the Demon Queen." Be warned, readers new to Hambly, that this novel is probably her darkest, grimmest and saddest to date. When I finished it, my first reaction was, "That's it? It's ending there? When the next book coming out?" I agree with other reviewers who recommend starting with Dragonsbane. Her other works are very entertaining and my personal favorite is "Ishmael," a Star Trek novel. Bear in mind that "Queen" is the second of a trio and we all know how unsatisfying such middle parts can be. I hope Hambly's publishers will get the final book out in record time, and disclose the release date, because I want to see how the author gets John and Jen out of their predicaments.