Customer Reviews

Stranger at the Wedding

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Nicely tongue-in-cheek -- until it gets Very Dark -- fantasy/romance, much in the style of Georgette Heyer's Regency romances, though the underlying McGuffin is rather nasty.

Kyra the Red would be very typically a Georgette Heyer type heroine -- impetuous, tall, a bit physically clumsy, unrecognising of her own idiosyncratic beauty, unwed at an unfashionably late age -- who has the added misfortune to be a wizard.

A wizard, in a world in which the Church begrudgingly allows one wizards' order to exist, with the proviso that the wizards may not use their magic to affect the world outside their walls. To use unauthorised magic is an automatic sentence of death.

And Kyra has come home for her younger sister's wedding; home, where she knows she is not welcome in her father's house.

Home, where she quickly discovers that someone else is trying to steal away the groom, using illicit purchased magic.

Home, where she cleverly and subtly uses her forbidden powers to stall or prevent the wedding. (The mice are a particularly good touch, and Don Maitz's typically lyrical cover refers masterfully to that sequence.)

Home, where her prophetic dreams have told her that a curse decrees that her sister's marriage bed will be her deathbed.

Home, where she finds herself, uncomfortably, increasingly attracted to her sister's betrothed... who seems (after he gets over thinking her somewhat addled) to return her regard...

There can be little doubt that Hambly had Georgette Heyer in mind when writing this -- compare it to, oh, "The Grand Sophy" or "The Masqueraders" -- and i do not think that Heyer would have felt offended by this tribute.

Among Barbara Hambly's many virtues as an author is her ability to create a universe that, in your heart, you believe to be a real place. She evokes soot, worn wooden floors, and the sparkle of sunlight. She does such a good job, in fact, that most of Hambly's books are part of larger series, such as fantasy trilogies or a mystery series (e.g. her Benjamin January mysteries, set in 1840s New Orleans). This is one of the few exceptions: Stranger at the Wedding is a standalone story, so you won't have the sense of commitment to a whole universe.

In this world, magic works. Magicians are distrusted because of the power they could wield, however, so they are not permitted to marry, to own significant property, or to have a business with more than a few employees. Most mages have withdrawn from the world to learn and research but not to use magic pragmatically; each takes a vow not to use magic to benefit any human. And most of them live in a remote... well, monastary covers it. Some "dog wizards" do their best to eke out a living in the cities, but most of them are poor. Meanwhile, the society-at-large has reached the age of steam and coal; the industrial evolution is underway. (This is a nice change from the usual feudal era in which most magic is presented.)

One of those mages is Kyra, a 24 year old woman of "good family" who was ejected from her parents' home after her magical abilities became public. (Kyra has a "bit part" in an earlier trilogy, but you definitely don't need to have read that one.) When she gets a premonition that her betrothed sister will die on Alix's wedding night, she feels that she must go back home to deal with the threat.

I've owned this book since it first came out (in the 80s? early 90s?), and I've read it several times in the intervening years. It isn't that it's *wonderful*, but it's engaging, particularly when I want the reader's eqivalent of "comfort food:" entertain me, but don't make me work too hard. Kyra has a wonderful smartass sense of humor, the romance feels "real" (even if it's actually love at first sight), and the storytelling -- as usual, with Hambly -- is excellent. Even though I've read this book several times before, it kept me reading late at night, after midnight, when I *knew* I had to get up at 6.

Kyra's family disowned her when she decided to become a magician. She comes back only because she must -- because she has a foreboding that her sister will die on her wedding night.

Working magic in secret, Kyra tries to postpone the wedding long enough to solve the mystery. Yet something completely unexpected happens -- she finds herself drawn to her sister's fiance, Spens! (Though at first glance he seems like a stout merchant with bad fashion sense, Spens is a great character.)

My biggest problem with this book is the structure of the plot. Important information about the past is withheld, and when the reader learns that information, we pretty much figure out who did it. But I enjoyed this book so much that I didn't mind.

I've heard Barbara Hambly's other fantasy books are even better. Now, I can't wait to read them.

I gave this book Desert Isle Keeper status at All About Romance.

This book is another wonderful story set in the world of Antryg Windrose, although neither he nor Joanna Sheraden appears in it. I think the Windrose Chronicles happen to be Hambley's best series, and this book certainly lives up to that expectation. ... After she arrives the fur begins to fly between her and her estranged family, but once she meets the prospective groom and his family the fun really begins as she tries to delay the wedding and find out who wants her sister dead. This book is once again a great mix of fantasy and mystery, which seems to be a Hambley staple. Also typical of a Hambley book, the prose just draws the reader in, and enough twists and turns occur in the plot that you are never quite sure what is going to happen next. At various times throughout the book the reader will empathize with each of the main characters, which again points to the wonderful and heartfelt character development that I have come to expect from Hambley. This is a great book, and I encourage new and old Hambley fans to track it down and read it. I only hope she writes a few more stories about the characters in this strange new world.

Continuing the thread started in her Windrose Chronicles,
Barbara Hambly weaves yet another yarn that is well-spun
with character depth and a plot that, convoluted as it may
sometimes seem, is internally consistent and easy to swallow -
despite its liberal sprinkling of wizards, ghosts, spells and
curses. The story includes characters and a historic setting
that is comfortable and familiar to any who have read her
Windrose Chronicles, yet the story is independent of those
works and stands on its own, with a very different perspective
on the politics and day-to-day lives of the inhabitants of the
Empire.

Kyra - whom we met briefly in Hambly's "Dog Wizard," is the
central character, and her unravelling of the mystery as to what
has twisted her own developing magic skills, who and what is
threatening the life of her sister, and how to navigate through
the quagmire of paternal resentment, socialite scheming, the
suspicions of the Church's Magic Office and her surprisingly
conflicted heart over the man who would be her brother-in-law,
are expertly and masterfully interwoven by Hambly's skills as
a storyteller. A very good read - even more than once.

This was one of my first forays into fantasy several years ago. I enjoyed it then, and upon rereading it, I find it holds up rather well.

Hambly excels at describing, in a matter-of-fact manner, surroundings that may be fantastic, unreal. Kyra is bold, even fierce, and in Spens we find a surprising equal. The magic in the book is fun, the plot engrossing, and the ending is perfect.

This book is refreshing, because it's not another "fight the dark evil god" too common in fantasy. The story is about a predicted curse, and who have done it ? And how to dodge it, too. The romance is present, but not too important. It's not a love book, but a mistery one.

This is my favorite of Barbara Hambly's fantasy books. Instead of trouble on a planetary scale (destroy the bad-guy before he destroys the world) we get mayhem and danger on a smaller scale - within a family and family-to-be. Kyra is a 24 year old wizard who is taking her exams within the Citadel of Wizards when she is given omens that her younger sister Alix will die on her wedding night. Despite having been cast out by her father six years before, Kyra goes home to prevent her sister's death.

Kyra desperately postpones her sister's wedding again and again while trying to uncover the source of the danger. Meanwhile she remembers how as a teenager she discovered the magic within her, found a wizard to train her, and how all hell broke loose before all was said and done. It's a tainted mental journey, for while Kyra loves magic, she has ample reason to hate it as well. She also finds out two other things: that her sister wants to marry someone other than her fiance - Spens, and that Spens himself is quite a good guy.

As with other reviewers, I love the ending. I think it's a fairly happy one. It also gives validity to Kyra's wizarding abilities, which at the start of the book she had reason not to put faith in.

My chief problem with Hambly is that sometimes her narrative can get awkward. For example a chapter may start with a person talking, and we don't know who that person is for a few paragraphs. So we skim trying to find out who they are, and don't pay attention to what they are saying. Or another trick of hers, is a person will start talking who hasn't entered the room yet - narratively. So the reader flounders trying to keep up with who is doing and saying what. I find her books easier to read the second time around when I know what will happen. However, I find them very rewarding when I do.

This book is about an outcast who is home to see her sisters wedding, but gets mixed up in magic mayhem. The family is afraid of her magic powers, and her father is permanantly mad at her for being a wizard. And She seems to be falling in love with her sisters fiance. And her sister doesn't want to marry her fiance. And on top of all that it seems that a wizard also loves her sister and wants her for himself while another woman wants the fiance to marry her daughter!This book is great for everyone to read

This is a great book. It has magic, adventure, love and ghosts. I didn't want the book to end. I have only read a few other books that I enjoyed as much as I did this one.