Hambly, Barbara

• Series: The Darwath Trilogy
  • The Time of the Dark (7 r)
  • The Walls of Air (6 r)
  • The Armies of Daylight (6 r)

    • Another crossover series about a world being invaded by dark, shadowy, life-sucking creatures. I really enjoyed this series when I first read it, but when I loaned it to a friend, he practically spit on it in disgust, saying it was trite and predictable (and I tend to agree with him on most other books). I liked it, so I recommend it. I thought the protagonists were well-drawn, and the plot was exciting and unpredictable.

• Crossroad (6)

  • This is one of the better Star Trek novels that I've read, although as a whole, the Star Trek genre doesn't excite me. In this one, the Enterprise picks up a band of fugitives that flies out of a peculiar nebula, eventually claiming to come from the future. They take over the Enterprise (you would think the Enterprise would have better security, what with all of these small little bands of fewer than 10 people taking it over all the time!) but everyone is soon confronted with yet another ship from the future, claiming to be the "good guys" come to hunt down the fugitives, so Kirk must decide whom to trust in order to save not only the last hope of a nearby developing civilization but also to perhaps save the future. One of the few ST books that ends ambiguously, "Crossroad" is certainly worth reading if you're an ST fan...there's plenty of unpredictability and a lot of development of both Spock and Nurse Chapel in this one.

• Children of the Jedi (3)

  • Where Hambly succeeded with Star Trek, she failed with the Star Wars genre. The story here follows Han and Leia to a backwater mining colony where they have been warned about a dangerous plot and where they have heard rumors of a hidden colony of Jedi. Luke, meanwhile, is captured aboard an automated battle-moon, a relic of the old Empire recently reawakened and on an unknown mission.

    Han and Leia's story is the more interesting of the two, as a series of unexplained and dangerous incidents on a seemingly dull, peaceful world force them into an ever more frantic pace to figure out what is going on. Although I have the usual complaints about the main characters (all important figures in the government of the Republic) putting themselves in extreme danger all the time, I guess that has become (unfortunately) a necessary part of the genre. I also felt that Leia showed talents with the force that were quite implausible, particularly given the descriptions of her abilities in earlier and later books. I know it is tempting for an author to bend the rules in a series like this, but that was too much.

    Luke's story is painful to read, and not just because he's in constant agony. Maybe it was just me, but I had a very difficult time just keeping TRACK of all the different characters Luke was with on the ship. There is a good plot buried beneath all the garbage here, and it pokes through occasionally when Luke has suspenseful encounters with the main computer and a newfound "virtual" companion, but I can't say I enjoyed it. And I was all but repelled by the resolution. I cannot recommend this book, and I only hope it is not an indication of things to come later in this series.

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