Barbara Hambly
Encyclopedia
Barbara Hambly is an award-winning and prolific American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

ist and screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

 within the genres of fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

, science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

, mystery
Mystery fiction
Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term.1.It is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction— in other words a novel or short story in which a detective investigates and solves a crime mystery. Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction...

, and historical fiction
Historical fiction
Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past. That setting is usually real and drawn from history, and often contains actual historical persons, but the principal characters tend to be fictional...

. Her writing includes novels occurring within worlds of her own creation (generally occurring within an explicit multiverse
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...

), as well as within previously existing mythos (notably Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...

 and Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...

).

Biography

Hambly was born in San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...

 and grew up in Montclair
Montclair, California
Montclair is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. The population was 36,664 at the 2010 United States Census.The current mayor is Paul M. Eaton.-Description:...

, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. Her parents, Edward Everett Hambly Sr. and Florence Moraski Hambly, are from a coal-mining town in eastern Pennsylvania. She has an older sister, Mary Ann Sanders, and a younger brother, Edward Everett Hambly Jr. In her early teens, Hambly read and was transfixed by J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...

's The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...

, and affixed images of dragons to her bedroom door. She early-on became interested in costumery, and has been a long-time participant in Society for Creative Anachronism
Society for Creative Anachronism
The Society for Creative Anachronism is an international living history group with the aim of studying and recreating mainly Medieval European cultures and their histories before the 17th century...

 activities. In the mid-1960s, the Hambly family spent a year in Australia.

Hambly has a Masters in Medieval History from the University of California at Riverside, completing her degree in 1975 and spending a year in Bordeaux as part of her studies. Her first novel to be published was Time of the Dark in 1982 by Del Rey
Del Rey Books
Del Rey Books is a branch of Ballantine Books, which is owned by Random House and, in turn since 1998, by Bertelsmann AG. It is a separate imprint established in 1977 under the editorship of author Lester del Rey and his wife Judy-Lynn del Rey. It specializes in science fiction and fantasy...

. Previous to becoming a writer, Hambly chose occupations that allowed her time to write; all of her novels contain a biography paragraph with a litany of jobs familiar to her readers - high school teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

, model
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....

, waitress, technical editor, all-night liquor store clerk, and Shotokan karate
Karate
is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Islands in what is now Okinawa, Japan. It was developed from indigenous fighting methods called and Chinese kenpō. Karate is a striking art using punching, kicking, knee and elbow strikes, and open-handed techniques such as knife-hands. Grappling, locks,...

 instructor. Hambly served as President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, or SFWA is a nonprofit association of professional science fiction and fantasy writers. It was founded in 1965 by Damon Knight under the name Science Fiction Writers of America, Inc. and it retains the acronym SFWA after a very brief use of the SFFWA...

 from 1994 to 1996. Her works have been nominated for many awards in the fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 and horror fiction
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...

 categories, winning a Locus Award
Locus Award
The Locus Award is a literary award established in 1971 and presented to winners of Locus magazine's annual readers' poll. Currently, the Locus Awards are presented at an annual banquet...

 for Best Horror Novel Those Who Hunt the Night
Those Who Hunt The Night
Those Who Hunt the Night is a 1988 vampire/mystery novel by Barbara Hambly. It won the Locus Award winner for Best Horror Novel in 1989.-Plot summary:...

(1989) (released in the UK as Immortal Blood) and the Lord Ruthven award for fiction for its sequel, Travelling With the Dead
Traveling With The Dead
Traveling with the Dead is a 1995 vampire/mystery novel by Barbara Hambly. It was a 1996 Locus Award nominee, and winner of the Lord Ruthven award, 1996.-Plot summary:...

(1996).

Hambly was married for some years to fellow science fiction writer George Alec Effinger
George Alec Effinger
George Alec Effinger was an American science fiction author, born in 1947 in Cleveland, Ohio.-Writing career:...

 before his death in 2002. She now lives in Los Angeles. Hambly speaks freely of suffering from seasonal affective disorder
Seasonal affective disorder
Seasonal affective disorder , also known as winter depression, winter blues, summer depression, summer blues, or seasonal depression, is a mood disorder in which people who have normal mental health throughout most of the year experience depressive symptoms in the winter or summer, spring or autumn...

, which was undiagnosed for years.

Themes within fantasy

Given Hambly's diverse portfolio, there are only a few themes that run throughout all of her novels.

She has a penchant for unusual characters within the fantasy genre, such as the menopausal witch and reluctant scholar-lord in the Winterlands trilogy, or philologist
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...

 secret service agent in the vampire novels.

Her writing is filled with rich descriptions and actors whose actions bear consequences for both their lives and relationships, suffusing her series with a sense of loss and regret; Hambly's characters experience the pain of frustrated aspirations to a degree that is uncommon in most fantasy novels.

Though using many standard clichés and plot devices of the fantasy genre, her works depart from the norm through an exploration of the ethical implications of the consequences of these devices, and what their impact is for the characters, were they real people. In avoiding the "...easy consolatory self-identification of genre fantasy" (p. 449) and refusing to let her work be guided more explicitly by conventions and the desires of her audience, Hambly may have missed out on the remunerative success and acclaim that she is due.

Although magic exists in many of her settings, it is not used as an easy solution but follows rules and takes energy from the wizards. The unusual settings are generally rationalized as alternative universes.

Hambly heavily researches her settings, either in person or through books, frequently drawing upon her degree in medieval history for background and depth.

The Benjamin January Mysteries

The series beginning with A Free Man of Color follows Benjamin January
The Benjamin January Mysteries
The Benjamin January mysteries are a series of historical mysteries by Barbara Hambly, set in and around New Orleans during the 1830s. The title character is a mixed-race former slave, who was trained as a surgeon but works primarily as a musician....

, a brilliant, classically educated free colored surgeon and musician living in New Orleans during the belle epoque of the 1830s, when New Orleans had a large and prosperous free colored demimonde. January was born a slave but freed as a young child and provided with an excellent education; he is fluent in several classical and modern languages and thoroughly versed in the whole of classical Western learning and arts. Although trained in Paris as a surgeon, he has returned to Louisiana to escape the memory of his dead Parisian wife. As he is a very dark-skinned black man, in Louisiana he cannot find work as a surgeon. Instead, he earns a modest living by his exceptional talent and skill as a musician.

Each title is an entertaining murder mystery with a complex plot and well-developed characters, and each explores many aspects of French Creole society. However, most tend to emphasize some particular element of antebellum Louisiana life, such as Voodoo religion (Graveyard Dust), opera and music (Die Upon a Kiss), the annual epidemics of yellow fever and malaria (Fever Season), fear of miscegenation
Miscegenation
Miscegenation is the mixing of different racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, and procreation....

 (Dead and Buried), or the harsh nature of commercial sugar production (Sold Down the River).

Important themes running throughout the series are 1) the cultural clash between the rising Protestant English-speaking Anglo-Americans on the one hand and the declining Catholic, French-speaking Creoles on the other, 2) the extreme regard of Creole society for "how" colored a person is (quite alien to modern readers), 3) January's bitterness at the many forms of racial injustice he observes, 4) the complex, partially race-based sexual politics of colonial French society, and 5) January's ongoing attempts to balance the primal, open, and frank African outlook acquired in his early childhood with the more restrained and rational European worldview he now holds. This last theme occurs most often with respect to music, spirituality, and respect for law and social custom.
  • A Free Man of Color (1997)
  • Fever Season (1998)
  • Graveyard Dust (1999)
  • Sold Down the River (2000)
  • Die upon a Kiss (2001)
  • Wet Grave (2002)
  • Days of the Dead (2003)
  • Dead Water (2004)
  • Libre (2006, short story in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, November 2006, Salute to New Orleans issue. Available on Hambly's website.)
  • There Shall Your Heart Be Also (2007, short story in New Orleans Noir, ed. Julie Smith. Available on Hambly's website.)
  • Dead and Buried (2010)
  • A Time to Every Purpose Under Heaven (2010, short story starring Rose and Dominque and taking place while Ben is away in The Shirt On His Back. Available on Hambly's website.)
  • The Shirt On His Back (2011)
  • Ran Away (Upcoming)

The Abigail Adams Mysteries (Written as Barbara Hamilton)

  • The Ninth Daughter (2009)
  • A Marked Man (2010)
  • Sup with the Devil (2011)

Sherlock Holmes Short Story Pastiches

  • The Adventure of the Antiquarian’s Niece (2003, Shadows Over Baker Street, ed. Michael Reaves & John Pelan)
  • The Dollmaker of Marigold Walk (2003, My Sherlock Holmes, ed. Michael Kurlan, featuring the First Mrs. Watson)
  • The Lost Boy (2008, Gaslight Grimoire, ed. J.R. Campbell and Charles Prepolec, featuring the First Mrs. Watson)

Anne Steelyard: The Garden of Emptiness

  • An Honorary Man (2008, Graphic Novel)
  • The Gate of Dreams and Starlight (2009, Graphic Novel)
  • A Thousand Waters (2011, Graphic Novel)

The Darwath Trilogy

  • The Time of the Dark (1982)
  • The Walls of Air (1983)
  • The Armies of Daylight (1983)

Standalone Darwath Novels

  • Mother of Winter (1996; Locus award nominee 1997)
  • Icefalcon's Quest (1998)
  • Pretty Polly (2010, original short story available on Hambly's website.)

Sun Wolf and Starhawk

  • THE UNSCHOOLED WIZARD (LADIES OF MANDRIGYN & WITCHES OF WENSHAR) Omnibus 1987 ISBN/UPC:ZZ000I96U47A4
  • The Ladies of Mandrigyn (1984; Locus award nominee, 1985)
  • The Witches of Wenshar (1987; Locus award nominee, 1988)
  • The Dark Hand of Magic (1990)
  • A Night with the Girls (2010, an original short story available on Hambly's website.)

Winterlands

  • Dragonsbane
    Dragonsbane
    Dragonsbane is a fantasy novel written by author Barbara Hambly and published by Del Rey Books in 1985.- Plot summary :A witch, Jenny Waynest, and lord, John Aversin, who live in the Northlands are approached by a young southern noble, Gareth, who requests they slay a dragon in the capital city of...

    (1985; Locus award nominee, 1986 and 1987)
  • Dragonshadow (1999; Locus award nominee, 2000)
  • Knight of the Demon Queen (2000; Locus award nominee, 2001)
  • Dragonstar (2002)
  • Princess (2010, novella starring John Aversin. Now available on Hambly's website.)

The Windrose Chronicles

  • The Silent Tower (1986)
  • The Silicon Mage (1988)
  • Dog Wizard
    Dog Wizard
    Dog Wizard is a fantasy novel by Barbara Hambly and published by Del Rey Books in February, 1993. The book was a 1994 Locus Award nominee, and the third book of the Windrose Chronicles.-Synopsis:...

    (1993; Locus award nominee, 1994)
  • Stranger at the Wedding/Sorcerer's Ward (1994)
  • Firemaggot (2010, an original short story available on Hambly's website.)

Star Trek Universe

  • Ishmael
    Ishmael (Star Trek)
    Ishmael is a novel by Barbara Hambly, set in the Star Trek fictional universe.-Plot:Spock travels back to the time and place of Here Come the Brides, a television program loosely based upon Asa Mercer's efforts to bring civilization to 1860s Seattle by importing the marriageable Mercer Girls from...

    (1985)
  • Ghost-Walker (1991)
  • Crossroad (1994)

James Asher, Vampire Novels

  • Those Who Hunt The Night
    Those Who Hunt The Night
    Those Who Hunt the Night is a 1988 vampire/mystery novel by Barbara Hambly. It won the Locus Award winner for Best Horror Novel in 1989.-Plot summary:...

    / Immortal Blood (UK title) (1988; Locus award winner for Best Horror Novel in 1989)
  • Traveling With The Dead
    Traveling With The Dead
    Traveling with the Dead is a 1995 vampire/mystery novel by Barbara Hambly. It was a 1996 Locus Award nominee, and winner of the Lord Ruthven award, 1996.-Plot summary:...

    (1995; Locus award nominee, 1996, winner of the Lord Ruthven award, 1996)
  • Blood Maidens (2010)

Beauty and the Beast

  • Beauty and the Beast novelisation (1989)
  • Song of Orpheus (1990)

Sun-Cross

  • The Rainbow Abyss (1991; Locus award nominee, 1992)
  • The Magicians of Night (1992; Locus award nominee, 1993)

Star Wars Universe

  • Children of the Jedi
    Children of the Jedi
    Children of the Jedi is a 1995 bestselling fictional Star Wars novel written by Barbara Hambly. The novel is set several months after the Jedi Academy Trilogy in the Star Wars Expanded Universe timeline. Moreover, it serves as book one in a three book cycle involving Callista, an ex-Jedi Knight....

    (1995)
  • Nightlily: The Lovers' Tale (1995, short story in the anthology Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina)
  • Taster's Choice: The Tale of Jabba's Chef (1996, short story from the anthology Tales from Jabba's Palace)
  • Murder in Slushtime (1997, short story published in Star Wars Adventure Journal 14)
  • Planet of Twilight
    Planet of Twilight
    Planet of Twilight is a 1997 novel by Barbara Hambly, set in the Star Wars galaxy.-Story:The story takes place on Nam Chorios, a backwater world in the Outer Rim which infamously was the center of the Death Seed Plague centuries ago...

    (1997)

Standalone Works

  • Bride of the Rat God (1994; Locus award nominee, 1995)
  • Magic Time (2002) (with Marc Zicree. The first of a trilogy. The other two volumes are by other authors: Angelfire by Marc Scott Zicree and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, and Ghostlands by Marc Scott Zicree and Robert Charles Wilson.)
  • Renfield: Slave of Dracula (2006)
  • Someone Else's Shadow (short story in the Night's Edge anthology)

Historical fiction

  • Search the Seven Hills [originally The Quirinal Hill Affair] (1983)
  • The Emancipator's Wife (2005; finalist for the Michael Shaara Prize for Excellence in a Civil War Novel, 2006)
  • Patriot Hearts (2007)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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