Barbara Hambly

I delayed starting this book, even though it was highly recommended. I dislike historical novels, mysteries, and books involving historical slavery. So this wasn't a good bet. The historical setting was new for me, I know next to nothing about the intricacies of a French/Spanish/American New Orleans, or about the life of freed blacks in the South (hint: not that secure). It also cleared up why little old ladies think it's a compliment to call me colored instead of black. Having an unfamiliar show more "small" historical setting, unlike books which follow large well-known events (American revolution etc.), allowed me the same knowledge of the future as the character. Rather then reading it from the point of view of an all-knowing history god.
The mystery, which I'm usually uninterested in as a plot device (why would I care about the death of a random person?) had such staggering consequences for remaining unsolved that I was deeply invested in the outcome. The slavery aspects were well-handled and not simply placed for shock value. The setting also felt genuine and utterly necessary. Not one of those, "This is N.O. because it is cool, and look! French Quarter."
At the end of book there's a thank you for Octavia Butler who was a reader/commentator on the final manuscript. Honestly, if they had put that in the forward, I would have read the book much sooner.
In short, I enjoyed it even though it was atypical of my usual reading. And I plan to read the rest of the series, as well as other books by Hambly. show less

I found this a very satisfying period murder mystery set in and around New Orleans in 1833. It’s a couple of decades after the Louisiana Purchase and thirty years before the American Civil War, and the precarious position of a free but dark-skinned colored man in this time and place is made starkly clear. We’re also shown the conflict between the members of a highly stylized Creole culture and the relative new-comers, the uncouth and mercenary “Americans” or “Kaintucks.” show more Hambly’s historian credentials give the setting a rock-solid credibility. Her well-honed storytelling skill brings the characters to life and makes their story riveting.

The murder victim is a manipulative young freeborn “octoroon,” a light-skinned colored girl of the sort prized as mistresses by the Creole elite. The Kaintuck police officer investigating the case encounters resistance from various quarters when suspicion points to a young white man – much to the disgust of protagonist Benjamin January, a slave-born but Paris-educated free man of color. Disgusted though he is, January probably would not have risked himself by pursuing the case if the suspicion had not been transferred to him. Ultimately he risks both life and liberty to bring about a resolution and clear his name. The story is nail-bitingly tense in more than one place.

I found the solution of the mystery to be satisfyingly logical. Some of the clues were obscure enough to make a reader-solution unlikely, but nothing worse than is common in a genre that considers itself a failure if the reader guesses the ending. I’ve never been inclined to try very hard to second-guess an author in any case. When I read a good book I tend to surrender myself to it. Let the author take me for a ride; that’s what I came for. And “A Free Man of Color” is a darned good ride.

Some people may question the “right” of a white woman to write a story about the experience of black and colored people. And of course, I’m another white woman reviewing it. I would suggest that people – black people and white people – should read it before making a judgement. There is nothing over-simplified or sanitized, here. The characters (of all colors) and their motivations are complex and often morally ambiguous. Ms Hambly has clearly done her research, and the insight she brings to this highly race/color/class-conscious society has the combined power of her training as a historian and her ability as a fiction writer to put herself into characters’ heads. In creating Benjamin January, a black man with one white grandparent, who grew up in this culture and then left it in his twenties to return as a mature adult, Hambly has designed a character who can see the culture from both the inside and the outside and is therefore well positioned to mirror her insight. show less

I bought this on Kindle, saw the cover, and know that I also bought it in paperback but never read it. More fool I.

It is the tale of the quest to slay a dragon, and then it is so much more. The protagonist is a woman, Jenny Wannest, who is a mage woman with a lover, John Aversin, and two children. At the beginning, we learn that Jenny is pulled between her calling, her career as it were, and her family. But she's not a particularly powerful or great mage, and learning takes effort and show more concentration that is hard to reconcile with a family.

Then a traveler, Gareth, comes seeking the only Dragonsbane left alive - that is, John. And, you see, the traveler's kingdom has a dragon that needs eliminating. Of course, she and John return with Gareth, and get entangled in the life of that kingdom while they try to fulfill that quest.

The story unfolds in beautiful language and vivid mental pictures. Is the dragon really the bad guy here? There is a coming of age story, and an adult story of choices between different goals in life, as well as a taste of what the story might be from the dragon's point of view. I found the book compelling and not quite the same old fantasy. show less

Given my opinion of the rest of the 'Callista Trilogy', and Barbara Hambly's Star Wars writing, the real question here might be, 'Why did you read this trash?' Maybe its because I'm a completionist, maybe its because I enjoy torturing myself...maybe, like Bantam, the Star Wars tie-in franchise of this era, and Hambly herself, I just can't stop throwing good money after bad. I'm going to try to tease out at least one or two positives here along with all the negative though. However, even the show more good has some serious flaws.

The Good(ish):
One thing Hambly does well here is the internal monologues of C3pO while he and R2D2 are on their own solo adventures throughout the novel. Though the repeated, and for that matter repetitive in nature, of their mishaps grew tiresome, it was enjoyable to follow them as separately from the rest of the cast of characters as we all know to a degree their perspective was key to the original trilogy ala Hidden Fortress. Getting C3PO's internal thought processes was a good way to flesh this out.
Hambly's writing style and language are also more elevated than what we typically get from a Star Wars novel. Unfortunately, that works to her disadvantage and probably should have been worked on more with her editor. The escapist Space Opera/Scifi/Action-Adventure/Space Fantasy nature of this franchise doesn't work terribly well with the more elevated language she tries to employ and feels shoe-horned and out of place and cumbersome rather than the more intellectual delight it could have been in other genres.
Finally, I know from browsing that Hambly writes a good deal of horror, and while I haven't read any of it I may give it a try as I think she might really shine there. Why, you ask? Well, some of the more horror leaning scenes in the book (primarily those involving Dzym and the drochs, but also Taselda) represent some of the most engaging and interesting writing here. Again, it just doesn't fit very well into the Star Wars 'genre'.

The Bad:
Whew...there's a lot. Some of the weaknesses and flaws in the Good(ish) above already touch on a few of the issues. A lot of the problems can be boiled down to this being an author clearly unfamiliar with universe/franchise in which she is writing. We have a lot of stuff about the Force and Jedi generally that makes absolutely no sense in the context of the broader Star Wars continuity, from them actively engaging with/using negative emotions as drivers for action to even more basic issues how Lightsabers work/behave ('tangling' together?), to Jedi that have simply had their powers degrade(?) over time somehow that goes unexplained yet mysteriously have their powers back when its convenient for the story. We have species represented in totally different ways from the established canon (Ho'Din being 25 meters tall?). You know, just an obvious lack of familiarity with the established universe in which she's working.
Rather than find ways to creatively incorporate Luke (and for that matter Leia's) powers as a Jedi into the ongoing story, we yet again have a lame plot device (the Force works different on this planet? but apparently only for Luke because the evil but somehow not darkside/sith jedi seem to have no problems here?) with scant information rendering him basically powerless.
Despite being a feminist author who frequently gives strong and interesting female characters in her non-franchise work, we similarly have Leia rendered effectively powerless, as well as without agency by being drugged a significant portion of the book. We also somehow have a (still)powerless (and uninteresting) Callista able to teach Leia more about lightsaber combat in one training session than in all the time she has spent with Luke?
As mentioned, we have Callista back, still powerless, and ultimately with no character evolution nor resolution. She's back for maybe the last quarter of the book, since, you know, this book ostensibly is still to a degree about Luke's bizarre search for her, and ultimately, not only do they never speak, they only see each other at a distance once, briefly, and she is (thankfully) never heard from again in the EU. Just as with the first two books of the trilogy, especially since we're well aware of the potential dark side/negative consequences of Jedi embracing love, we have a really out of place and nonsensical love story shoehorned in with no payoff at all.
Speaking of the pointless return of characters...Admiral Daala suddenly re-appears in the final maybe 30 pages of the book. Even though up to that point we have zero reason to believe she would be involved. So, after her second resurrection/miraculous escape from certain, observed, death, she returns with still more Star Destroyers to...save the day? Given how little of the book she appears in, there is VERY thin rationalization for her change of heart, and certainly not accompanying character development one would expect to accompany it. Also, everyone just seems to be willing to forgive her for, you know, mass murder, planned genocide, war crimes, etc. and let her and her forces...settle on a planet to be farmers?
There's also a very brief re-appearance at the Noghri at the very beginning of the book. Which I would have been happy to see, especially as ostensibly part of the point of this book on Hambly's part was Leia coming to terms with her relationship with/to Vader. They could have played an ongoing and interesting part of that character development. However, within a page or two, despite everything we know about their prowess and skills, they are summarily killed and none of their kind show back up.
Its, frankly, a mess. It mostly feels like really lazy writing, combined with someone not really caring to learn anything about the franchise they're working in. The parts that *don't* feel lazy, feel like they were written for an entirely different genre or book.
Skip this, like the rest of the Callista Trilogy. A truly terrible waste of time, that I'm not even sure how it got published. show less