Mother of Winter

Survivors at the Keep of Dare face a new threat: an unnatural, freezing, icy force that brings slunch, a white fungus destroying the land and spawning mutant monsters, forcing Ingold and Gil to investigate while Rudy defends the Keep.

A new, ancient evil creates a freezing, never-ending winter, destroying the remnants of civilization that survived the Dark Ones. Wizard Ingold Inglorion and warrior Gil Patterson, from Earth, travel south to uncover the source of this icy destruction.

Apprentice Rudy Solis remains at the Keep of Dare, struggling with failing magic to protect its inhabitants, including Queen Minalde, from the mutated creatures. The survivors confront a threat that is resistant to traditional magic and axe, leading to intense show more political intrigue and a race to discover the secrets within the black crystal heart of the Keep. show less

Set 5 years after the events of the original series, more disasters happen to the survivors of the Rising of the Dark. It looks like some ancient mages are bringing about 'snowball' Earth to raise the Mother of Winter, a being from the dawn of time, predating the Dark. Gil and and the mage Inglorion travel south to Alketch to try and prevent this, leaving Rudy holding the fort back at the Keep.

I can't help thinking that there is a plothole wide enough to take a 12-carriage train sideways in this series - if Inglorion is able to create portals and cross the Void to other worlds, why on earth doesn't he do that with the survivors? It's got to be better than grubbing around in an incipient Ice Age...

Either way, a well written installment. show more Recommended. show less

Hambly returns to the world of Darwath, and the unfinished series that originally ended with The Armies of Daylight. In that book, while the original premise was resolved, there was clearly more involved. Hambly now explains the reasons for what was going on in the previous series, and it is up to Rudy, Gil and Ingold to once again resolve this latest puzzle. Another excellent novel, Hambly does a very good job with characters that are strong but not overly powerful, in serious situations that aren't always cliff-hangers. Good classic style fantasy. This is dangerous and somewhat Lovecraftian, but not 'dark' by today's standards. Its all the better for it.

Substance: Reasonably interesting, didn't depend too much on having read the preceding books. Pretty standard mage-world and characters, although having two "transplants" from California is a change.
Style: Straight narrative. The American characters allow the author to run some "inside" jokes, and protect against the crime of inappropriate references which often occurs in sf and fantasy (not really anachronisms, since they are "universal" in nature).

DARWATH TRILOGY