Reviews

The Time of the Dark by Barbara Hambly

kaziaroo's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

This was quite a dull read, unfortunately. The fantasy world felt quite generic and the enemy was too nebulous to be interesting. The two protagonists' background in the "real" world didn't really add anything once they left it behind; neither of them had any real ties to their old lives and they took to their new roles in Darwath far too easily to be believable, especially Gil.

She goes from scholar to soldier at the drop of a hat, and even gets enlisted into the elite corps with no actual experience – it was less a character arc and more that sure was just replaced. At least Rudy's arc was more natural.

Most of the book was taken up by descriptions of scenery and it felt like the author wanted to write a historical story but with some undeveloped fantasy threat and a carbon copy of Gandalf. The character building, fantasy and political setting just felt half-hearted. The whole thing wasn't well thought out; there is a scene where they see some mammoths and someone from Darwath describes them to a modern protagonist as "woolly elephants" – if he doesn't know what a mammoth is, why would they think he knows what an elephant is? How did they know what an elephant is, given they live mostly in the icy north? It was ridiculous. If it weren't for the length I would have DNF'd early on, but decided I might as well push on to the end of such a short book. Was it worth it? Not really.

riverlethe's review against another edition

1.0

DNF at 23%. Incredibly dated and not in a nostalgic way. See highlighted passages.

andimontgomery's review against another edition

3.0

I remember reading this a long time ago, and wanted to revisit the series when Amazon offered this on sale on the Kindle. I enjoyed it, but probably not as much as previously. That’s mostly because of the great books I’ve read since then which are just better, such as Paradise War (Song of Albion) by Stephen Lawhead, and The Summer Tree (Fionavar Tapestry) by Guy Gavriel Kay.

The Time of the Dark is pure fantasy - two characters from our world travel to an alternate universe, joining Ingold the wizard in his quest to save a young prince. There are nebulous evil beings called “The Dark” trying to kill them and the other townspeople, and a bit of court intrigue.

What I didn’t like was how easy it was for Gil and Rudy to assimilate into this world, with Gil becoming a soldier, and Rudy becoming a wizard. I’m just not buying it. The Fionavar Tapestry did something similar, but so much better.

audiobook_obsession's review

adventurous dark lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

nlord's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

jennykeery's review

adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

christinakann's review

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

kalteherz's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

that_little_drop_of_poison's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

1.0

bookhero6's review against another edition

4.0

Oh Barbara Hambly, how I adore thee.

You are so nicely easing my way into this whole SciFi thing. It took me a while to get intoyhis book which I attribute to two things: I was reading it on my iPad in bed and it really isn't a book to fall asleep to (it is a book you need to be wide awake for,) and I am still very new to this whole sci fi thing. But at every step I loved it.

The only part of this book that suffers is that it is the first in a three part series. It is an intro and it feels like one. But about 75% of the way in I realized where my reader tension was coming from and actually felt the build inherent in the narrative. This is just the beginning. We have two more books before it is concluded. And that is good and exciting for me. And I think most of my growing pains for this book came with the fact that the build was at odds with the length. I think if these books were published today as opposed to 30 years ago it would have been published as one novel, instead of three. And so the narrative would have been complete.

Other than that, I am totally excited for where it is going and I am totally excited that I have the next two books in paperback so that I can devote my non sleepy self to it.