catevari's review
4.0
The Windrose Chronicles are my favorite of Hambly's assorted series (though it's close running) and I love Joanna and Antryg's relationship, but one thing about the series is that we didn't get to see how their mismatched relationship works in the aftermath and the best part of Hambly writing these continuing adventures is that we do get to see it.
This novella gave me exactly what I was missing in the last one I read: Antryg and Joanna working together, like a couple. Shared knowledge, working as a team, anticipating each other. I love stories about competency and I love couples that are both competent individually and as a team. I also love seeing Antryg adapting to live in 80s Los Angeles. In other pieces Hambly's written, Antryg has seemed more...at peace with his decision to go into exile in a magic-less universe; in this one, Hambly touches more on Antryg's pain, what it is to be a wizard--an Archmage--who has no access to magic, not even the simplest of spells.
I also liked that Hambly, for the first time, touched on the supernatural within Joanna's universe, something I hadn't even noticed the absence of until it happened. So all in all, for such a short story, it gave back a lot.
This novella gave me exactly what I was missing in the last one I read: Antryg and Joanna working together, like a couple. Shared knowledge, working as a team, anticipating each other. I love stories about competency and I love couples that are both competent individually and as a team. I also love seeing Antryg adapting to live in 80s Los Angeles. In other pieces Hambly's written, Antryg has seemed more...at peace with his decision to go into exile in a magic-less universe; in this one, Hambly touches more on Antryg's pain, what it is to be a wizard--an Archmage--who has no access to magic, not even the simplest of spells.
I also liked that Hambly, for the first time, touched on the supernatural within Joanna's universe, something I hadn't even noticed the absence of until it happened. So all in all, for such a short story, it gave back a lot.
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