A review by kaziaroo
The Time Of The Dark by Barbara Hambly

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.