(Review by Jane Beaumont, Cape Town, South Africa)

Although published when she was already an established author, Hambly's Dragonsbane is still well within the classic confines of sorcerous machinations, mysterious heirs, wise and wily dragons and other trusty denizens of fantasy - but none the worse for that. It is a very enjoyable book with some elegant twists and a refreshing heroine.

It takes a new look at the "art" of dragonslaying and reduces it to the hacking & hewing it would have more than likely been and, in so doing, possibly jolts us into a clearer idea of what pre-gunpowder warfare must have been like. Certainly not an elegant, romantic joust with gilded lances and fluttering pennants (or not for more than an initial moment or two) but a bloody bludgeoning mostly undertaken by those who had little or no say in the matter.

Hambly studied mediaeval history and it shows in Dragonsbane where life is seen as less Camelot than Grendel's lair with little glitz; glamour that is only that thrown by the sorcerers and the glitter revealed as grit.

*

By contrast, ten years on in Travelling with the Dead, Hambly has moved to a world of elegance - the Europe of Edwardian times. In a John Buchanesque style, she here creates a combination spy/vampire adventure that is stylish and fascinating. There are some fairly complex political goings-on to negotiate that relate to the power struggles leading up to the first world war, but they merely form the background to the story (a quest of sorts, if you really stretch a point) and the beautifully drawn characters who people it.

Once again we have an unusual heroine. Here, Lydia is a beautiful but vain and myopic doctor of medicine with a special interest in the endocrinology of the Undead. Once you've accepted that as a legitimate area of study, everything else falls into credible place! She forms an uneasy alliance with Don Simon Ysidro, a 250 year old vampire with whom she travels through Europe, ending up in an uneasy and riot-torn Constantinople, in search of her husband and a missing married vampire couple.

Weird plot yes, wonderful writing yes. This one's a one-off in the fantasy realm - I really enjoyed it, not least the mannered writing style and attention to period detail that gave intricate authenticity to scenes describing the preservation of the not-quite-undead!

Barbara Hambly is obviously a diversely talented author - I intend reading lots more of her output just as soon as I can find it!