Tomes of Spellcasting--The Armies of Daylight

Tomes of Spellcasting

Welcome to the land of mystery, where the impossible is possible, and the improbable the reality. Join me as I investigate worlds filled with magic and meet the souls that wield this wondrous powers.

W A R N I N G !

This review does not represent the opinions of the general public. It reflects my personal thoughts and opinions on the book.

That said, on to the review!

Title: The Armies of Daylight
Author: Barbara Hambly
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine Books
Format: Paperback
Copyright Date: 1983

The Keep of Renweth houses all that remains of the Realm of Darwath, but even the dire necessity that drove the people to flee into it can keep them united for long. Factions rise and scramble for the reins of power...a scramble from which Ingold Inglorion, Gil Patterson, and Rudy Solis have tried to remain apart from. But Gil is one of the Guard, Rudy the lover of the queen of the realm, and Ingold the greatest of the surviving wizards. Circumstances trap them in their web as they struggle through layers and eons of hidden memories to find weapons strong enough to defeat the Dark. And they must do it alone, for the armies of the Alketch empire loom to the south, determined to use Darwath's weakness to its advantage, and not even the amazing "resurrection" of the King of Darwath can rally forces enough to resist both the Alketch soldiers and the Dark Ones, who have some new goal in mind...a goal that centers around Ingold, Gil's and Rudy's only chance of returning home!

The Armies of Daylight concludes the saga begun in The Time of the Dark and continued in The Walls of Air. Ms. Hambly has successfully thrown all sorts of obstacles into the paths of the main cast, some expected and some nearly unimaginable. The schism between Queen Minalde and her brother, Chancellor Alwir I expected. The schism between crown and church as well. What I never expected was King Eldor actually following Rudy out of the Dark's labyrinthine tunnels and all the way back to the Keep of Renweth. That was an inspired gesture on Ms. Hambly's part. What better thorn in Rudy's life than a man with a prior claim on his lover? With predictable results, I might add.

It's amazing how Ms. Hambly has made the Dark Ones grow from becoming simply evil, ruthless, shape-changing wraiths into a force of life that is struggling to live, just as the humans in the Keep are doing. In the first book they are simply demons in the night who are harrying the pitiful remnants of humanity into the North. In the second they seem to have goals and objectives, including the near simultaneous uprisings in the great cities, like Quo and Gae. Now, they have needs that need fulfilling and a reason for their sudden reappearance after centuries of "dormancy". Ms. Hambly gives the Dark Ones "humanizing" aspects...if you can consider their cultivation of a herd race as something human. Still, it makes the Dark Ones more fearsome than simply mindless raveners, and that's what makes it all worthwhile.

This third book of The Darwath Trilogy brings everything that arose in the previous two books to a stunning, terrible conclusion that, though solving the problem of the Dark, doesn't really resolve it. Nor does it say whether humanity and the Darwath Realm will survive, even with the Dark gone. But, it's still a stellar offering from an outstanding author, and definitely a must-read, especially if you read the first two.

Rating: Thumbs up! Whose the greater enemy, the one before you or the one behind?

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