Tomes of Spellcasting--Mother of Winter

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: Mother of Winter
Author: Barbara Hambly
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine Books
Format: Paperback
Copyright Date: 1996

The Dark Ones are gone, set free to roam the Void by Ingold Inglorion. By rights it should be a time of rebuilding and rebirth to the civilization of the Realm of Darwath. Now, however, a new threat rears its head. The winter is deepening into a terrible ice age with ice storms striking suddenly and without warning. A strange substance they're calling "slunch" has begun to encroach, impervious to all harm excepting vitriol, which makes the ground itself useless as well. Crops failing because of the slunch's invasion of fertile and tilled fields. Strange, misshapen, monstrous creatures emerge from the woods and surface even in Renweth Keep, creatures the children and others call gaboogoos. Why is all this happening? Rudy Solis doesn't know, and neither does Ingold, but Ingold and his lady, Gil Patterson, sense that it is all an attack upon the human race from beings dwelling far to the south within a great peak called Saycotl Xyam...the Mother of Winter.

Mother of Winter takes up the story of Rudy, Gil, and Ingold after a 13-year hiatus. Ms. Hambly succesfully revisits her old haunts and spins a new tale about the survivors of the Dark Ones' reign of terror and their struggle to persevere in an increasingly hostile world. It's good to see that Rudy's and Gil's lives weren't simply idyllic right after all that hardship with the Dark, but continuing day-to-day trials to get from the short run and the small picture (just surviving to see the next sunrise) to the long run and big picture: a lasting, strengthened civilization to replace that which had crumbled before the Dark Ones' onslaught. Now really, did anyone really expect that everything would be absolutely perfect once the Dark Ones were gone? Not me!

I admit to being like, "huh?" when I started reading about the slunch and the gaboogoos. I didn't understand what they were or where they came from, but the gradual discoveries made by Gil, Ingold, and Rudy--especially Rudy--allowed me to see and comprehend with them, so that I became a part of the party...sort of. It's really interesting: Ms. Hambly made the Dark Ones a deadly threat to humanity, they who were the color of shadows. Now she's made white things--or off-white, I guess--into an equally deadly threat to humanity. I think this one is way worse, since some of the threats to humanity actually came from human stock themselves!

This follow-up book--sequel if you like--to The Darwath Trilogy starts up a separate, self-contained tale about the lives of our favorite heroes and heroine after they saved the world from the Dark Ones. We expect there to be other hardships in life beyond the Dark Ones, and Ms. Hambly doesn't disappoint!

Rating: Thumbs up! A new year, a new threat, and a new hidden lair to seek out! Just what you've been waiting for!

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