---------------------------------------------------------------
Barbara Hambly is one of my favourite authors. Since the other lists of
her work I've seen on the net seem to me to be obviously incomplete, I
thought I'd put this together. Details from my own copies of the books,
from the
US Library of Congress,
the
New York Public Library,
and the
Bodleian Library
at the University of Oxford.
Any corrections/additions/info on published shorter work welcome:
e-mail R.Flood@noc.ulcc.ac.uk
Books in series are listed together under the "series title", and the major
characters.
Note: vt means "variant title"; same book, different name. This usually
happens when the UK and US editions have different titles. I don't know
anything about non-UK/US editions. "vt?" means might be a different
title, but I am unable to confirm it.
Darwath Trilogy (Ingold Inglorion/Gil Patterson/Rudy Solis)
The Time of the Dark [1982 US, Del Rey] [1982 UK, HarperCollins]
The Walls of Air [1983 US, Del Rey] [1985 UK, HarperCollins]
The Armies of Daylight [1983 US, Del Rey] [1985 UK, HarperCollins]
Unschooled Wizard series (Starhawk/Sun Wolf)
The Ladies of Mandrigyn [1984 US, Del Rey]
The Witches of Wenshar [1987 US, Del Rey] [1987 UK, Unwin]
The Dark Hand of Magic [1990 US, Del Rey]
-- [1990 UK, Unwin, vt?: Dark Hand of Magic]
Windrose Chronicles/Darkmage series (Joanna Sheraton/Antryg Windrose)
The Silent Tower [1986 US, Del Rey] [1987 UK, Unwin]
The Silicon Mage [1988 US, Del Rey] [1988 UK, Unwin]
Dog Wizard [1993 US, Del Rey] [1993 UK, HarperCollins]
Stranger at the Wedding [1994 US, Del Rey]
-- [1994 UK, HarperCollins, vt: Sorcerer's Ward]
-- (not in series mainline, focusing on minor character Kyra the Red)
Vampire series (James & Lydia Asher/Don Simon Ysidro)
Those who Hunt the Night [1988 US, Del Rey]
-- [1988 UK, Unwin, vt: Immortal Blood]
Traveling with the Dead [1995 US, Del Rey]
-- [1995 UK, Voyager, vt: Travelling with the Dead]
-- sample chapter: chapter one
Sun-Cross series (Jaldis/Rhion)
The Rainbow Abyss [1991 UK, Grafton] [1991 US, Del Rey]
The Magicians of Night [1992 US, Del Rey]
-- [1992 UK, Grafton, vt?: Magicians of the Night]
Non-series
The Quirinal Hill Affair [1983 US, St Martin's Press]
-- [1987 US, Del Rey, vt: Search the Seven Hills]
-- (Whodunnit featuring Christians in Imperial Rome)
Dragonsbane [1986 US, Del Rey] [1986 UK, Unwin]
-- (Poignant dragon-fighting fantasy)
Bride of the Rat God [1994 US Del Rey]
-- (Chinese demon on the prowl in 1920's Hollywood)
-- sample chapter: chapter one
Beauty and the Beast (TV series adaptations)
Beauty and the Beast [1989 US, publ?] [1990 UK, Unwin]
-- (first in series)
Song of Orpheus [1990 US, publ?]
-- (third in series)
-- Note: the second book in the series is by another author (Rose Estes?)
Star Trek (series tie-ins)
Ishmael [1985 US, Pocket] [1985 UK, Chivers]
Ghost Walker [1991 US, Pocket] [1991 UK, Titan]
Crossroad [1994 US, Pocket]
Star Wars (series tie-in)
Children of the Jedi [1995 US, Bantam h/b] [1996 UK, Bantam]
Barbara Hambly was one of the Guests of Honour at Sou'Wester, the 1994 British
National SF convention (Eastercon). Talking with fans at the convention,
she admitted that she is "not good at titles": her original title for the
"The Quirinal Hill Affair" was "The Baby Eaters"! The first vampire novel
was originally entitled "Daystalker", but the US publisher forced a change to
"Those who Hunt the Night"; the UK publishers at least asked her beforehand
if they could use "Immortal Blood".
"Stranger at the Wedding" and "Sorcerer's Ward" were her own choices of
alternate titles for that book, although she was not particularly happy with
either of them. The book is based on an idea for a fantasy with the two lead
characters played by Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, and also on Ms.
Hambly's experiences of returning home to spend Christmases with her parents.
She often works on novels by casting actors in one or two of the central
roles, so that she can "hear" the characters' speaking. For example, Antryg
Windrose in the Darkmage novels is based on Tom Baker, (best known as one of
the actors who has played Dr. Who in the BBC TV series). That was not how
she worked on "Those who Hunt the Night", although when pressed she thought
that perhaps Harrison Ford could be cast as Asher, while Don Simon could be
played only by Nicholas Cage. The book has been optioned for a film several
times.
Ms. Hambly has a "conceptual locker room" in her mind, where her repertoire
of characters rest between stories, sometimes for a long time. The character
Asher first appeared as the sheriff of a Wild-West town where she set some of
her very early (unpublished?) stories.
Living in Los Angeles, it annoys Ms. Hambly to read books set there written
by authors who appear not to have spent time in the city. Therefore she likes
to do a lot of research to make the settings of her own novels accurate,
for example visiting London, Vienna, and Istanbul for "Travelling with the
Dead". This is obviously not possible for the fantasy novels, but to aid
realism these have settings which have a level of technology comparable to
certain real-world periods. The Sun-Cross novels are roughly Roman, the
Unschooled Wizard books are Renaissance Europe, while the Windrose Chronicles
are set in a late 18th/early 19th century industrial society.
At the time of the convention, her own choice for her favourite/best book
was "Those who Hunt the Night". Personally, I would put "Dog Wizard" and
"Dragonsbane" at the top of my list.