Mother of Winter

From Publishers Weekly Twelve years after she concluded her Darwath Trilogy with The Time of the Dark, Hambly returns to the Keep of Dare. In this magical country, two former Californians, Rudy Solis and Gil Patterson, have prospered in their alternative professions (wizard and warrior, respectively), as well as in their interpersonal relationships with Dare's ruler and Archmage. But in the last five years a new glacial Ice Age has taken hold of Dare. Slunch, a virtually indestructible form of magical fungus, is ruining most of the arable farmland, and mutant creatures are attacking people. If something is not done immediately, the world's surface will freeze, rendering it uninhabitable by humans. Rudy must retain the trust of his queen and lover, Minalde, while delving into her five-year-old son's vast genetic memories, even as Gil and Ingold Inglorion struggle to stop the Mother of Winter from freeze-drying the planet. Part of the appeal of this novel lies in its juxtaposition of old and new: American brand-name products (Cracker Jacks, Swanson frozen entrees) and idiomatic phrases ("Pick up the phone, man!") cohabitate with swordplay and a medieval mindset; high-tech concepts like genetics mingle with sorcerous derring-do. The story is involving, and the narrative intelligent. Too often in recent years, Hambly has expended her talent on Star Trek or Star Wars series novels; it's good to see her originality back and blazing. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal This sequel to Hambly's first fantasy series, the "Darwath Trilogy," is set five years after the Dark Ones nearly destroyed Renweth. Now the world is mysteriously growing colder, and Rudy and Gil must help the wizard Ingold defeat the magic-resistant creatures spawned by the cold. For fantasy collections owning the trilogy.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist It has been 13 years since Hambly concluded her popular Darwath Trilogy with The Armies of Daylight , and here, finally, is its sequel. A brief prologue sets the scene and offers an atmosphere of grief and despair. The Dark Ones, though vanquished in a grisly battle in which some 8,000 people died in a single night, may have triumphed after all. Only five years later, the kingdom of Renweth faces starvation, for seemingly invulnerable, unnatural growths are killing the crops, and the world is growing colder. Furthermore, Archmage Ingold Inglorian, accompanied by California scholar turned warrior Gil Patterson, has gone south in search of books and objects of magic in the ruined cities, and the only wizard left to protect the Keep of Dare is the other former Californian, Rudy Solis, Ingold's apprentice. What ensues is a hearty mixture of factional quarrels, killer monsters, and a desperate journey to the icy realms and the mountain called Saycotl Xyam (Mother of Winter) to confront Those Who Wait. As in the trilogy, the use of magic is creative, the characterizations are well drawn, and the plot is intricate and fast paced. Given Hambly's considerable following, her latest is bound to find a broad readership. Sally Estes From Kirkus Reviews A direct sequel to Hambly's earlier Darwath trilogy (The Time of the Dark, 1984, paperback original), about a fantasy world beset by evil forces (but what fantasy world isn't?) and featuring two transplanted Californians, the mage Rudy Solis and the warrior Gil Patterson. Chronologically, five years have passed since the last novel--although if you haven't read the trilogy, much (Hambly's unnerving blend of technology and magic, for example, such as spellcasting recorded on videotape) will remain mysterious. The folk of the Keep of Dare in Renweth now face starvation as a ubiquitous horrid white growth, ``slunch,'' immune to magic and physical attack, permits nothing else to grow; also, the climate is cooling. Worse, anything that eats the slunch metamorphoses into a ghastly monster. Rudy and the old Archmage, Ingold Inglorion, find that the entire ecological onslaught is directed by three ice-mages and their queen, the Mother of Winter; their magic, on a different wavelength than Ingold's, can't be stopped. Ingold and Gil--she's been ensorcelled by the ice-mages to kill Ingold--travel south to battle the ice-mages while Rudy studies recordings of spells cast by the long-ago mage known as the Bald Lady. And the starving people of the Keep, now eating slunch, not only are transformed but become slaves of the ice-mages. Hambly's most disagreeable habit is interrupting her conversation with paragraphs of exposition or description, making it hard to follow who's saying what, and why. There are no plot surprises, yet the yarn's peppered with intriguing ideas--most given no more than a cursory exploration. Frustrating. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Dangerous wizardry is afoot in the country and a people dependent upon the powers of magic come to find their strengths won't stand up to a new evil loose in their land in Hambly's moving, engrossing story. It's the many protagonists which bring Mother Winter alive and keep the story line moving and exciting. -- Midwest Book Review From the Inside Flap il so ancient that not even legend remembered its name. But that dangerous, forgotten wizardry was alive again, summoning nameless servants into being and drawing down the glacial ice to crush the Keep of Dare--and, indeed, all of the world.<br>Five years after vanquishing the Dark Ones who had so nearly destroyed the civilization of Renweth, the remnant of that once-great kingdom huddled in the keep, on the brink of starvation. Their survival depended on magic--and magic as they knew it was powerless against the strange, cold force abroad in the world. Ghastly, unnatural growths were spreading across the land, invulnerable to hex and to axe. Whatever those repugnant and ever-spreading things might be, they killed the local flora and fauna, even as they seemed to spawn bizarre, unheard-of creatures to further their grisly work.<br>Ingold Inglorion--Archmage and, perhaps, madman--believed that the source of the life-and-soul-destroying power lay to the south, in the war-torn theocracy of Alketch, il so ancient that not even legend remembered its name. But that dangerous, forgotten wizardry was alive again, summoning nameless servants into being and drawing down the glacial ice to crush the Keep of Dare--and, indeed, all of the world.Five years after vanquishing the Dark Ones who had so nearly destroyed the civilization of Renweth, the remnant of that once-great kingdom huddled in the keep, on the brink of starvation. Their survival depended on magic--and magic as they knew it was powerless against the strange, cold force abroad in the world. Ghastly, unnatural growths were spreading across the land, invulnerable to hex and to axe. Whatever those repugnant and ever-spreading things might be, they killed the local flora and fauna, even as they seemed to spawn bizarre, unheard-of creatures to further their grisly work.Ingold Inglorion--Archmage and, perhaps, madman--believed that the source of the life-and-soul-destroying power lay to the south, in the war-torn theocracy of Alketch, Read more