Dragonshadow was a book mainly about demons ruining the lives of our main characters. So how can Barbara Hambly top that you ask?Well, yeah of little faith. I mean, all she has to do is send our favorite characters to hell both physically and mentally, torture them a bit more, make them treat each other like dirt, and basically turn up the depressive “realism” to extra high max degrees.Our main characters, John Aversin and Jenny Waynest, are broken people here; all signs of their previous normal but peaceful life gone like their former innocence. They are both searching for some way to keep things from getting worse for them, their family and their world. In order to do this, they endure even more tragedies in this book. All the horrible things the author puts them through I won’t bore you with, because you can only enjoy seeing someone tortured so much before it has no shock factor left. Hell, when there is no other way to make things worse in their own world, Hambly sends them to visit another world, which is vaguely similar to our own but full of nothing but gloom and doom. Needless to say, I did not like this novel. Probably hated it more than I did the second book in this series. (Yeah I said hated because I despised this book.) This novel was all depression all the time. No fun, no joy, no hope. Don’t look for it because it don’t live here. I realize the author had some issues going on in real life, but it is uncalled for how ridiculously depressing she made this book. The Stand had more happiness in it, and I’m talking about when everyone was dying of the damn flu. Stay away from this one unless you like self-flagellation.
Dieser Band ist fast als sozialkritisch zu bezeichnen. John bereist Höllen, von denen eine eigentlich ein Paradies erscheint. Alles ist wunderschön und lieblich, nur die Lebenwesen erweisen sich als gefählich und grausam.Eine der Höllen stellt sich nach einiger Zeit als eine weitere "normale" Welt der Menschen heraus, obwohl sie eigentlich fast schlimmer als einige der Höllen erscheint. Es ist eine Welt, die der unseren sehr ähnlich ist. Eine Welt in der "augenscheinlich nur die Armen fett sind" (S. 312), eine Welt in der sich jeder mit seiner Persönlichen Geräusch Umgebung beschallt (wer kennt nicht diese viel zu lauten MP3 Player, die nicht nur den Besitzer sondern auch seine Umgebung beschallen), eine Welt in der unscheinbare Frauen "übrig" bleiben, weil die Männer "damit aufgewachsen waren, nur die umwerfenden Schönheiten aus der Werbung zu betrachten" (S. 290). Dort hat jede Wohnung einen permanent laufenden Werbeschirm, um damit einen Teil der Miete zu bezahlen und die Menschen tragen Werbehüte und dergleichen.John soll Aohila einen Wissenschaftler namens Corvin bringen, jedoch endet er am Ende des Bandes erst einmal zum Tode verurteilt im Kerker von Bel.Die weiteren Bände:Der schwarze Drache (Drachentöter Band 1) - Barbara HamblyDie dunkle Brut (Drachentöter Band 2) - Barbara HamblyDer Drachentöter (Drachentöter Band 4) - Barbara Hambly
Do You like book Knight Of The Demon Queen (2000)?
The story begins with the characters broken from the last book and searching for ways to recover from events. But it gets worse. If you are seeking a fantasy novels of fun and games and hope, stop, this is not your book. This is a depressing tome about how Lord John Aversin seeks a cure for his wife and son, a safety for his people from demons, and a quest in which he travels into worlds unfamiliar and akin to ours. Especially jarring is his visit into a world similar but technically advanced to ours.
—Korynn
Bummed me the hell out. The demons are not supposed to win in fantasy novels, only in real life.
—Felicity
The first obviously transitional book in the Dragonsbane series, this one is just as enjoyable as its predecessor, even if it doesn't reach the heights of the first book. Having wisely concluded that the theme of John and Jenny's relationship needs a break, Hambly sends John off adventuring into various Hells, finally concluding in a world which has some aspects -- technology, pollution, global warming, ubiquitous advertising -- of our own, if vastly exaggerated. These new settings give Hambly a chance to stretch and to introduce new problems for John to solve. Meanwhile, Morkeleb, increasingly uninteresting as a character now that he's a dragonshadow, is displaced by Amayon, the demon who formerly possessed Jenny and is now tasked as John's guide. John and Jenny's son Ian also comes into his own for the first time, as he and Jenny start to recover from being possessed. Fans of Hambly will not be disappointed: others should go read "Dragonsbane" right now.
—William Leight
