Rereading (again) — The Time of the Dark by Barbara Hambly

I haven't reread this since the last time, which was way back in 2014. This series is the first that Hambly got published and, in my opinion, are still the best she's ever written. That was confirmed again for me this time through.

The great thing about rereading something that you know really well is that you know the big story points but have forgotten enough of the smaller twists that then surprise you with pleased recognition. The last time this happened to me is talked about below.

The first book begins with a wonderful premise. What if you've been having a series of recurring dreams, set in a strange world, where you're in the middle of a panicking crowd all running from an ineffable horror? Then, one night, you wake up and you are in the middle of the city. It's no dream. It's real.

That's what happens to scholar Gil Patterson in The Time of the Dark. Where Barbara Hambly takes the adventure from there is a great ride.

You wouldn't normally think of a comfort book as one where you are fleeing with refugees from amorphous enemies (the Dark) in a parallel universe, where it is always freezing and there is never enough food, where you may never get home again because that might let the Dark into your own world ... but there you go. This is a much loved story that I fell back into last night, thinking "why has it been so long?"

Partly this is because I love Barbara Hambly's early books. Gil, Rudy, Ingold, the Ice Falcon, are all well drawn characters. They are realistic, imperfect heroes, just as the villains are sometimes people we can understand and relate to, despite the fact that one loves to hate them.

My mind is smoothed to the contours of their world and their struggles. I am really enjoying rediscovering the bits I'd forgotten, such as seeing just how Hambly built in the the underlying story logic through tiny details that show up very early int he book.

Overall this is really a great adventure and world to visit.