The Icefalcon is an interesting enigma of a character throughout Barbara Hambly's "Darwath" series. This book, "Icefalcon's Quest," is designed to flesh out and give the background of the Icefalcon. It's definitely a book that needed writing and actually does a pretty good job of giving us that information. But, unfortunately, the story could have been (and should have been) better. I've got three main problems with it. First, for all that it dumps us right into Hambly's signature despair, it takes fully two-thirds of the book before we even get an inkling of what's happening. Instead, those first two hundred pages are filled with the Icefalcon following Tir. Yes, we're getting all the Icefalcon stuff. But, we're sitting there for all those pages scratching our heads and wondering when the story is going to go someplace. Second, there are just too many gaping holes in what's happening. For instance:- The wet-work in this book is personally handled by our old pal Bektis, the somewhat incompetent, pompous, and cowardly court mage. He'd never do that.- We never get an explanation of why Bektis is doing this (especially since he's got a nifty new gadget that should keep him out from under someone's thumb).- We get almost no explanation of Bektis' nifty tool nor why he would continue using it more than once.- The rationale we get in the last few pages of the book for the main bad guy doing this is horribly weak.- It makes no sense that all the resources (and their ability to be used) that the bad guys have were found where they were.And, finally, it's just silly to think that all those guys with swords and the wizard with the nifty tool would put up with the abuse that the lead bad guy heaps on them. These guys have passed straight through henchman status and are plummeting through minionhood. So, all together, I can only rate the book at an OK 3 stars out of 5. It's good for an Icefalcon fix, but as a story, it's just too weak and drawn out. If Hambly had condensed the first couple of hundred pages down to 50 or so, and then worked some more with the last 150 pages, it would have been better.The novels in the Darwath series are:1, 2, and 3. The Darwath Series: The Time of the Dark, The Walls of Air, and The Armies of Daylight4. Mother of Winter (Darwath)5. Icefalcon's Quest
This is at least the 2nd time I've read this book, possibly the 3rd. I enjoyed the whole Darwath series, but Icefalcon's Quest is my favorite by far.The Icefalcon is such a romantic character - a young man, a loner, exiled by choice from his people as a teenager but still following their ways, aloof and alone but developing a few close friendships and carrying the torch of unrequited love for another Guard. He joins the Guards because he wants to learn to fight like them, and stays because he enjoys the work and the company. He has extraordinarily high standards for himself, to the point where he intimidates most people. But he can be unfailingly kind to others, even understanding.Despite being a loner he's wise in his own way, telling a lost and frightened child that "Everyone has to go back... Sometimes when we have been hurt, betrayed, sometimes when we think we have brought our ill down upon our own heads... It is difficult then. Sometimes it takes a long while to turn around and face what we fled. We don't even need to defeat it. But we must be willing to look at it once again." He spends 10 long years as a Guard, thinking all the while that he wants to go home again, fight his rival, and take his rightful place as a leader for his people. But when faced with the actual choice, he decides against it. His sister tells him that he's not the leader his people need, and he listens to her. He chooses happiness - his own and his people's - over pride.My favorite bit might be when the hero of this adventure tale wins the big battle by... telling a story. Icefalcon was raised in an oral history culture where made-up stories are laughed at if not considered dangerous. All the important information is about where herds graze, what the stars looked like the year of the big rains, bloodlines for their horses, etc. Instead of telling stories around the campfire, his people recite those facts and knowledge. So when Icefalcon finally spins a tale, it's much more than a simple story, it's a major break from the traditions and teachings of his people. That's when he truly makes the leap from the culture he was raised in to the culture he's chosen for himself.
What do You think about Icefalcon's Quest (1998)?
I found the world and side plot quite well done. The detail and plot are effectively done, but the main plot, Ice Falcon's, is too distracting and oddly presented for any proper, fluid read. I found myself unable to keep any flow going trying to follow the storyline. I'd be at the Keep of Dare following what was happening on their end, and all was good; then, I'd be back with Ice Falcon trying to take his world seriously. It never worked. I couldn't get behind someone who speaks with Smells Like Toast and Black Water. I know those aren't the actual names they use, and I realize he's essentially a First Nation's character. It was neat to view the world through his mind where time is charted by the time the river froze and back when the trees burned, but I couldn't take his storyline presented in such a fashion seriously. I just lost all flow gained while reading the Keep progress. It made for a very disjointed and unsatisfied reading experience. The description was nice, and the attempt and motivation to present this unique view of the Darwath world is worthy of two stars, but that's all it gets. This novel just doesn't get close to the skill I found in the Time of the Dark series up to to this point.
—Seth Giolle
One of the Darwath series. Icefalcon is a guard at the Keep. He needs to rescue the young Lord of the Keep of Dare, who has been kidnapped. Great adventure. Excellent fantasy genre. The Talking Stars People have some 'early Native American' overtones. [Andre Norton used to do that a lot.] Well worth a read.First paragraphsCHAPTER ONE Had the Icefalcon still been living among the Talking Stars People, the penalty for not recognizing the old man he encountered in the clearing by the four elm trees would have been the removal of his eyes, tongue, liver, heart, and brain, in that order. His head would have been cut off, and, the Talking Stars People being a thrifty folk, his hair taken for bowstrings, his skin for ritual leather, and his bones for tools and arrowheads. If it was a bad winter, they would have eaten his flesh, too, so it was just as well that his misdeed occurred in the middle of spring. The Icefalcon considered all this logical and justified: the laws of his ancestors were not the reason that he no longer lived among the Talking Stars People. All the horror that followed could have been avoided had he minded his own business, as was his wont.Hambly, Barbara (2011-07-06). Icefalcon's Quest (Darwath) (Kindle Locations 56-63). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
—Douglas Cook
I could really be a fan of Barbara Hambly, if only she would write more in her own worlds instead of writing for the Star Wars franchise. Still, this rather loses its way. Having started with a war between humanity and some subterranean alien presence in The Time of the Dark, and ended the war in tThe Armies of Daylight , Hambly seems to have rather lost her way — or perhaps to just be writing in the vein of her Star Wars contributions. All her fans no doubt did want to know more about Icefalcon, but this didn't really draw me in.
—Derek (Guilty of thoughtcrime)
