Once, long ago, I recall walking through the Waldenbooks bookstore at my local mall, trying to find something new to read. After having crammed everything Middle-Earth related into my brain, I needed a new fix of epic fantasy adventure. Sure, I’d loved Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant books, read Moorcock, and begun The Belgariad with Eddings, but I was looking for something a bit different. And that is when I saw the cover of The Time of the Dark. Obviously, my attention was caught by the image of a classic fantasy wizard – shadowy hood, long white hair, flowing beard, staff, and robes in the Gandalf mode – drinking a beer in a 1980-style kitchen. It struck me as a bit ridiculous. “Can’t be at all related to the story.” I thought to myself, as I stopped to read the description on the back.But, you know what? After I read the cover blurb, I didn’t care about the fake cover anymore. Nope, this portal fantasy novel promised to give me something that my teenage mind adored: normal people from my time transported to a fantasy world under attack by man-eating creatures. A fantasy post-apocalyptic world is how I processed it. How could I not buy the book right there and then?Once I paid, I immediately found myself a chair in the food court of the mall, impatient to get started reading (I was like that back in the day), and as soon as I started flipping pages, I was confronted by a nightmarish scene of a city being attacked by. . . Well, I didn’t know, because the main character didn’t know. What we both did know was that it was horrible; had to be since the people in this other world were terrified of it breaking out of a door. And, of course, right before the door was the wizard from the front cover, prepared to lay down his life as the first person to confront the monsters. But before the main character and I could see the fight for survival, Ingold Inglorion (that was his name I learned) sensed his ghostly peeping-tom and gently sent her back home to Earth.Well, obviously, I was annoyed beyond belief at this point. Where was the fight? My god, I bought the book to see some good, old-fashioned sword fighting and magic using, not to have my narrator wake up in her apartment in southern California and go to work. I mean, we were standing in front of the door to what I assumed was the underworld! The bad guys were going to pour out and blood would flow. Why would the author leave out something so epic to make me follow along behind Gil Patterson, a graduate student!But I went with it. Just the tantalizing scent of something familiar but exotic had me hooked, so I kept reading, learning about Gil’s life, her major (which I actually loved because I was a young history buff) and was nearly as surprised as she when we walked into her apartment kitchen to find Ingold Inglorion sitting there drinking a Budweiser. The cover was not a flimsy sales pitch after all. It was straight from the story!As Ingold finished his Bud and poured out the details of who he was, where he was from, and why he was in Gil’s apartment, I found myself further drawn under Ms. Hambly’s spell. The wizard’s explanation of his world and ours being so close together that people could pass back and forth between them got me interested, but as he began to talk of his land of Darwath and its fight to survive the rising of the Dark I became completely hooked. A whole world on the verge of annihilation. A wizard saving the last prince of his country, a baby named Tir, by world jumping to escape from the terrible things that had erupted from that bound door and eaten a whole city of people; things that his land knew only as the Dark. Creatures of absolute blackness with cutting tentacles and tails that glide and fly through the night eating at will, snatching people up to return to the depths, and even able to suck a person’s mind clean, leaving them all but mindless automatons. And Tir was the only hope to save this other world from these killing machines; memories of the last time the Dark rose and how the ancients beat them back trapped somewhere in his subconscious, waiting to come out as he grew to manhood. But Ingold knew that even on Earth he and Tir were not safe, not for long at least, because the Dark would pursue them relentless: determined to destroy the only hope of an entire world. So, he politely asked for Gil’s help and promised not to stay for long — before ultimately taking Gil and a mechanic named Rudy back to Darwath.Oh, what a cruel, cruel woman Barbara Hambly was. This lead up to Gil actually reaching Darwath was so interesting, so deceptively simple and addictive that by the time the portal to Darwath opened, I already knew this would be an all-night read. And I fondly recall sitting up into the wee hours of the night at home that very night (I eventually had to leave the mall after all) following along behind my new friends.Once in Darwath, Gil and Rudy find themselves right at the epicenter of the total collapse of civilization. Everywhere they look is death and destruction; pathetic but normal people desperately trying to cling to sanity in a situation of insanity. Naturally, the pair cling to Ingold, hoping to return home, and trying to survive while they also attempt to find a way to help these people and themselves in this unfamiliar world of swords, magic, treachery, and monsters. While they do this, the Dark become much more than some vague threat over the horizon but a wielder of silent death, waiting for the sun to go down so that they can descend through the darkness on silent wings and feed. And during it all, the stupidity of the powerful is on display, as they try to hold onto their vestiges of power and riches in the face of total collapse of society. When finally the survivors decided to gamble their lives by leaving everything behind to make a Trail of Tears-like journey across the wintry lands to an ancient “Keep”, I myself was huddled in the dark of my bedroom glad that there were no “Dark” on Earth. Complex yet simple, horrific yet fantastical, powerful yet humbling, The Time of the Dark has it all. It is and always shall remain one of my favorite fantasy novels and series.
Barbara Hambly's books do things for me which very few fantasy authors do. First, she puts female characters in leading roles of strength, intelligence, and power. Even other female authors tend to continue relegating women to roles as side-interests to a story rather than the main starring role. Barbara Hambly isn't afraid to do that. She also fleshes out her ladies with multiple character traits, helping me to find bits and pieces of each one that I can empathize and relate to, unlike most wooden one-dimensional female roles. This book does something else to me. It celebrates and validates my love of thinking. The main character in this story is a scholar. Another main character is a wizard, who makes it very clear early in the story, that being a wizard is not about magic so much as it is a love of knowledge and deep abiding curiosity. These are things I can relate to, they are the best way to define who I am and how I try to live my life. So instantly, Barbara Hambly takes us nerds, we geeks, we vilified and sarcastically lampooned people, and she makes us.... heroes. In The Time of the Dark Barbara is not afraid to look at the deeper side of human nature, philosophy, sophistry, and the meaning of civilization in terms which are easy to follow, but deeper than the Marianas Trench if you're willing to go where she leads you. Another thing the Time of the Dark does which very few novels ever do for me any more is it surprises me. Whenever I feel I have a handle on the rules of this world, the general gist of the plot lines and even the sub plot lines, Barbara Hambly will throw you a surprise hairpin corkscrew turn in the road that you never saw coming. Personally, I love it when an author can surprise me. So many of the books I read for entertainment come off as so cliche'd and predictable that I tend to yawn my way through them. Not Barbara Hambly. She'll take you in directions you don't expect. Reading a novel about magic? Bet you didn't expect the laws of physics to show up! Watching a civilization be destroyed? How about that amazing advanced technological engineering?Truly, the only bad thing I can say about this book or about Barbara Hambly as an author is... I'm jealous that she devotes her time to other genres sometimes too instead of this one alone! Why is this a comfort book (series) for me? Well what woman feeling down and out would NOT feel amazingly inspired by the kick ass toughness and intelligence behind those silvery school-marm eyes of Gil-Shalos Patterson?!!
What do You think about The Time Of The Dark (2000)?
I just finished reading this for what must be the tenth time. I purchased this (now well worn) paperback when it was first published in 1982. I bought it for two reasons - the cover of a wizard sitting at a modern day kitchen table and the blurb on the back which described two ordinary people from 1982 Earth being swept into another world of medieval and magic. I loved it the first time I read it and I was pleased to discover that I still love it all these years later. (It is book one of The Darwath trilogy - the other two books being "The Walls of Air" and "The Armies of Daylight". All three books must be read in order to reach the conclusion of Ms. Hambly's wonderful tale.)
—Mel
The first time I read this book I was in my early twenties. I found the Dark were quite frightening, however rereading it in my thirties the Dark didn't alarm me at all. In fact I felt sympathetic towards them.The thing I like about the trilogy is the mystery involved; why have the Dark risen, why do they want Ingold, will memories reveal the secret to defeating them, and how are ancient magical artifacts used against them?I didn't mind the training in combat and magic. The theory behind the magic wasn't bad, however the combat could have been better researched to seem more plausible and interesting.Alot of the political struggles create tension, however at times get a little old. The "goodies" can seem to do no wrong, whereas the "baddies" tend to be unrealistically shallow which became slightly trite. I am being a little pedantic there. Romance parts, I tended to skirt over. i'm not one for schmulz.All in all "The Time of the Dark" is quite fast paced, multi-layed, and retains reader interest. As with the rest of the books in the trilogy a reasonably rich world is created, but most of all the mysteries kept me turning pages. The occasional breakthroughs are tantalizing. One of the most readable Fantasy trilogies out there. A few holes in it, but enjoyable none-the-less.
—Biblionotron
Blog post with links at: https://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2014/...A recent read of Those Who Hunt the Night led me to one of Hambly’s early series, The Time of the Dark. First published in 1982, it has the feel of many of the ‘crossworlds fantasy’ books so popular in that time period (Piers Anthony’s Apprentice Adept series, Terry Brooks’ Landover, Jack L. Chalker's Dancing Gods series, Stephen R. Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant, Guy Gavriel Kay’s Fionavar Tapestry, Andre Norton’s Witch World, to name ones I read). Hambly adds a refreshing touch in her trained historian’s viewpoint, as well as a fresher take on tired female tropes. If you are looking for classic portal fantasy, this is a great place to start.Gil Patterson, a graduate student in medieval history, is troubled by realistic dreams with a powerful aura of impending doom. In one of the first dreams, a weather-beaten old man seems to see her, and in a subsequent dream, actually talks with her. One night, she wakes up and he is sitting at her kitchen table, and Gil starts to believe. The man, named Ingold, is a warrior and a wizard, able to cross between the two worlds, and is looking for an escape hatch for a special person from the growing terror of the Dark. When Ingold arrives at a safehouse in the California desert he crosses paths with Rudy, an artist trying to repair a broken-down car. Gil and Rudy choose to support Ingold and are drawn farther than they ever imagined.The writing is vivid and does a nice job of creating the atmosphere of tension and danger. World-building was done well enough that I felt as if I was there. From one of Gil’s early dreams:“The wind from the house increased, chilling her. She edged her way back toward the dark gate, feeling herself beginning to shiver, her feet icy on the marble pavement. The silence of the place was terrible; even the screaming flight of that first night would have been more welcome. Then she had been in a crowd, though unseen; then she had not been alone. Silent and terrible, the lurker waited on the threshold of that dark house, and she knew that she must flee for her life. She would not be able to waken out of this dream; she knew that she was already awake.”It was entertaining, and I certainly read through to the end without my normal attention-deficit skimming used in reads that bore or annoy. Mostly, though, plotting feels rather genre standard, with some upgrades. Magical old man full of portents, undiscovered powers in the now-world recruits, uncanny progress adjusting to a new world, political animosity between the lord and his brother, a baby as savior, selfish religious leaders, the ‘Dark’ coming to devour humanity, etc. Hambly avoids the MacGuffin of ‘the journey back to the home world,’ so she deserves kudos there. Plotting was less world-scale than I expected, more of a survivalist focus, and while it doesn’t leave a cliffhanger ending in the personal sense, it is clear that the story is to be continued.Characters are above average. Although Gil is a loner (of course), she has a great deal of knowledge to draw from, as well as her intuition. Surprisingly, however, she finds her physical skills are the ones in demand, a definite counter to stereotype. Rudy comes from a family-oriented, hard-scrabble background but works as an artist, again a more unusual take on the typical fantasy male stand-in. He’s the one that develops his emotional and intuition, which Gil takes on all new roles for her.I wish I had found this series when it was first published in 1982; I would have loved it, far more than Brooks or Donaldson, which were filled with misogyny even a teenage girl could recognize. It’s definitely more accessible than Witch World, which was prone to sparse details, and less mythological-based than the Fionavar Tapestry, so it should appeal to readers who prefer more concrete details. Now, decades later, it feels above average for genre, if somewhat uninspired–but I suspect that is more because of my changing reader expectations for fantasy. I’ll be looking for the next book.
—Carol.
