Interesting. I appear to have #1 and #3 of the Darwath series by Barbara Hambly but not #2. How does it reflect on a series when you distinctly remember the first and third book without even knowing or needing the second book? Oh well. Still a good fantasy series.

The whole trilogy, beginning to end, is a journey! I was glued to this adventure and I strongly recommend these books

On this re-read, I will just add this to my overall summary under the first book: as the trilogy enters the closing laps, the characters are put through the ringer even more, with more political shenanigans, treachery, hopeless endeavours, and backs to the wall. If I was reading this fresh now, I might have taken off a star from vols 2 and 3, because there are some aspects, such as the over sentimental portrayal of Queen Minalde/Alde, and the occasional bit of head-hopping between characters wit...

This third book from the original Darwath Trilogy is so intense! I think the biggest intensity is of course, the main plot line. It's unpredictable, changing, and complex. Barbara Hambly does not telegraph her punches with pointless foreshadowing and constant reminders. Yes, she's kept certain ideas or concepts or people alive in our memories but she has the delicate touch of a butterfly compared to most authors who hit you with such things with the force of a 20# sledge. The thing is, for me at...

Rudy, now a sorcerer in training, and Gil, who searches for the truth using very modern methods of scholarship, try to beat back the rising tides of the Dark. I'm still annoyed by Rudy and his giiiiiirlfriend Queen Minalde, and I've read the romance between Gil and Ingold before, in Hambly's Windrose Chronicles (different names, same damn characters). I could barely get through the first two novels in this trilogy, but the third book is far better. I adored reading the medieval response to Gil's...

I ended up liking this trilogy a lot more than I thought I would. Sometimes authors use the device of contemporary people in a strange land as an exposition device - getting across a whole bunch of world building information is easier when you have to explain it to someone who doesn't know any of it. But I thought Hambly used her transplanted characters to better effect here. Their foreignness allows them to see the world in ways that others don't, and their dual experiences force them to consid...

This whole series is very good, but I thought this third volume was the weakest of the three.

Other than the ending being a bit rushed, this was a great conclusion to the trilogy. Most of the mysteries were revealed, a true conclusion was reached in all the major plot lines, and our main characters completed their personal journeys. Naturally, it all left me feeling sad and disappointed though -- that is until I could scurry over to the bookshelf and get the next Darwath book down to read!

The people of the Keep of Renweth struggle to survive the onslaught of the Dark, machinations of the Church, and 'saviors' with the army of Alketch that may end up taking over.This is a re-read of a book I first read more than twenty years ago. And it's still awesome! This trilogy really impressed me with the slow build of bits of information, relationships strengthening over time, and believable heroes and villains. I truly cared about the characters and the world. The ending was satisfying and...

I first read this series in (cough) 1986 at the age of 14 or so and it gripped me and scared me witless in equal measures. Rereading it as an adult, it doesn't scare me quite as much, but it's still a wonderful series with well drawn characters including one of the best gandalf-type wizards in contemporary fantasy, all the better because he is NOT infallible.I think one of the best dynamics in this particular world is the uneasy relationship between the church and the wizard communi...more I

The Darwath trilogy wraps up in this book in a very satisfying way. There is a wonderful twist to the resolution of the over all plot thread as well as the main characters. this last third of the trilogy keeps you guessing the ending almost up to the final page but does it in a way that does not pull you out of your immersion in the world. I feel that this is one of the classic fantasy series of all times and I really enjoyed this reread of a great series by a writer I enjoy a lot.

Third in the series. The book is actually divided into two parts. The first, larger section is an exciting tale with intrigue going on at the Keep, as the armies from the South arrive to work with their adversaries in a shaky alliance against the Dark Ones forged by the calculating Chancellor's personal ambitions. He sends the new Wizard Guard to lead a coalition to destroy their nest beneath the destroyed city of Gae, a foolhardy mission, that tests the mettle, certainly, of all involved, inclu...

Soooo, are the Dark evil? Because if they are, why didn't Ingold send them to a world where they will die off?Why send them with their "herds" (a lovely euphemism for victims)?If the Dark can simply call people who will come to them, why don't they do that all the time instead of causing people to fear and fight them?If Ingold was leading Gil and Rudy away from where he was opening the rift to avoid them being called through the rift, why? They were standing right there and were not called throu...

as a continuation of the series this book was fantastic, but i found the ending to be to quick and an easy resolution in comparison to the struggles in the story.

I really enjoyed this series, right up to the very, very end, but said ending was a let down. (It dimly reminds me of a Star Trek episode. I'm also reminded of a story told in, I think, one of the Valdemar books of a wizard who "saved" a village from a marauding dragon by pointing out the said dragon that he was harming sentient beings.)

Superb! And a grand resolution is had by all. The conclusion to the trilogy really drags the suspense and bleakness all the way to the end, and it never really lets up. I love that the women characters are so well-rounded, they are strong and yet flawed, even the female antagonist. The male characters, no really so, they are mostly paragons of virtuous badassness or else Obviously Evil™. Wish she'd applied the same even-handedness to the men, but it's easily overlooked.Excellent monsters in this...

I am very sad to say that I did not like this book. Frankly, this is my own fault. I didn’t particularly care for The Time of the Dark, and that feeling of discontent verging on dislike only grew with The Walls of Air. Yet out of love and devotion to the one-and-only Barbara Hambly, I kept reading. Deep down I knew that The Armies of Daylight wouldn’t solve all the problems I had with the characters, characterization, world, plot structure, pacing […], but I hoped it would offer up something to

I'm so glad I decided to re-read (relisten?) this trilogy from my childhood, it has absolutely held up to my memories and it's just amazing that in 2020 they decided to make a great audiobook for some 80s fantasy trilogy which isn't even that well-known. I remember the finale of this pretty well, but had forgotten a lot of key points before that, so there was even some suspense involved. I think my only true complaint is that I wanted more of Gil's POV in the later half, it's almost entirely Rud...

The Darwath Trilogy (1982-83), by Barbara Hambly, is really one giant book broken into three pieces. It's a portal fantasy of two people who go to a fairly bland fantasy world and wind up helping to fight "the dark."I got bored quick. This just wasn't for me. The writing was perfectly fine, just not left-field enough for me. Note that it's not a bad novel, just dull.The writer tried for more realism, which was great, except that she picked all the most boring realisms. Our protagonists are unama...

It's not that this book was bad. It just proved to me that this series should have been a duology. The question about defeating the Dark/what could be done were explored in this book, but the solution to the latter sort of came out of nowhere. The GilxInglorion wasn't set up as much as it could have been, and there didn't seem to be much of a conclusion to the Alde subplot that has been slowly boiling for all three books. In short, the author took the easy way out on nearly every slow-burn plotl...