Barbara Hambly

Last updated
Barbara Hambly
Born (1951-08-28) August 28, 1951 (age 72)
San Diego, California, U.S.
Pen nameBarbara Hamilton
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • short story author
  • screenwriter
Alma mater University of California, Riverside
Genre Science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, historical fiction
Notable awards Lord Ruthven Award (1996)
Website
barbarahambly.com

Barbara Hambly (born August 28, 1951) is an American novelist and screenwriter within the genres of fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and historical fiction. She is the author of the bestselling Benjamin January mystery series featuring a free man of color, a musician and physician, in New Orleans in the antebellum years. She also wrote a novel about Mary Todd Lincoln.

Contents

Her science fiction novels occur within an explicit multiverse, as well as within previously existing settings (notably as established by Star Trek and Star Wars ).

Early life and education

Hambly was born in San Diego, California and grew up in Montclair, California. Her parents, Everett Edward Hambly Jr. and Florence Elizabeth (Moraski) Hambly, are from Fall River, Massachusetts; and Scranton, Pennsylvania (respectively). She has an older sister, Mary Ann Sanders, and a younger brother, Everett Edward Hambly, III. In her early teens, after reading J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings , she affixed images of dragons to her bedroom door. She became interested in costumery from an early age, and has been a long-time participant in Society for Creative Anachronism activities. In the mid-1960s, the Hambly family spent a year in Australia.

Hambly has a Master's in Medieval History from the University of California, Riverside. She completed her degree in 1975 and spent a year in Bordeaux as part of her studies.

Career

She chose work that allowed her time to write; [1] all of her novels contain a biography paragraph with a litany of jobs: high school teacher, model, waitress, technical editor, all-night liquor store clerk, and Shotokan karate instructor. Her first published novel was The Time of the Dark (1982).

Hambly served as President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America from 1994 to 1996. Her works have been nominated for many awards in the fantasy and horror fiction categories, winning a Locus Award for Best Horror Novel Those Who Hunt the Night (1989) (released in the UK as Immortal Blood) and the Lord Ruthven Award for fiction for its sequel, Traveling with the Dead (1996). [2]

Marriage and personal life

Hambly was married for some years to George Alec Effinger, a science fiction writer. He died in 2002. She lives in Los Angeles. Hambly speaks freely of suffering from seasonal affective disorder, which was undiagnosed for some time.

Themes within fantasy

Hambly's work has several themes. She has a penchant for unusual characters within the fantasy genre, such as the menopausal witch and reluctant scholar-lord in the Winterlands trilogy, or the philologist secret service agent in the vampire novels. [3]

Her writing is filled with rich descriptions and characters whose actions bear consequences for both their lives and relationships, suffusing her series with a sense of loss and regret. [4] Hambly's characters suffer the pain of frustrated aspirations to a degree that is uncommon in most fantasy novels. [5]

Though using many standard clichés and plot devices of the fantasy genre, her works explore the ethical implications of the consequences of these devices, and what their effect is for the characters, were they real people. In avoiding the "...easy consolatory self-identification of genre fantasy" [5] (p. 449) and refusing to let her work be guided more explicitly by conventions and the desires of her audience, Hambly may have missed out on more remunerative success and acclaim. [5]

Although magic exists in many of her settings, it is not used as an easy solution but follows rules and takes energy from the wizards. The unusual settings are generally rationalized as alternative universes.

Hambly heavily researches her settings, either in person or through books, frequently drawing upon her degree in medieval history for background and depth. [6]

Bibliography

Benjamin January mysteries

This historical mystery series begins with A Free Man of Color (1997) and features Benjamin January, a brilliant, classically educated, free colored surgeon and musician living in New Orleans during the antebellum years of the 1830s. At the time, New Orleans had a large and prosperous population of free people of color. Born a slave, as his mother was enslaved, January was freed as a young child by his mother's lover, under the plaçage system. Provided with an excellent education, he gained fluency in several classical and modern languages, and was thoroughly versed in the whole of classical Western learning and arts. He studied medicine in Paris, where he trained as a surgeon. He returned to Louisiana to escape the memory of his late wife, a woman from North Africa. As a free black in Louisiana, he cannot find work as a surgeon. He earns a modest living by his exceptional talent as a musician.

  1. A Free Man of Color (1997)
  2. Fever Season (1998)
  3. Graveyard Dust (1999)
  4. Sold Down the River (2000)
  5. Die upon a Kiss (2001)
  6. Wet Grave (2002)
  7. Days of the Dead (2003)
  8. Dead Water (2004)
  9. Dead and Buried (2010) [7]
  10. The Shirt on His Back (2011) [8]
  11. Ran Away (2011) [9]
  12. Good Man Friday (2013) [10]
  13. Crimson Angel (2014) [11]
  14. Drinking Gourd (2016) [12]
  15. Murder in July (2017) [13]
  16. Cold Bayou (2018) [14]
  17. Lady of Perdition (2019) [15]
  18. House of the Patriarch (2020) [16]
  19. Death and Hard Cider (Hardcover – June 7, 2022) [17]

Short stories

  • "Libre" (2006, short story in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, November 2006, Salute to New Orleans issue. Available on Hambly's website.)
  • "There Shall Your Heart Be Also" (2007, short story in New Orleans Noir, ed. Julie Smith. Available on Hambly's website.)
  • "A Time to Every Purpose Under Heaven" (2010, short story starring Rose and Dominique, and taking place while Benjamin is away (plot of The Shirt on His Back). Available on Hambly's website.)

Historical fiction

Abigail Adams Mysteries (written as Barbara Hamilton)

  1. The Ninth Daughter (2009)
  2. A Marked Man (2010)
  3. Sup with the Devil (2011)

Sherlock Holmes short story pastiches

  1. "The Adventure of the Antiquarian’s Niece" (2003, Shadows Over Baker Street, ed. Michael Reaves & John Pelan, narrated by Dr. Watson)
  2. "The Dollmaker of Marigold Walk" (2003, My Sherlock Holmes, ed. Michael Kurlan, narrated by Mrs. Mary Watson)
  3. "The Lost Boy" (2008, Gaslight Grimoire, ed. J. R. Campbell and Charles Prepolec, narrated by Mrs. Mary Watson)
  4. "The Adventure of the Sinister Chinaman" (2010, Sherlock Holmes: Crossovers Casebook, ed. Howard Hopkins, narrated by Dr. Watson)

Anne Steelyard: The Garden of Emptiness

  1. An Honorary Man (2008, graphic novel)
  2. The Gate of Dreams and Starlight (2009, graphic novel)
  3. A Thousand Waters (2011, graphic novel)

Darwath

The Darwath Trilogy

  1. The Time of the Dark (1982)
  2. The Walls of Air (1983)
  3. The Armies of Daylight (1983)

Darwath novels

  1. Mother of Winter (1996; Locus Award nominee 1997)
  2. Icefalcon's Quest (1998)
  3. "Pretty Polly" (2010, original short story available on Hambly's website.)

Sun Wolf and Starhawk

  1. The Ladies of Mandrigyn (1984; Locus Award nominee, 1985)
  2. The Witches of Wenshar (1987; Locus Award nominee, 1988)
  3. The Unschooled Wizard (The Ladies of Mandrigyn & The Witches of Wenshar omnibus; 1987)
  4. The Dark Hand of Magic (1990)
  5. "A Night with the Girls" (2010, an original short story available on Hambly's website)
  6. "Fairest in ihe Land" (2011, an original short story available on Hambly's website)
  7. "Nanya of the Butterflies" (2015)
  8. "Hazard" (2017)
  9. "Gwenael" (2018)

Winterlands

  1. Dragonsbane (1985; Locus Award nominee, 1986 and 1987)
  2. Dragonshadow (1999; Locus Award nominee, 2000)
  3. Knight of the Demon Queen (2000; Locus Award nominee, 2001)
  4. Dragonstar (2002)
  5. Princess (2010, novella starring John Aversin. Now available on Hambly's website.)

The Windrose Chronicles

  1. The Silent Tower (1986)
  2. The Silicon Mage (1988)
  3. Darkmage (1988, omnibus of The Silent Tower and The Silicon Mage)
  4. Dog Wizard (1993; Locus Award nominee, 1994)
  5. Stranger at the Wedding (also published as Sorcerer's Ward; 1994)—not the same main characters, but set in the same universe

Windrose novellas/novelettes:

  1. "Firemaggot" (2010, an original short story available on Smashwords)
  2. "Corridor" (2011, an original short story available on Smashwords)
  3. "Plus-One" (2012, an original short story available on Smashwords)
  4. "Personal Paradise" (2014, an original short story available on Smashwords)
  5. "Zénobie" (July 2015, an original short story available on Smashwords) [18]
  6. "...Pretty Maids All in a Row" (October 2015)
  7. "Karate Masters vs the Invaders from Outer Space" (December 2017)

Star Trek Universe

  1. Ishmael (1985)
  2. Ghost-Walker (1991)
  3. Crossroad (1994)

James Asher, Vampire novels

  1. Those Who Hunt the Night , AKA Immortal Blood (UK title) (1988; Locus Award winner for Best Horror Novel in 1989)
  2. Traveling with the Dead (1995; Locus Award nominee, 1996, winner of the Lord Ruthven Award, 1996)
  3. Blood Maidens (2010)
  4. Magistrates of Hell (2012)
  5. The Kindred of Darkness (2014)
  6. Darkness on His Bones (2015)
  7. Pale Guardian (U.K. 2016, U.S. 2017) [19]
  8. Prisoner of Midnight (U.S. 2019) [20]

The short story "Sunrise on Running Water" (2007, published in the anthology Dark Delicacies II: Fear) is set in the world of the James Asher novels but does not feature Asher himself.

Beauty and the Beast

  1. Beauty and the Beast novelization (1989)
  2. Song of Orpheus (1990)

Sun-Cross

  1. The Rainbow Abyss (1991; Locus Award nominee, 1992)
  2. The Magicians of Night (1992; Locus Award nominee, 1993)

Star Wars Universe

Raven Sisters

Silver Screen Historical Mystery Series

Standalone works

Television credits

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Brin</span> American scientist and science fiction author (born 1950)

Glen David Brin is an American science fiction author. He has won the Hugo, Locus, Campbell and Nebula Awards. His novel The Postman was adapted into a 1997 feature film starring Kevin Costner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gene Wolfe</span> American SF and fantasy writer (1931–2019)

Gene Rodman Wolfe was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He was noted for his dense, allusive prose as well as the strong influence of his Catholic faith. He was a prolific short story writer and novelist, and won many literary awards. Wolfe has been called "the Melville of science fiction", and was honored as a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Connie Willis</span> American science fiction writer

Constance Elaine Trimmer Willis, commonly known as Connie Willis, is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. She has won eleven Hugo Awards and seven Nebula Awards for particular works—more major SF awards than any other writer—most recently the "Best Novel" Hugo and Nebula Awards for Blackout/All Clear (2010). She was inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Science Fiction Writers of America named her its 28th SFWA Grand Master in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jo Walton</span> Canadian writer and poet (born 1964)

Jo Walton is a Welsh and Canadian fantasy and science fiction writer and poet. She is best known for the fantasy novel Among Others, which won the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 2012, and Tooth and Claw, a Victorian era novel with dragons which won the World Fantasy Award in 2004. Other works by Walton include the Small Change series, in which she blends alternate history with the cozy mystery genre, comprising Farthing, Ha'penny and Half a Crown. Her fantasy novel Lifelode won the 2010 Mythopoeic Award, and her alternate history My Real Children received the 2015 Tiptree Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kate Wilhelm</span> American science fiction writer (1928–2018)

Kate Wilhelm was an American author. She wrote novels and stories in the science fiction, mystery, and suspense genres, including the Hugo Award–winning Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang. Wilhelm established the Clarion Workshop along with her husband Damon Knight and writer Robin Scott Wilson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia A. McKillip</span> American fantasy and science fiction author (1948–2022)

Patricia Anne McKillip was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. She wrote predominantly standalone fantasy novels and has been called "one of the most accomplished prose stylists in the fantasy genre". Her work won many awards, including the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ian McDonald (British author)</span> British science fiction novelist

Ian McDonald is a British science fiction novelist, living in Belfast. His themes include nanotechnology, postcyberpunk settings, and the impact of rapid social and technological change on non-Western societies.

Lisa Goldstein is an American fantasy and science fiction writer whose work has been nominated for Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards. Her 1982 novel The Red Magician won a National Book Award in the one-year category Original Paperback and was praised by Philip K. Dick shortly before his death. Her 2011 novel, The Uncertain Places, won the 2012 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature, and her short story, "Paradise Is a Walled Garden," won the 2011 Sidewise Award for Best Short-Form Alternate History.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martha Wells</span> American speculative fiction writer (born 1964)

Martha Wells is an American writer of speculative fiction. She has published a number of fantasy novels, young adult novels, media tie-ins, short stories, and nonfiction essays on fantasy and science fiction subjects. Her novels have been translated into twelve languages. Wells has won four Hugo Awards, two Nebula Awards and three Locus Awards for her science fiction series The Murderbot Diaries. She is also known for her fantasy series Ile-Rien and The Books of the Raksura. Wells is praised for the complex, realistically detailed societies she creates; this is often credited to her academic background in anthropology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lavie Tidhar</span> Israeli writer

Lavie Tidhar is an Israeli-born writer, working across multiple genres. He has lived in the United Kingdom and South Africa for long periods of time, as well as Laos and Vanuatu. As of 2013, Tidhar has lived in London. His novel Osama won the 2012 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, beating Stephen King's 11/22/63 and George R. R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons. His novel A Man Lies Dreaming won the £5000 Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize, for Best British Fiction, in 2015. He won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 2017, for Central Station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aliette de Bodard</span> French-American speculative fiction writer

Aliette de Bodard is a French-American speculative fiction writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">N. K. Jemisin</span> American science fiction and fantasy writer

Nora Keita Jemisin is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. Her fiction includes a wide range of themes, notably cultural conflict and oppression. Her debut novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and the subsequent books in her Inheritance Trilogy received critical acclaim. She has won several awards for her work, including the Locus Award. The three books of her Broken Earth series made her the first author to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel in three consecutive years, as well as the first to win for all three novels in a trilogy. She won a fourth Hugo Award, for Best Novelette, in 2020 for Emergency Skin. Jemisin was a recipient of the MacArthur Fellows Program Genius Grant in 2020.

Beth Bernobich is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. She also goes by the pen name Claire O'Dell. She was born in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania in 1959. Her first novel, Passion Play was published by Tor Books in October 2010, and won the Romantic Times 2010 Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Epic Fantasy. Her novel, A Study in Honor was published by Harper Voyager in July 2018 and won the 2019 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Mystery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken Liu</span> Chinese-American writer

Ken Liu is an American author of science fiction and fantasy. Liu has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards for his short fiction, which has appeared in F&SF, Asimov's, Analog, Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, and multiple "Year's Best" anthologies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Leckie</span> American science fiction author (born 1966)

Ann Leckie is an American author of science fiction and fantasy. Her 2013 debut novel Ancillary Justice, in part about artificial consciousness and gender-blindness, won the 2014 Hugo Award for "Best Novel", as well as the Nebula Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the BSFA Award. The sequels, Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy, each won the Locus Award and were nominated for the Nebula Award. Provenance, published in 2017, and Translation State, published in 2023, are also set in the Imperial Radch universe. Leckie's first fantasy novel, The Raven Tower, was published in February 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amal El-Mohtar</span> Canadian poet and writer (born 1984)

Amal El-Mohtar is a Canadian poet and writer of speculative fiction. She has published short fiction, poetry, essays and reviews, and has edited the fantastic poetry quarterly magazine Goblin Fruit since 2006.

Zen Cho is a Malaysian fantasy author based in Birmingham, United Kingdom. She is known for her Sorcerer to the Crown series. She was the joint winner of the Crawford Award in 2015 for her short story collection Spirits Abroad.

Sarah Pinsker is an American science fiction and fantasy author. She is a nine-time finalist for the Nebula Award, and her debut novel A Song for a New Day won the 2019 Nebula for Best Novel while her story Our Lady of the Open Road won 2016 award for Best Novelette. Her novelette "Two Truths and a Lie" received both the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award. Her fiction has also won the Philip K. Dick Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award and been a finalist for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Tiptree Awards.

Alix E. Harrow is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. Her short fiction has been nominated for the Nebula Award, World Fantasy Award, and Locus Award, and in 2019 she won a Hugo Award for her story "A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies". She has published under the name Alix Heintzman.

Chelsea Louise Polk is a Canadian author of fantasy fiction, best known for the debut novel Witchmark which won the World Fantasy Award in 2019. A blend of murder mystery and fantasy, Witchmark is a set in a gaslamp secondary world and is followed by two sequels, Stormsong and Soulstar.

References

  1. ↑ "Biography of Barbara Hambly". Barbarahambly.com. 1999-09-17. Archived from the original on 2008-09-30. Retrieved 2013-02-07.
  2. ↑ "Books and awards". Barbarahambly.com. Archived from the original on 2013-12-06. Retrieved 2013-02-07.
  3. ↑ "Review of female characters in Barbara Hambly novels" Archived 2006-11-14 at the Wayback Machine , Strange Horizons
  4. ↑ yGen User (2005-12-25). "Interview with Andromeda Spaceways". Andromedaspaceways.com. Archived from the original on 2012-02-11. Retrieved 2013-02-07.{{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  5. 1 2 3 Clute, J. & Grant, J. (1999). The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. Orbit: London (UK)
  6. ↑ Review of Barbara Hambly as an author Archived 2006-06-14 at the Wayback Machine , Future Fiction website
  7. ↑ "Severn House". www.severnhouse.com. Archived from the original on 23 June 2019. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  8. ↑ "Severn House". www.severnhouse.com. Archived from the original on 23 June 2019. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  9. ↑ "Severn House". www.severnhouse.com. Archived from the original on 23 June 2019. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  10. ↑ "Severn House". www.severnhouse.com. Archived from the original on 23 June 2019. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  11. ↑ "Severn House". www.severnhouse.com. Archived from the original on 23 June 2019. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  12. ↑ "Severn House". www.severnhouse.com. Archived from the original on 23 June 2019. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  13. ↑ "Severn House". www.severnhouse.com. Archived from the original on 23 June 2019. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
  14. ↑ "Severn House". www.severnhouse.com. Archived from the original on 23 June 2019. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
  15. ↑ "Severn House". severnhouse.com.
  16. ↑ "Severn House". severnhouse.com. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  17. ↑ "Death and Hard Cider".
  18. ↑ "Smashwords – About Barbara Hambly" . Retrieved December 14, 2015.
  19. ↑ "Severn House". severnhouse.com. Archived from the original on 23 June 2019. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  20. ↑ "Severn House". severnhouse.com. Archived from the original on 23 June 2019. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  21. ↑ Hambly, Barbara. "(Untitled journal post)". LiveJournal. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.