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Right. I've just finished the second James Asher book by Barbara Hambly, Travelling With The Dead. And ... I really, really enjoyed it? As much as I enjoyed Those Who Hunt The Night, and possibly even a little bit more -_-;
I really, really like Lydia. This probably explains an awful lot about why I enjoyed this book so much. *grins faintly* I also just really liked the slow, pained exploration of interpersonal relationships between vampires, between humans, between humans and vampires. James and Lydia, Anthea and Charles, the Bey and his fledglings, James and Anthea, Lydia and Simon, James and Lydia and Simon, Simon and Anthea and Charles, the hints at Simon and Grippen and their shared master. All of those. This book was a big tangled mess of how vampires interact with the world and each other and exactly how many ways that can be pained and difficult and badly, badly wrong. It's fantastic.
And I just love Lydia's plot. Stepping right into the middle of simultaneous spy and vampire politics, risking everything, because James walked into a trap and she was damned if she wasn't getting him back out. Or at the very least, finding out what happened to him. Starting right out of the gate with breaking into a vampire's house with a spray bottle of silver nitrate and napping there while she waited for him to wake up so she could persuade him to help her out. I mean ... yes? Yes please? This I like, I will have more of this.
I also found the entire thing with Lydia and Simon and Margaret Potton to be ... so perfect and painful an examination of how love and vampires do not necessarily mix. I love the whole deal she made with Simon, how he faded, how they all reacted to that. I love that Simon found it most painful to see himself reflected in Lydia's honour, the whole tangled ball of honour and horror and using and lies and inimical natures explored in that plot. And then, how at the end that was compared to James and Lydia, James' compromised honour as a spy, the blood that lies on people's hands and how that affects them. Echoed, too, with James and Anthea, with Anthea and Charles. How we love them because they're ours, even though they're monstrous. How we know that, but somehow we keep reaching out anyway.
It just ... It took a lot of the vampire romance tropes, and laid them out in a universe where things like consent and using and murder are still very much in evidence, still pertinent. Where we're not allowed to forget the one just because the other exists. James and Lydia both care about the vampires they've come to meet, the vampires they've fought beside and struggled with, but at the same time they both keep being faced with the essential monstrous nature of what Simon and Anthea are. And at the same time, cannot stop caring, either.
And I loved, too, that Simon held his deal all the way down to the wire, out of honour, yes, and out of genuine care for Lydia, but as soon as he was released from his word, he fed again. He'd compromised himself and risked himself in an appallingly dangerous situation, he allowed his word to weaken him at a time when it was almost certain to get him killed. That was honour. But as soon as that deal was done, he fed again, because he still wants to live. Even if it costs innocent lives, even if it costs him Lydia's respect and care. But too, how he made himself look worse than he was, took the blame for Margaret's death knowing it would make Lydia hate him, because it would make her hate him, because it would break her hope and her care for him. And then ... James getting it, because James had done something similar once. *muses* I've mixed feelings about that, them knowingly lying to Lydia in this case when James at least has been scrupulously honest with her before, but I get why they did it. I don't ... I don't like it that much, but I get it.
Ah. I also came out of this with a Simon/James/Lydia OT3 -_-; Except it would only end badly, could only end badly, and every last one of them knows it. And all of them ... reach out anyway. Shit, I love that. Ouch.
On that subject ... Charles and Anthea. Grippen. Simon. Fledglings and what that means. This book was ... such a painful examination of that. Of the power a master has, of the strange and often twisted kinds of love that exist within that bond. Taking a soul inside yourself to give it back, holding it chained to you ever after. Charles and Anthea being used against each other, sustaining each other even in the midst of horror because all that matters to them is that the other exists and is still with them. Anthea and Lydia, the mad power of them in trying to save those they loved. That whole final battle, where James is beaten half to death and Simon's a crumpled heap on the floor, and Lydia's fighting for James and Anthea comes in like Nemesis herself to destroy the Shadow Wolf. To tear him apart for having taken her husband from her, like every other damned master they've come across. Charles and Anthea at the end, asking each other honestly for the first time in centuries why they became vampires to start with, and what it's worth to them.
And the Bey, the horror of his interactions with his fledglings. The punishment he used against Zardalu (and James thinking of Simon having that done to him), the worse horror of the fledgling he'd tried to make out of the boy he loved, even when he knew it would condemn the boy to a half-rotting horror of a life until mercy compelling him to kill him. That was ... Holy crap. And putting that up against Charles and Anthea being used by their master, the image from the previous book of Rhys taking Simon, Simon's horror of creating fledglings for that exact reason ... Wow. Yes. There's a lot to deal with, there. A lot of pain and horror and terrible beauty in that.
The change of setting was also wonderful, if a little strange considering the way vampires hated travel in the last book. I can wave that aside, though, given the severe pressures all the travelling vampires were under. And 1908 Constantinople is always a fascinating backdrop, when we've got the overturn of mortal regimes happening at the same time, and the encroaching build-up of pressures towards what we all know is coming. Vienna was a bit flown through, but Constantinople was fascinating. Heh.
*shakes head* I loved this book, yes? Perhaps more than I loved Those Who Hunt The Night, althought it's a lot more tangled and less clean as a narrative. And, seriously, I now have a very bad case of an OT3, James and Lydia Asher and the murderous ghost of Simon Ysidro. *smiles crookedly* And the thing with the fledglings, the horror and honour, the love and the hate, the murder and the survival. I want ... maybe to explore that some more. *itchy fingers*
Unfortunately, I'll have to wait a bit before getting the last two books. I have a kindle, I think you can get them in ebook format, but that will involved getting my sister to explain that process to me -_-; So ... might be a while, there.
Just. I love this universe. I love these characters. I love these books. *shrugs, smiles* For those of you who recommended them to me, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Heh.
And I just love Lydia's plot. Stepping right into the middle of simultaneous spy and vampire politics, risking everything, because James walked into a trap and she was damned if she wasn't getting him back out. Or at the very least, finding out what happened to him. Starting right out of the gate with breaking into a vampire's house with a spray bottle of silver nitrate and napping there while she waited for him to wake up so she could persuade him to help her out. I mean ... yes? Yes please? This I like, I will have more of this.
I also found the entire thing with Lydia and Simon and Margaret Potton to be ... so perfect and painful an examination of how love and vampires do not necessarily mix. I love the whole deal she made with Simon, how he faded, how they all reacted to that. I love that Simon found it most painful to see himself reflected in Lydia's honour, the whole tangled ball of honour and horror and using and lies and inimical natures explored in that plot. And then, how at the end that was compared to James and Lydia, James' compromised honour as a spy, the blood that lies on people's hands and how that affects them. Echoed, too, with James and Anthea, with Anthea and Charles. How we love them because they're ours, even though they're monstrous. How we know that, but somehow we keep reaching out anyway.
It just ... It took a lot of the vampire romance tropes, and laid them out in a universe where things like consent and using and murder are still very much in evidence, still pertinent. Where we're not allowed to forget the one just because the other exists. James and Lydia both care about the vampires they've come to meet, the vampires they've fought beside and struggled with, but at the same time they both keep being faced with the essential monstrous nature of what Simon and Anthea are. And at the same time, cannot stop caring, either.
And I loved, too, that Simon held his deal all the way down to the wire, out of honour, yes, and out of genuine care for Lydia, but as soon as he was released from his word, he fed again. He'd compromised himself and risked himself in an appallingly dangerous situation, he allowed his word to weaken him at a time when it was almost certain to get him killed. That was honour. But as soon as that deal was done, he fed again, because he still wants to live. Even if it costs innocent lives, even if it costs him Lydia's respect and care. But too, how he made himself look worse than he was, took the blame for Margaret's death knowing it would make Lydia hate him, because it would make her hate him, because it would break her hope and her care for him. And then ... James getting it, because James had done something similar once. *muses* I've mixed feelings about that, them knowingly lying to Lydia in this case when James at least has been scrupulously honest with her before, but I get why they did it. I don't ... I don't like it that much, but I get it.
Ah. I also came out of this with a Simon/James/Lydia OT3 -_-; Except it would only end badly, could only end badly, and every last one of them knows it. And all of them ... reach out anyway. Shit, I love that. Ouch.
On that subject ... Charles and Anthea. Grippen. Simon. Fledglings and what that means. This book was ... such a painful examination of that. Of the power a master has, of the strange and often twisted kinds of love that exist within that bond. Taking a soul inside yourself to give it back, holding it chained to you ever after. Charles and Anthea being used against each other, sustaining each other even in the midst of horror because all that matters to them is that the other exists and is still with them. Anthea and Lydia, the mad power of them in trying to save those they loved. That whole final battle, where James is beaten half to death and Simon's a crumpled heap on the floor, and Lydia's fighting for James and Anthea comes in like Nemesis herself to destroy the Shadow Wolf. To tear him apart for having taken her husband from her, like every other damned master they've come across. Charles and Anthea at the end, asking each other honestly for the first time in centuries why they became vampires to start with, and what it's worth to them.
And the Bey, the horror of his interactions with his fledglings. The punishment he used against Zardalu (and James thinking of Simon having that done to him), the worse horror of the fledgling he'd tried to make out of the boy he loved, even when he knew it would condemn the boy to a half-rotting horror of a life until mercy compelling him to kill him. That was ... Holy crap. And putting that up against Charles and Anthea being used by their master, the image from the previous book of Rhys taking Simon, Simon's horror of creating fledglings for that exact reason ... Wow. Yes. There's a lot to deal with, there. A lot of pain and horror and terrible beauty in that.
The change of setting was also wonderful, if a little strange considering the way vampires hated travel in the last book. I can wave that aside, though, given the severe pressures all the travelling vampires were under. And 1908 Constantinople is always a fascinating backdrop, when we've got the overturn of mortal regimes happening at the same time, and the encroaching build-up of pressures towards what we all know is coming. Vienna was a bit flown through, but Constantinople was fascinating. Heh.
*shakes head* I loved this book, yes? Perhaps more than I loved Those Who Hunt The Night, althought it's a lot more tangled and less clean as a narrative. And, seriously, I now have a very bad case of an OT3, James and Lydia Asher and the murderous ghost of Simon Ysidro. *smiles crookedly* And the thing with the fledglings, the horror and honour, the love and the hate, the murder and the survival. I want ... maybe to explore that some more. *itchy fingers*
Unfortunately, I'll have to wait a bit before getting the last two books. I have a kindle, I think you can get them in ebook format, but that will involved getting my sister to explain that process to me -_-; So ... might be a while, there.
Just. I love this universe. I love these characters. I love these books. *shrugs, smiles* For those of you who recommended them to me, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Heh.
