Apr 22 2009
{book review} barbara hambly: those who hunt the night
Barbara Hambly’s Those Who Hunt the Night is an immediate lesson in not judging books by their covers–or flyleaf blurbs, for that matter. The cover is the ultimate in cheesetastic Victorian vampire camp, and the blurb is kind of sensationalistic and stupid–it’s in past tense, first of all, which doesn’t work with blurbs, and it ends with “Whether he succeeded or failed, it seemed that Professor James Asher was doomed!” If not for the fact that I checked it out on a friend’s recommendation, I’d never have picked it up based on the cover and blurb. I mean…really? They had to say it like that? With the exclamation point and everything?
It’s a good thing I ignored those two major points against it, because two pages in and I was thoroughly hooked. I was also afraid it would start slow, but instead it plunges directly into the action at the first point where things start happening: within the first two sentences Asher is aware his house is completely empty, within the first two paragraphs we find out he’s more dangerous and interesting than he might appear, and within one more page we’re getting to know his wife without actually having met her yet (and I mean actually getting to know her, not just finding out that he has a wife and she’s pretty).
That’s good writing. It doesn’t stop there, either; Asher and Lydia are wonderful protagonists, both smart and compelling in their own ways and very good together. Her medical expertise, hard-won in an era where women doctors were a rarity, colors everything she does, while he sees everything through a filter of his studies in language. I mean, would you really expect that an author could ramp up the tension in a scene and yank the character way out of his normal world just through identifying the odd patterns in an accent? Well, she does. Ysidro, the vampire who coerces Asher into helping him discover who is murdering other members of London’s undead population, is thoroughly–and properly–alien and fascinating in his own right, and yet, despite the inescapable fact that he must kill humans to survive, he retains enough humanity of his own to earn the reader’s sympathy.
Hambly’s vampires don’t sparkle. They aren’t necessarily even sexy, although some of them are. These are genuine creatures of the night, and if they’re stalking you, it’s not romantic. This is what vampire lit should be like. And I can’t help finding it terribly sad that this book is 20 years old, out of print (well, Amazon’s not selling it except used, at any rate), and mostly forgotten, while the current vampire fad is filling the shelves with dreck.
I suppose it’s always possible someone will decide to take advantage on the craze and reprint Those Who Hunt the Night. One can always hope. Maybe it would even get a good cover.
I love a good book. I read everything I can get my hands on. I am even writing my first fiction novel. livingfantasy gives examples of good books also.