Rating: 
Summary: Hambly's 4 for 4 in this series
Review: This is the second in my three book acquisition from the library that I made to finish this series. I greatly enjoyed the first three (as my review of Graveyard Dust details), but could Hambly hit another one out of park?Let's call it a triple. It's not quite as good as the other ones, but it's still worth 5 stars. It is a very good novel about slavery and the effects of slavery on black individuals. Hambly portrays this very well by forcing Ben back onto the plantation, this time to find out who's trying to mess up his former master's plantation. Could it be one of the slaves, doing it despite what would happen to the other slaves if Simon Fourchet dies? Or is there a something else going on? The plotting on this one is not quite as dense, which is a good thing. But Hambly also doesn't quite paint the atmosphere as well as she has in the previous books. Sure, you really do see the horrors that the slaves had to endure, and she does paint those scenes very well. The descriptions are well done as well. You really feel like you're in a sugar cane field, or in the heat of the mill, or whatever. However, there are fewer descriptive asides in this one, which I always found to really add to the atmosphere of the books. I loved it when she would describe life in New Orleans as Ben & Rose are walking the streets. These descriptions would rarely have anything to do with the plot, but they immersed me in the novel and the world, taking me back to New Orleans of the 1830s. That being said, the rest of the book is a standout. The mystery is very intriguing. It doesn't have quite as many twists and turns as the previous books, but it still has some surprises left. I was going to criticize it for having another chase similar to Fever Season (or was it the first one? I can't quite remember). However, this scene bears fruits that make it not only different from the previous one, but also essential to the story. Well done, Barbara. I hope the 5th book is as good as these four have been. I'm starting it tonight!
Rating:
Summary: Hambly's 4 for 4 in this series
Review: This is the second in my three book acquisition from the library that I made to finish this series. I greatly enjoyed the first three (as my review of Graveyard Dust details), but could Hambly hit another one out of park? Let's call it a triple. It's not quite as good as the other ones, but it's still worth 5 stars. It is a very good novel about slavery and the effects of slavery on black individuals. Hambly portrays this very well by forcing Ben back onto the plantation, this time to find out who's trying to mess up his former master's plantation. Could it be one of the slaves, doing it despite what would happen to the other slaves if Simon Fourchet dies? Or is there a something else going on? The plotting on this one is not quite as dense, which is a good thing. But Hambly also doesn't quite paint the atmosphere as well as she has in the previous books. Sure, you really do see the horrors that the slaves had to endure, and she does paint those scenes very well. The descriptions are well done as well. You really feel like you're in a sugar cane field, or in the heat of the mill, or whatever. However, there are fewer descriptive asides in this one, which I always found to really add to the atmosphere of the books. I loved it when she would describe life in New Orleans as Ben & Rose are walking the streets. These descriptions would rarely have anything to do with the plot, but they immersed me in the novel and the world, taking me back to New Orleans of the 1830s. That being said, the rest of the book is a standout. The mystery is very intriguing. It doesn't have quite as many twists and turns as the previous books, but it still has some surprises left. I was going to criticize it for having another chase similar to Fever Season (or was it the first one? I can't quite remember). However, this scene bears fruits that make it not only different from the previous one, but also essential to the story. Well done, Barbara. I hope the 5th book is as good as these four have been. I'm starting it tonight!
Rating:
Summary: A bitter tale well told
Review: What will you do for love? Love of self, love of others, of family, friends and children? If hate is the other side of love, what will you be driven to do? Could you kill? Strike out at whoever is there, or cooly plan a vengeance so horrible solely because someone else will take the weight? Is there such a thing as making amends? Is saying "oops" saying sorry? The book is a shout of rage, the rage of Ben Janvier, of Simon Fourchet, of the Africans, of white women, set in the cool of fall amidst the heat of the cane harvest. Ms Hambly has used heat as a metaphor in all of the books of this series, but here the heat is man made, a hell of tiredness, of flame, of revenge,of love. I enjoyed the book, unable to put it down once the characters were set and the plot moved towards it's end. There were no winners, since everyone was damaged, or had been damaged, in some way before the story begins, or during it. Lives moved on, but the ties remain, and while we finally learn more about Ben's life prior to New Orleans, we also learn a little more about the motivation of his mother, and those like her, who have made a choice many women, if asked, would reject. Jeanette didn't make the choice, and I liked the contrast between her situation with Ben's mother's choice, and why, knowing what it would cost her son, she pressed him to take on the undercover assignment. I agree that the ending was a little contrived, but it is in the end a minor quibble. No one who reads the book will not be in the hold of that steamboat,and feel the heat,the desperation of everyone on board. Ms Hambly has done it again. When is the next Ben Janvier book due?
Rating:
Summary: gasp!
Review: When January -- "stepped out into the yard straight into the midst of -------------." I gasped out loud, "Oh no" and shut the book afraid to go on reading. That's how into the story I was. I read a LOT of novels by women writers and seldom do I gasp. You did good Hambly.
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