Rating: 
Summary: More Good Work from Hambly
Review: (This Review Contains Spoilers)As a longtime fan of both Hambly's women/wizard novels and her Benjamin January mysteries, I wasn't surprised to see her write a women/wizard/mystery novel. This would seem a recipe for successs. However, *Sisters of the Raven* has several major flaws. The world is painstakingly constructed, with a California-like setting where city states depend on summoning the rain in order for crops to grow. This is a nice change from the usual bastardized European milieu. Prehuman creatures are slaves and women the property of their husbands. But Hambly borrows the look and feel of her own earlier novels, using the same tricks as she has before. While she is head and shoulders above a talentless hack like J.K. Rowling, this is depressing to see. The plot is confusing, with clues difficult to see or far too obvious. The villain was predictably the Mean Monotheist, another predictable plot twist. The end was disappointing and confusing: it rains in the last line, but it isn't at all clear how this relates to the characters' assertions that 'the world is changing'. The aqueduct planned by the King, like the real world aqueducts that draw water from Owens and Mono for Los Angeles, where Hambly lives now, will drain the far desert springs dry and solve nothing in the long run, we are told. So is civilization doomed or saved? And will magic ever return? If these questions are to be resolved in a sequel, we are not informed of this.
I'll gladly read anything this woman writes and have read her work eagerly for more than twenty years, but originality is a virtue and so is comprehensiblility.
Rating:
Summary: More Good Work from Hambly
Review: (This Review Contains Spoilers) As a longtime fan of both Hambly's women/wizard novels and her Benjamin January mysteries, I wasn't surprised to see her write a women/wizard/mystery novel. This would seem a recipe for successs. However, *Sisters of the Raven* has several major flaws. The world is painstakingly constructed, with a California-like setting where city states depend on summoning the rain in order for crops to grow. This is a nice change from the usual bastardized European milieu. Prehuman creatures are slaves and women the property of their husbands. But Hambly borrows the look and feel of her own earlier novels, using the same tricks as she has before. While she is head and shoulders above a talentless hack like J.K. Rowling, this is depressing to see. The plot is confusing, with clues difficult to see or far too obvious. The villain was predictably the Mean Monotheist, another predictable plot twist. The end was disappointing and confusing: it rains in the last line, but it isn't at all clear how this relates to the characters' assertions that 'the world is changing'. The aqueduct planned by the King, like the real world aqueducts that draw water from Owens and Mono for Los Angeles, where Hambly lives now, will drain the far desert springs dry and solve nothing in the long run, we are told. So is civilization doomed or saved? And will magic ever return? If these questions are to be resolved in a sequel, we are not informed of this.
I'll gladly read anything this woman writes and have read her work eagerly for more than twenty years, but originality is a virtue and so is comprehensiblility.
Rating:
Summary: Where's the carrot?
Review: Did you ever get the sense that you were reading a book that just dangled a carrot in front of you so you'd keep reading? Well, I had that feeling while reading this book. The problem is, in other books, I was being led somewhere that made me jump.
No jumping here. Once I grabbed hold of the carrot it disappeared. When I finished the book, I was still expecting more. (Kind of like the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2004 World Series.)
The world set up is quite interesting but never did I feel smacked across the face by what happened.
For something more captivating check out "The Time of the Dark".
Rating: 
Summary: Back to traditional Barbara Hambly
Review: I am a Barbara Hambly fan, and although I really like anything she writes, my favourites are from the Windrose and Darwath series. So I was thrilled to find her going back to her traditional fantasy work.
In general, I find Barbara Hambly to write much smarter and more believable stories about magic than any other fantasy writer, and Ladies of the Raven is a great work. The imaginary world is based on the traditional Arabic environment and culture, where men have all power and women are almost regarded as property. The fat, hedonistic, but basically positive and smart king is the usual (for Hambly) unlikely hero, his concubine with fledgling magical powers, or any of the other women mages are not all-powerful all-knowing creatures, and all the characters are well thought out and human. A nice touch with the wording of women-who-can-do-magic, as there is no word for female wizards in the local language, and the imaginary pig Pontifer.
The only slightly negative things I could say are about the plot - it is a little too obvious, and a lot of issues are left unexplained. There could have been some hints about why the magic is disappearing, hints about all those other worlds which magicians used to communicate with, about the nature and communications of teyn. On the other hand, it's always good to leave something for next time, and I really hope this book is s start of a new series.
Rating: 
Summary: Barbara's Back!
Review: I haven't been so caught up in one of Barbara Hambly's books since 'The Time of the Dark' or 'The Silicon Mage'. It was with much cheer and rejoicing that I decided to buy it after browsing in the airport gift shop waiting for a flight. I was so excited to be enchanted once again by that old Hambly magic. The description electrifies every sense - one can taste the exotic apicot paste and baba cake, feel the perfumed bath water of the Pearl Ladies in training, smell the stink of blood in the Slaughterhouse district. Warning: make sure you have plenty of water to drink before you read this book - the descriptions of dust and drought will parch your throat. The two best things about this book? 1. It's all about magic. Hambly is almost unequaled in her ability to make real the working of magic and the power it brings. 2. The characters. A scholarly yet endearingly hedonistic king, a teen-age magic-working tomboy who befriends the elegant and sophisticated Summer Concubine and the elderly, grief-stricken Pomegranate Woman and her constant companion, Pontifer Pig. If you are a Hambly fan - buy this book!
Rating:
Summary: Not Up to Par
Review: I love Barbara Hambly and have read nearly everything she's ever published. But I have to agree with the reviewer who noted that this novel is not up to speed with Hambly's usual efforts. There was so much left not explained in this book. Why was the magic fading? Why were there many scenes regarding the teyn but these creatures never came to anything? Why were only men able to work magic in the beginning? None of this was explained, only kind of hinted at "there might be more" (maybe a sequel...) We were left hanging on far too many topics. And I'm afraid that this effort came across as a little too "women are downtrodden" for my taste. Ms. Hambly often has a strong female as the central charactor which is great -- as a female myself, I find this refreshing. But she doesn't usually "man-bash" her male charactors. This novel had quite a bit of abusive men, lazy men, violent and stupid men. The women had to "suffer" being regularly beaten by their husbands. Men had real names but women were named strange things (often by their husbands) like "Summer Concubine Woman". If an unborn baby was male, a regular healer was called in for the birth. For a girl, the women handled it on their own. This kind of thing might be alright in setting a scene or describing an environment. But it was pretty heavy-handed in this novel and, I think, detracted from the book itself. All-in-all, just not up to Barbara Hambly's usual excellence.
Rating: 
Summary: Sisters of the Raven
Review: I usually love Hambly's work but this was the worst book she ever wrote. It was gross and pointless. Her characters were 2-D and she was trying to copy Le Guin and failed miserably. Lets hope she write a better book soon.
Rating:
Summary: Sisters of the Raven
Review: In a city-state threatened by drought, men are losing their inherent magic, and women are gaining it. Revolutionary prophets and a mysterious killer threaten the city's rulers and the newly mageborn women. I found this novel entertaining and generally solid, though it had a bit of a rushed feel. The worldbuilding is detailed and believable, though I noticed several elements familiar from earlier Hambly works -- the djinni, and the teyn seem awfully like dooic, for example. Writing is sometimes luminescent but occasionally clunky--bits of character history in the middle of high-tension action scenes don't seem to fit. Characters are appealing, especially the refreshingly nontraditional King Oryn and the host of female mages, though I found Raeshaldis a little less vivid. The plot is effective and fast-moving, but I felt that on some level the solutions were too easy, the characters never quite challenged enough. I often dislike "war of the sexes" novels, but the theme was handled intelligently here. To summarize, a more than competent fantasy novel and one I definitely enjoyed, but not a tour de force.
Rating:
Summary: Somewhat disappointing
Review: In her new novel Sisters of the Raven, Barbara Hambly retains the beautiful writing style familiar to readers of her other works; unfortunately, this novel seems jarringly amateurish and rough compared to her usual fine work. Plot holes and unaddressed issues abound. "Something" has happened to magic; it no longer works as it should. "Something" has happened to magicians - women are now the only ones who can work magic, though men had been the exclusive holders of this power before. "Something" has happened to the weather; the desert kingdom Hambly has created (which seems extremely derivative of her desert culture in Witches of Wenshar) depends for its life on the rains, which are no longer coming. Although we are treated to the author's usual excellent characterizations, none of these overarching plot issues are addressed - the novel simply rolls and bangs along like a runaway coach, with much happening and little explanation for why. One can only hope that this is simply the beginning of a new series in which these issues will be addressed and explained, but if so, that is not made clear by the work itself. In all, quite disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: Okay, I want more.
Review: In the Yellow City, those who work magic (all males) are losing their powers. The Sun Priests can no longer call the rains, and the town is facing water riots and a breakdown of all order. Yet in every corner and level of society, there are women who discover that THEY can do magic. There isn't even a word for it: a woman-who-works-magic, but they are doing it. Slowly, people are starting to believe. Can they save the Yellow City? That's probably a terrible synopsis; I've left out all the interesting characters and social dynamics in this book! I would say it's somewhat of a study in power as it shifts, and how people of good and poor character handle it. Fortunately, some of those in a position to get or stay in power are those of good character, so we can root for them! I truly came to care for the main characters, and I hope to see more from them. There was a resolution of the problem, but I'd like to see more of what happenes to the society as the Sisters of the Raven become more accepted. I recommend this book to Hambly fans and others who want a contemplation of social and gender politics in a "magical" setting.
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