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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

A&A The Official Barbara Hambly Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'Literature' started by The Gatherer, Feb 21, 2002.

  1. The Gatherer

    The Gatherer Jedi Youngling star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 2, 1999
    Barbara is author of 'Children of the Jedi' and 'Planet of Twilight' and many other fantasy novels.

    Website: http://www.barbarahambly.com/
    Jedi Council Forums Username:

    Discuss Barbara's novels and aspects of his writing in this thread. You never know, Barbara might drop by from time to time!
     
  2. IAmTheDarkSide

    IAmTheDarkSide Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 9, 2002
    OK; granted her Star Wars novels aren't the best (although Children of the Jedi isn't bad), she has written some good books.

    Her DragonsBane books are amazing yet depressing, and her Free Man of Color series is pretty good as well.
     
  3. stevo

    stevo Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 14, 2001
    I'll have to check into her other books.

    I don't care what everybody else says, "Children of the Jedi" was a book worth my time.
     
  4. Strilo

    Strilo Manager Emeritus star 8 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Aug 6, 2001
    I am sure that Barbara Hambly is a great author. I am sure she has written some great books. I cannot express how awful I thought her two Star Wars books were.

    My feelings on her Star Wars books can be found here, my first EU Literature thread.

     
  5. magneto

    magneto Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Feb 1, 2001
    I really don't like her books.
     
  6. DarkWoman

    DarkWoman Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 31, 2002
    *BLEARGH*
     
  7. Sturm Antilles

    Sturm Antilles Former Manager star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 22, 2000
    I really enjoyed "Nightlily" in TftMEC. I didn't find CotJ or PoT to be too bad, as many people do. And I think that she wrote Leia very well.
     
  8. BabyJediGirl

    BabyJediGirl Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Apr 4, 2002
    Regardless of how impossibly hard it was to follow Hambly's writing, I think overall she is a good author. I didn't enjoy her books, even though I believe she has a good writing ability. I just had too much of a struggle with understanding what the heck was going on in her novels...
     
  9. IAmTheDarkSide

    IAmTheDarkSide Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 9, 2002
    I really enjoyed Children of the Jedi, even in Planet of Twilight, IMO, was hogwash. Her fantasies and historical fiction are quite good though.
     
  10. Darthmcm

    Darthmcm Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 21, 2001
    Lets just say im glad Planet of Twilight wasnt the first Star Wars book, I ever read. or I wouldnt have ever picked up another one.
     
  11. Shelley

    Shelley Jedi Youngling star 5

    Registered:
    Sep 9, 2001
    I wasn't crazy about her books in general but I did like how she wrote Han and Leia.
     
  12. muuurgh8150

    muuurgh8150 Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Feb 4, 2002
    I don't like Barbara Hambly. I mean her books have a good plot, and are a bit exciting, but the way they are written are terrible. It's hard to understand. i had to read one sentence seven times before i finally realized what she was trying to say. She uses crappy English, making grammatical errors all over the place.

    I don't like Barbara Hambly as an author, but I will still read her Star Wars Books.
     
  13. Palp_Faction

    Palp_Faction Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 3, 2002
    I quite agree. Her writing is appalling. It's as if we are reading her first draft. It meanders all over the place. I'm glad other people think this too. It thought it was just me being stupid when I had to try and understand what was going on.
     
  14. Palp_Faction

    Palp_Faction Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 3, 2002
    Having said that, I thought Children of the Jedi was a good story and Belsavis was an interesting location. Haven't read Planet of Twilight yet.
     
  15. barnsthefatjedi

    barnsthefatjedi Jedi Knight star 5

    Registered:
    Feb 17, 2001
    Dear Mrs Hambly,

    NEVER WRITE ANOTHER STAR WARS BOOK

    Thank you.
     
  16. Fire_Light

    Fire_Light Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Mar 24, 2002
    Well that was harsh.
     
  17. Strilo

    Strilo Manager Emeritus star 8 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Aug 6, 2001
    Harsh or not I agree. She needs to stick to what she does best, whatever that is. It certainly is not Star Wars.
     
  18. muuurgh8150

    muuurgh8150 Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Feb 4, 2002
    I agree with Strilo. She shouldn't ever write another SW book.

    here is an portion of a post I made earlier in another Hambly Post:

    Whenever I picture Barbara Hambly I see a fat dirtyblond half-blind lady who has never read a single Star Wars book in her long decrepid life crouched over her keyboard constantly mumbling to her stuffed pet weasle about Leia's snobby Aunt Rouge as she slowly punches keys with her short nubby fingers constantly missing the one she intended, and not really knowing what she's writing.
     
  19. IAmTheDarkSide

    IAmTheDarkSide Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 9, 2002
    Jeez. I can understand not liking a book, but what's with all these personal attacks on the author? That just kinda disgusts me.
     
  20. Fire_Light

    Fire_Light Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Mar 24, 2002
    It disgusts me too, DarkSide. I'm all for criticzing books you don't like, but making fun of someone just to be hurtful just isn't cool and its downright mean.

    Lets put it in perspective folks: she wrote two Star Wars books that you may not have liked, but no one forced you to buy them. Its not the end of the world [face_plain] .
     
  21. Connemara

    Connemara Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 18, 2000
    Barbara Hambly=hopelessly romantic. While romance has it's place, the middle of a SW action novel is not it.

    She could have written pure romance (something she MIGHT have been able to pull off). But she's trying to write about Luke and Callista's passionate love while Luke's being chopped to pieces by brainwashed Tuskens on a huge Eyeball headed to a middle-of-nowhere planet to blow it up cause it used to have Jedi on it.

    Gah

    And POT? I don't even remmeber most of the plot, all I know is Leia is trapped by some crazy guy, a Hutt Jedi, and a gigantic diseased bug. And Daala finds her high school sweetheart.

    Gah again
     
  22. Ana Vitorrian

    Ana Vitorrian Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Mar 2, 1999
    Ms. Hambley's two novels have been two of the novels that I've enjoyed reading and re-reading the most. To me, they are a treasure trove of history into various cultures and characters in the SWEU, (i.e., read with tunnel vision for only Master Plett, or Belsavis, or Alderaan, or Callista, or Nichos Marr, etc.; or read with tunnel vision for only Nam Chorios, or the Tsil Crystals, or Dzym, or the Theran Cult, etc. - there are stories and history there that should open themselves up to the reader!).

    Plot-wise, some aspects of her novels remind me of the "mystery genre" - however, mystery is NOT my strong suit - so I will have weaknesses in my analysis (if I were to elaborate, which I'm not doing much of here. However, in brief, there's a subtle introduction in both her novels as to "where" the antagonist(s) will come from . . . whether a hyped former smuggler friend of Hans OR the unusual return of a long absent plague . . . both are small clues that open into larger clues . . . plays on names like "Plawal" or "Plett's Well" OR isolating the origins of the plague OR ironically, retracing the path of a missing Jedi in search of her destiny . . . the locations open the doors to more deductions by the mains, and then "bang!" - we have our antagonist(s) - but wait, there's more!!!, "who" or "what" has been blurred into the background to "trump the villains", (i.e., Master Plett OR the Tsils/Theran Cult)!!! There is very detailed planning blended into the background of each book originating from secondary characters that may only be referenced in these books, and each level of enlightenment for the reader when reading these books opens the door to seeing these novels in a new light, but one has to have an eye for it! If you don't see it, then you just don't see it.

    There are huge subplots that are occuring "offscreen," with subtle built in clues "as to those subplots" that give them resonance and history:

    In CotJ, Master Plett and the Children of the Jedi have a wonderful background "blurred" into the passage of time on Belsavis from the creation of the Eye of Palpatine TO shortly after the Battle of Yavin - it details their origins, their exodus, their continued protection of Belsavis, their "continued protection of each other" AND their "footprints left behind in the Force"; what makes this even more interesting to me, is that Ms. Hambley has gone to great lengths to show the depths Master Plett went towards saving NOT only the Jedi in his charge, BUT ALSO the inhabitants of Plawal Rift as well. The "future may always be in motion," but Master Plett was pretty right on!!!"

    In PoT, the "smokies" (Tsils) have gone to great lengths - over the span of centuries - to protect the galaxy at large from the Droch and their death seed plague. However, much of their actions is blurred into the pages of the novel. You have to be cerebral about it b/c you cannot "see" the Tsils actions until you "see" the Theran Cult's actions; thus, you have to read with an eye for the "offscreen details" occuring within the text. Just because the "Tsil" don't speak Basic, doesn't mean that they are NOT being heard . . . which should draw the readers attention to the significanse of the Theran Listeners, a subset within the Theran Cult. With Nam Chorios, from one Jedi (and/or Force-sensitive individual of ages past), we had the "message received FROM THE SMOKIES" and thus began the origins of the Theran Cult, and the long, and arduous battle against the Droch - which eventually came to a head in PoT with the deaths of Beldorian the Ruby Eyed, and more significantly, Dzym, the power mad mutated droch.

    With respect to both novels, the primary characters - whether Luke, Han, Leia - still drive the forefront of the action and plot in both of Ms. Hambley's novels, but the background history into her secondary characters as well as the world creation history of her two key planets, Belsavis and Nam Chorios, is some of the best, most intense and well thought out world building and history that I've read in any SW novel.

    Perhaps some r
     
    Sturm Antilles likes this.
  23. Strilo

    Strilo Manager Emeritus star 8 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Aug 6, 2001
    But she's trying to write about Luke and Callista's passionate love while Luke's being chopped to pieces by brainwashed Tuskens on a huge Eyeball headed to a middle-of-nowhere planet to blow it up cause it used to have Jedi on it.


    [face_laugh]

    Man that's funny.
     
  24. Jedi_Ben_Skywalker

    Jedi_Ben_Skywalker Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 19, 2002
    Edit- Could be viewed as to vulgar for the site, as it references illigal substances in the same sentence as an author.
     
  25. Shedao_Shai

    Shedao_Shai Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    May 21, 2001
    I agree with Ana. Barbara Hambly is NOT the worst SW author by far. Roger Macbride Allen's Corellian Trilogy, L Neil Smith's Lando Trilogy, and The Crystal Star make Planet of Twilight look VERY GOOD in comparison. Vonda McIntyre's writing is FAR WORSE than Ms. Hambly's.