Rating: 
Summary: Don't bother
Review: Although I thouroughly enjoyed the 1st book in the series, Dragonsbane, I would have preferred that I had not bothered with the next 2, DragonShadow & this. I doubt I'll bother with the next and there has to be a next - this one stops with out even coming close to answering any of the questions it raises. I'm afraid I no longer even CARE if everyone dies as is implied. If you MUST read it, borrow it from the library & don't waste your money on this disjointed, painful half book. By the time it was finished (and I use that term only because there were no more pages) I was hoping they would just kill off all the people in the book to get the torture over with. I am (or should I say was) a fan of Ms. Hambly but doubt I will bother in the future.
Rating:
Summary: Hopeless Endings
Review: Barbara Hambly has a gritty style that I adore. Even this book's dreary Hell of Walls techno-world is an interesting addition and commentary on our lives. Her characters, John and Jenny, are regular people just trying to do the right thing in impossibly difficult situations. I admire their courage, their sense of humor, their will to do the right thing. I found myself swept up in their adventure and wanting to help. But at the end of Knight of the Demon Queen, Hambly leaves those characters in hopeless situations. I wish I had known there was another book in the series before I finished this one. As it was, this book left me horribly depressed and feeling it was a mistake to read it.
Rating:
Summary: Dragon's bane descends to the pits
Review: By the end of this book, I believed that was it. Hundreds of pages of dreadful led me to the conclusion that the end is the end. All the heroes are dead, good people and good deeds are wasted against an uncaring world.
Rating:
Summary: Enough already
Review: Dragonsbane is one of my favorite books. Jenny and John are wonderful characters, strong, but not too strong, noble and believable. Dragonshadow confused me a bit the first time around, but a second, slower read put things to right. Knight of the Demon Queen started out darker than the other two and tended to stay that way. I enjoyed further development of Jenny and John's children. Their relationship is heartwrenching: with John wondering if the things Amayon(the demon that once possessed Jenny) did with Jenny's body were with her will and Jenny suspecting that her husband dreams of Aohila, the beautiful, deadly Demon Queen. When disaster strikes, John has no choice but to become Aohila's knight, for the safety of his world and the ones he loves. His narrations are occaisionally hilarious. Especially when interacting with his irksome demon guide and Aohila. John and his jokes keep this novel from being totally dark. On his journey, he ends up with demon bunnies and cyberpunk gang wars. From the wannabe wizards in the Hell of Walls, he gains new understanding of Jenny's plight with her lost magic...a most satisfying development. But upon return to home, things go utterly downhill. Jenny, struggling with loss of her magic and the demon Amayon, doesn't want the responsibility of turning away the present disaster. Her two sons are getting in all sorts of trouble and one very dangerous demon might not have gone behind that Burning Mirror... And back in Belmarie, Lady Trey just isn't looking like herself. I really liked this book and I think anyone really liking this series will, too. I would certainly suggest reading it. Just watch out for that last line! That was absolutely criminal...ending the book there. That there might not be a sequel is a horrifying thought. I certainly hope it's not true.
Rating: 
Summary: Great story...but...
Review: Dragonsbane is one of my favorite books. Jenny and John are wonderful characters, strong, but not too strong, noble and believable. Dragonshadow confused me a bit the first time around, but a second, slower read put things to right. Knight of the Demon Queen started out darker than the other two and tended to stay that way. I enjoyed further development of Jenny and John's children. Their relationship is heartwrenching: with John wondering if the things Amayon(the demon that once possessed Jenny) did with Jenny's body were with her will and Jenny suspecting that her husband dreams of Aohila, the beautiful, deadly Demon Queen. When disaster strikes, John has no choice but to become Aohila's knight, for the safety of his world and the ones he loves. His narrations are occaisionally hilarious. Especially when interacting with his irksome demon guide and Aohila. John and his jokes keep this novel from being totally dark. On his journey, he ends up with demon bunnies and cyberpunk gang wars. From the wannabe wizards in the Hell of Walls, he gains new understanding of Jenny's plight with her lost magic...a most satisfying development. But upon return to home, things go utterly downhill. Jenny, struggling with loss of her magic and the demon Amayon, doesn't want the responsibility of turning away the present disaster. Her two sons are getting in all sorts of trouble and one very dangerous demon might not have gone behind that Burning Mirror... And back in Belmarie, Lady Trey just isn't looking like herself. I really liked this book and I think anyone really liking this series will, too. I would certainly suggest reading it. Just watch out for that last line! That was absolutely criminal...ending the book there. That there might not be a sequel is a horrifying thought. I certainly hope it's not true.
Rating:
Summary: Enough already
Review: Dragonsbane was good. Dragonshadow was not. Knight of the Demon Queen is an unsatisfying litany of horrors committed by demons. This book could be the end of a trilogy (at least it doesn't say "to be continued" like Dragonshadow) or it could be the third portion of a tetrology. But, like its predecessor, it is depressing and has either a sad ending or an ambiguous ending that allows for another sequel. The series should have ended with Dragonsbane. Ms Hambly: Please do better. You have been on my preferred author list, but with the last two books in this series, that position is in danger...
Rating:
Summary: To Hell and Back Again
Review: During the past few years, Hambly has spent much of her time sending her characters to hell, sometimes figuratively (in her mystery series (Graveyard Dust, et al)) and sometimes literally, as in this series. Decades ago, many characters might have experienced such a journey, but most of them would emerge unscathed, except for the rare one such as Frodo. A more recent trend is to see how much damage, physically, emotionally, and mentally, a character can endure and yet return. While not completely dark as that, the separate travels of Jenny and John are something you would rather stay home and read about rather than experience yourself. The hells include the usual physical difficulties, but also the ones of figuring out who to trust, how to survive in different environments, and having to worry about personal survival, the survival of those that you love, and at the same time worrying about the future of the land that you live in. I cannot recommend that anyone start the series with this book. Knowledge of what happened before is vital. As it is, since it has been months since the previous book, trying to separate out the various minor characters and determining whether they are important enough to worry about and why, is very difficult. On the other hand, Hambly brings us, among her hells, a new world, a mix of Blade Runner with the cities of Walter Jon Williams, a place that is not our own, but one that might be one of our own future hells. That piece is very well done. I hope that Hambly can bring about a conclusion of all this in the next book. Besides the concerns we have for the main characters, the lights are going out across the land, even without this plague of demons. While I do not expect a solution to all the problems facing Jenny and John, some more immediate than others, it would be good to allow them some peace and a chance to regroup.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointment
Review: Frankly, the book is a wash. I am a huge fan of Hambly and this time she left us in limbo. No wrap up on this book and I ordered it as soon as it was available. Now I wait to see how the darn thing ends - if she ends it in the next one. This was a commercial ploy - leave everyone hanging so they have to buy the next book to complete the yarn. At ~$20/pop - lots of money for the publishers. We fans deserve better than this.
Rating:
Summary: Yuck!!!
Review: Having read both the previous books in this series I really wasn't looking for much but I did want to see if the characters were redeemed any this time around. What a mistake where Dragonsbane was great and Dragonshadow was mediocre this latest is the dregs. Not a good thing happened to any of the characters and I really feel that Ms. Hambly could have come up with some sort of ending. Being left hanging when all the main characters appear to be dead is just nonsense. I don't see any reason to stick around for a sequel. As another reviewer wrote. This is Hell how could it get any worse!
Rating:
Summary: Yuck!!!
Review: Having read both the previous books in this series I really wasn't looking for much but I did want to see if the characters were redeemed any this time around. What a mistake where Dragonsbane was great and Dragonshadow was mediocre this latest is the dregs. Not a good thing happened to any of the characters and I really feel that Ms. Hambly could have come up with some sort of ending. Being left hanging when all the main characters appear to be dead is just nonsense. I don't see any reason to stick around for a sequel. As another reviewer wrote. This is Hell how could it get any worse!
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