Rating: 
Summary: Hambly shows she can think around corners . . .
Review: Where the original Dragonsbane was a far more traditional novel of fantasy, Knight of the Demon Queen has blazed a new path in fantasy AND science fiction in general. Her world in these books has become even darker, and introduces a new environment we never expected to stumble upon reading a series originally based on dragons.
My love of Aohila continues in this book, along with the demon Amayon. Like I observed in the previous review of Dragonshadow, Morkeleb continues to be less significant, but hambly has built such a rich world since the original book we can allow this.
Is the book dark? Yes. Is it innovative? Yes. Worth reading? Yes . . . but be sure to have a copy of Dragonstar close by.
Rating: 
Summary: Very different
Review: Yeah, the characters are sort of being tortured, but that's what makes the books so original: it's not the typical 'happy ending' fantasy book. Also, the heroes are not neccesarily dead, for each one there is the (slim) possibility of escape -- but what's the point in a world being controlled by demons? Everything is terrible, so you don't get that instant gratification. This series is the only truly dark and somewhat depressing fantasy series I've ever read. Sure, other series can feature demons and bad things happening to the main characters, but they always win in the end. I'm not quite sure what Hambly was thinking with the "Hell of Walls" (cyberpunk) section. I certainly found it interesting, albeit a little confusing. In conclusion, if you want to read a fantasy series which dares to defy the traditional cliches of young, innocent heroes and happy endings, read this.
Rating: 
Summary: Convention and realism duke it out; convention goes down
Review: You can see from the previous reviews that what we're facing here is one of the perennial problems of literature: the struggle between realism and convention. Convention dictates that virtually every text not written by naturalist authors (and even some of those) contain some suggestion of redemption--and, despite the requisite scorn for convention we feel we ought to display, there are good reasons for it, including the fact that without finding or creating some redemption in their lives, neither readers nor characters can bear them. Realism, though... I hate to be a cynic, but redemption's not always available, and, as Ursula Le Guin pointed out a long time ago, sometimes despair (or clinical depression) is no more than realism. *Knight of the Demon Queen* leans in the direction of realism; it suggests that maybe you can't put your life back together after losing its purpose, that fractured marriages maybe can't be salvaged, and that not only are there no happy endings, but there may be, simply, no endings. Everyone's expecting a sequel, but I'm not so sure--look what happened with *The Magicians of Night.* Anyway, as an adherent of fantasy that's not too fantastic, I can't help but respect Hambly's effort to create it (and she still has the best eye for detail in the business, or very nearly.) On the other hand...I'm not sure I can bear this much realism, either. My spouse bought me *Knight* hot off the presses; I read it in eight hours, and was (especially) depressed for at least a week. And, if it's not too presumptuous, I wonder about Hambly, what's happening to make *Knight* and *Graveyard Dust* and all so very bleak. Is she just tired of the convention? Tired of characters who survive what none of us could? Or is she unable to believe in redemption anymore, and so unable to serve it up for us? Even Le Guin has reportedly said, in an interview, that while you have to keep hoping, it's very hard. Maybe it's too hard for Hambly, and if so, I doubt I could blame her. In all, it's hard to know what to recommend, or how long one can bear the torment of characters one's fond of. I plan to keep trying, but I expect I'm as much a slave to convention and hope (false or otherwise) as the next reader, and will continue to hope for hope (false or otherwise.)
Rating:
Summary: Go to Hell; and then ...
Review: You'll never get what you expect from a Barbara Hambly book. Perhaps this is why her books haven't degenerated into predictable series fiction. This is a case in point, as the continuance of her series seems likely to kill every character in it, or at least destroy them in other ways. John the Dragonslayer remains a vivid, honest character caught between his personal life and the open need of the starving and bandit-plagued Winterlands who depend upon Lord John to defend them. His mate Jenny is torn between her need for magic and her desire for a human life, and in the first book DRAGONSLAYER she found she needed both. DRAGONSHADOW saw Jenny possessed by a demon, whose addictive magic made her betray everything she loved and whose defeat left her a scarred, despondent cripple, yearning for the demon's touch. KNIGHT OF THE DEMON QUEEN drags John and Jenny behind it screaming into all the Hells that exist or that men can make for each other. She's rough on her characters, our Barbara. And on the basis of this book, I hereby promote Ms. Hambly to goddess, since the last thing I expected was a cyberpunk episode in a 'Dragon' book. I wish it was longer, but I'm glad I didn't have to wait 2 years for it; evens out in my opinion. But maybe I just can't resist a world in which heroic deeds tend to be done by men who wear glasses ...
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