New Releases by Barbara Hambly

Masked balls, duels and murder: musician, sleuth and free man of color Benjamin January is caught up in a shocking crime in this gripping nineteenth-century mystery set in New Orleans. February, 1841. It’s Carnival season in New Orleans. Free man of color Benjamin January – a surgeon turned piano player, with a talent for attracting trouble – is playing at an opulent masked ball when, little to his surprise, a quarrel breaks out between two guests, and his services are requested at a duel. Young planter Bastien Damoreau has accused a recent arrival to town of passing himself off as white – an insult not to be borne. The duel results in the stranger’s death. But when January examines the body, he’s disturbed to realise that young Damoreau couldn’t possibly be the killer, as the dead man was shot from behind . . . January knows it’s murder, but this is white people’s business, and calling attention to himself is not a risk he can afford to take. So when Detective Abishag Shaw asks if he’ll investigate, he declines – a decision he will later come to regret. Murder in the Trembling Lands by NYT-bestselling author Barbara Hambly is the latest instalment of the critically acclaimed historical mystery series featuring “winning character” Benjamin January, who “nimbly mov[es] through parts of history we should all know better” (The New York Times)

Welcome to Hollywood of the 1920s: a world filled with glamour, fake names . . . and the occasional felony! July, 1924. After nine months of living in Hollywood and working as a companion to her beautiful silent-movie star sister-in-law, young British widow Emma Blackstone is settling into her new role: doctoring film scenarios whenever the regular scenarist is overwhelmed with work, which seems to be most of the time. Shoots for the Western movie Our Tiny Miracle are in full swing, with little seven-year-old Susy Sweetchild playing the lead and acting most professionally. Maybe too professionally, Emma thinks, shocked to the core when the child star is nearly killed in a stunt scene and her mother - former screen siren Selina Sutton - seems only to care that Susy gets the job done. But Emma's concerns only worsen when news reaches her that Susy and her mother have been kidnapped. The ransom note says to keep the cops out of it, so it's up to Emma and Kitty to find them before the unthinkable happens and Emma is forced to rewrite Our Tiny Miracle with a far more tragic ending . . . New York Times bestselling author Barbara Hambly once again brings the glamour and intrigue of Hollywood to life! An unputdownable mystery for fans of female-fronted historical mysteries set in the roaring twenties.

May, 1924. When renowned film director Ernest Zapolya calls Emma Blackstone - companion to Hollywood movie star Kitty Flint - and demands to see Kitty at once, Emma's not surprised. Until, that is, he adds that lives depend on it. Emma and Kitty investigate, and after a shocking discovery, the lives on the line soon include their own...

Explore twenty-four imaginative tales crafted by some of today’s best writers of science fiction and fantasy, all guests on the Aurora Award-winning podcast The Worldshapers during its second year, and including several international bestsellers and winners of every major award in the field, as well as newer authors just beginning what promise to be stellar careers. A woman seeking the power to see the evil hiding within others regrets receiving it. Letters written by a wizard in the past threaten a queen’s reign in the present. Competing for Earth, a human wrestler faces an alien shapeshifter in an interstellar tournament. A guide in Tibet must weigh the good of his people when asked to lead a westerner to the fabled realm of Shangri. An activist imprisoned for illegal genetic modification works with the materials at hand and the threads of the multiverse to make the world—a world, at least—a better place. A demonic agent sent to help a human turns the tables on his summoner. Like the “cabinets of curiosities” created by collectors of the sixteenth century, Shapers of Worlds Volume II displays a varied array of thought-provoking delights: tales of humour and sorrow, darkness and light, and hope and despair that are full of adventure, full of life, and sometimes full of regret. There are stories set in alternate histories, in possible futures, near and far, and in the here-and-now, taking place on Earth, on distant planets, or in fantastic realms. All arise from the innate need of human beings to create, to imagine . . . to shape worlds. Praise for Shapers of Worlds Volume I: “One of the most wide-ranging volumes I’ve encountered in terms of sub-genre. It’s rather like a speculative fiction buffet, offering steampunk, fantasy, military fiction, magic, space opera, post-apocalyptic, hard science fiction, and others . . . Inventive and varied, the collection has a lot to offer for those seeking an interesting, entertaining, and thought-provoking read.” – Lisa Timpf, The Future Fire

Everyone at the family wedding was hoping someone would murder the bride ... The intriguing new Benjamin January mystery. “Don’t go to Cold Bayou, brother ... Nuthin’ good waiting for you there.” New Orleans, 1839. Despite his misgivings, Benjamin January has agreed to play the piano at the wedding of wealthy French Creole landowner Veryl St-Chinian. All is not well, for the marriage of 67-year-old, profoundly infatuated Uncle Veryl to an 18-year-old Irish tavern-slut spells potential disaster for everyone in the inter-married Viellard and St-Chinian clans. But the old man is determined to marry Miss Ellie Trask, and nothing will stand in his way. On the isolated plantation of Cold Bayou where the ceremony is to take place, tension is rife even before the body is discovered in the woods behind the dower house, its throat cut. A yet more disturbing turn of events sees January himself accused of the crime...

"Cuando la Gruta de Ylferdun es ocupada por Morkeleb el Negro, solo el joven e ingenuo Gareth se atreve a adentrarse en las lejanas Tierras del Invierno en busca del Vencedor de Dragones"--Cover.

DESTINADOS A CONVERTIRSE EN LEYENDA O MORIR EN EL INTENTO. Vencer al dragón es tal vez el título más conocido de Barbara Hambly, la aclamada autora de fantasía que ha sido nominada y galardonada con los principales premios del género. Cuando el gran dragón Morkeleb se apodera de la capital de Bel, aterrorizando a las Tierras del Sur, solo el joven Gareth, enviado por el rey, se atreve a viajar al inhóspito norte en busca del único hombre que puede acabar con él, John Aversin, Vencedor de Dragones: la única persona viva que ha logrado enfrentarse a un dragón y sobrevivir para contarlo. Sin embargo, ha pasado mucho tiempo desde entonces, la realidad no tiene por qué ser igual a lo que narran las baladas y Aversin no es el joven héroe que Gareth esperaba. Aun así, es la única esperanza que tienen. A cambio de la promesa del rey de enviar ayuda a las Tierras de Invierno, acosada por bandidos, Aversin acepta intentar de nuevo la hazaña, acompañado por Jenny, su compañera, una hechicera a medio enseñar. Pero cuando llegan a la corte, nada es como esperaban. Porque Gareth no es un mero noble, el rey está esclavizado por un poder profundamente malvado que busca el control total de la tierra y el reino se desmorona. Tal vez el dragón que fueron llevados a matar es el menor de sus enemigos... Reseñas: «El libro que me convirtió en escritor de fantasía.» Brandon Sanderson «Vencer al dragón es alquimia en alto nivel y confirma el lugar de Hambly como una de las mejores autoras de fantasía.» Locus

Benjamin January is forced to travel to Haiti to seek his family’s lost treasure, in order to save everything he holds dear. When Jefferson Vitrack – the white half-brother of Benjamin January’s wife - turns up on January’s doorstep in the summer of 1838 claiming he has discovered a clue to the whereabouts of the family’s lost treasure, January has no hesitation about refusing to help look for it. For the treasure lies in Haiti, the island that was once France’s most profitable colony – until the blood-chilling repression practiced there by the whites upon their slaves triggered a savage rebellion. The world’s only Black Republic still looks with murderous mistrust upon any strangers who might set foot there, and January is in no hurry to go. But when Vitrack is murdered, and attempts are made on January’s wife and himself, he understands that he has no choice. He must seek the treasure himself, to draw the unknown killers into the open, a bloody trail that leads first to Cuba, then to Haiti, and finally to the secret that lies buried with the accursed gold.

When James Asher's daughter is kidnapped by a Master Vampire, the stakes could not be higher. When James Asher and his wife Lydia's baby daughter Miranda is kidnapped by the Master Vampire of London, the stakes are high: blindly follow the Master Vampire's instructions, keep out of the way of the human networks that serves the vampires, destroy the interloper who seeks to seize control of the London Nest, and find the key to the Nest's tortuous inner workings: The Book of the Kindred of Darkness. Even with the vampire Don Simon Ysidro on their side, there's no guarantee that anything - or anyone - is who or what they appear to be. Nor is there any certainty that they'll see their child again - or survive the experience themselves

Ein neuer Todesstern Gemeinsam mit Han Solo und Chewbacca erforscht Prinzessin Leia den Planeten Belsavis, auf dem einst die Jedi Zuflucht vor dem Imperator suchten. Doch niemand ist von dort je zurückgekehrt. Währenddessen wird Luke Skywalker von mysteriösen Träumen zu einem Asteroidenfeld geleitet, in dem er eine gefährliche Waffe aus den Tagen des Imperiums entdeckt: Plapatines Auge kann es an Zerstörungskraft durchaus mit dem Todesstern aufnehmen. Seit dreißig Jahren hält der Geist der Jedi Callista die Programmierung in Schach - doch nun droht der Computer, sich gegen die junge Frau durchzusetzen und sein zerstörerisches Programm in Gang zu setzen - und den Planeten Belsavis zu vernichten.

Etwas gelangt an Bord der Enterprise! Die Bewohner von Elcidar Beta III leben als Sammler und dulden keinerlei Technik oder Hilfe von außen. Doch nun droht ihnen eine Hungerkatastrophe. Eine Gruppe von Föderationswissenschaftlern hat erste Kontakte zu den Eingeborenen aufgebaut. Doch als die Enterprise mit der Xenologin Helen Gordon an Bord eintrifft, wollen die hartgesottenen Traditionalisten jede Einmischung verhindern. Und als Captain Kirk nach seinem Besuch auf dem Planeten auf die Enterprise zurückbeamt, scheint irgendetwas mit ihm an Bord gelangt zu sein. Seltsame Spukphänomene suchen das Schiff heim, auch der Captain verhält sich sonderbar. Und dann wird ein Mordanschlag auf Dr. Gordon verübt ...

When the Master Vampire of London kidnaps James and Miranda Asher's baby daughter, the two of them must carry out the undead being's nefarious instructions if they are ever going to see her again.

"Hambly brings back to life a world where Congressmen obliviously pass chained men without a glance, forcing her readers to wonder painfully with January, "Jesus, where are you now?"" - Publishers Weekly Starred Review Benjamin January's search for a missing man takes him into a dark world filled with grave robbers and slave stealers. New Orleans, 1838. When Benjamin January suddenly finds that his services playing piano at extravagant balls held by the city's wealthy are no longer required, he ends up agreeing to accompany sugar planter Henri Viellard and his young wife, Chloë, on a mission to Washington to find a missing friend. Plunged into a murky world, it soon becomes clear that while it is very possible the Viellards' friend is dead, his enemies are very much alive - and ready to kill anyone who gets in their way.

In one book, a collection of tales that include the sequel to The Sign of Four, a visit to the lost world of Professor Challenger, tales of adventures when Holmes teams up with Arsene Lupin, Lawrence of Arabia, Calamity Jane, Sexton Blake, Harry Houdini, The Thinking Machine, Dr. Thorndyke, Aleister Crowley, Colonel Savage.

Five years after defeating the Dark Ones, the embattled inhabitants of the once-great Keep of Dare face a yet more deadly foe. An icy-cold force was spreading across the northlands, spawning strange creatures that killed everything in their grisly path . . . Archmage Ingold Inglorion believed the source of this monstrous evil lay in the decadent lands to the south. With him traveled Gil Patterson, the scholar-warrior from Earth who had forsaken her own universe for love of the mage. Determined to aid him in his quest, she was cursed to become the instrument of his death. Ingold''s apprentice Rudy Solis was left behind, the sole wizard standing between the Keep of Dare and the nightmare creatures besieging it. Rudy struggled tirelessly with wavering magic to ward off the virulent attacks of the ice mage''s minions. But when someone attacked the widowed queen--the woman he loved--Rudy was forced to plumb the ultimate secret locked in the black crystal heart of the Keep of Dare . . . and so decide the fate of the world.

While chaos reigned in the Eastern Lands, the Keep of Dare stood as a bastion against war and bandits and the spawn of unnatural sorceries. Then twin blows rocked the citadel: the fearsome Alketch army mounted siege, even as young Prince Tir was snatched from the heart of the Keep. Behind the terror was the depraved, hook-handed general Vair na-Chandros. He had learned that the royal child possessed forbidden wisdom: a secret with which the bloodthirsty Vair intended to conquer the world. One single man posed a threat to Vair's vaunting ambition: the legendary warrior known as the Icefalcon. Banished by his own people and scorned as a barbarian by others, only he could hope to free the boy from Vair's clutches. With his sister Cold Death--a sorcerer whose magic was as sharp as her tongue--the Icefalcon embarked on a dangerous mission of rescue and redemption. Braving nightmare demons and the endless hordes of Vair's inhuman soldiers, he shadowed Vair and his small captive beyond the reaches of the known world. And when the boy led Vair to the forgotten Keep of the Shadow at the End of Time, the Icefalcon would face his greatest battle . . . for his prince, for his honor, and for all eternity.

It''s 1911. War is coming, and according to one of the vampires of St. Petersburg, the Kaiser is trying to recruit vampires. James Asher, Oxford don and formerly on His Majesty''s Secret Service, is forced to team up again with his vampire partner Don Simon Ysidro for a journey to the subarctic Russian capital. Are they on the trail of a rogue vampire with a plan to achieve the power to walk in daylight? Asher wonders. Or is Ysidro''s real agenda to seek the woman he once loved? . . .

An idealistic young prince convinces an aging warrior and a struggling witch to help him kill the dragon that is terrorizing his kingdom As a vicious dragon stalks the Southlands, Crown Prince Gareth ventures to the forbidding North in search of the only man who can kill it. He is Lord Aversin, the Dragonsbane, whose dragon-slaying days have won him renown across the land. But when Gareth finds Lord Aversin, he discovers the mighty hero is squat and bespectacled, the ruler of a mud-village who admits that he killed the dragon not with a lance, but with ignoble poison. Still, he''ll have to do. Gareth and Aversin set off in company with Jenny Waynest, a witch with great ambitions but disappointingly puny powers—a ragtag crew destined to become legendary, or die in the attempt. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author''s personal collection.

From a New York Times–Bestselling author: An apprentice wizard must fight to escape a world he doesn''t understand: 1940 Germany. When the wizard Jaldis heard the cry from beyond the Void, telling of a world where magic was dead and begging for his aid, he and his apprentice, Rhion, went to help. Crossing the Void takes all of their strength, and when Rhion awakes on the other side, he learns that the task is beyond them. Jaldis is dead, and the portal home gone with him. Now he is trapped in a place called Earth, in a nation beset from all sides by its enemies. The men who called him here need a wizard to save them, and though Rhion is but a novice, he will have to do. He may even find a way home, but only if he can find a way to serve this mysterious empire that they call the Third Reich. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author''s personal collection.

A California medieval scholar is pulled into a far-off magical world—and a fight to save mankind—in this novel by a New York Times–bestselling author. As a student of medieval history, Gil Patterson is a woman familiar with dark stories. She knows well the Crusades, the Black Death, and the other horrors of the Middle Ages, but it is another kind of atrocity that has begun to haunt her dreams. She sees forces of evil assaulting a beleaguered kingdom, whose kind people are on the brink of annihilation, and awakes each morning in a cold sweat. Gil dismisses the dreams until a wizard appears in her apartment. He has crossed into her dimension, passing through the fraying fabric of the universe, to ask her help. For mankind to survive he must protect an infant prince, whom he plans to hide in Gil''s world. The student of history is about to get much closer to evil than she ever imagined. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author''s personal collection.

A "tense and nerve-wracking" adventure in the epic fantasy trilogy from the New York Times–bestselling author of The Time of the Dark (Tor.com). Once upon a time, Gil and Rudy lived simple lives. Until they met Ingold, she was an ordinary PhD candidate and he was a drifter, whiling away his life riding motorcycles under the California sun. But wizards have a way of complicating things. Ingold brought them across the Void, where an evil known as the Dark threatened to devour civilization whole. Civilization''s hopes rested on an infant prince, and to protect him Gil and Rudy had to draw on newfound powers—she as a warrior, and he as a wizard. With Ingold''s help they escaped the Dark, and led a hardy band of survivors to a far-away keep, where humanity could be safe for a time. But now that time is past, and there is nowhere to hide from the Dark. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author''s personal collection.

The bestselling author''s epic fantasy trilogy comes to a dramatic end. The "cold, tense, creeping dread lasts right up until the final confrontation" (Tor.com). Since the Dark Ones returned, the world has been laid to waste. The land''s wizards have been slaughtered, its cities destroyed, and its people scattered in terror, and few have witnessed more of the destruction than Rudy and Gil—two ordinary Californians who found their way across the Void, and took up arms in defense of a strange and magical world. She learned the ways of war, while he found within himself the powers of a great wizard. Both of them will need all their strength to survive this final challenge. Ingold, the master wizard, has devised a spell to hide the user from the deathly stare of the Dark, and he intends to use it to strike at their very heart. Finally, Rudy, Gil, and the rest of mankind''s survivors will take the offensive, bringing an end to this terrible war, for better or for worse. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author''s personal collection.

An aging wizard and his apprentice venture into a world where magic has died, hoping to save it before the same fate befalls their own Jaldis does not believe it at first. When the old wizard—blind, tongueless, able to see and speak through magic alone—peers into the Void between dimensions, he sees something terrible: a world where magic is dead, and whose inhabitants scream for someone to rescue them. Such a place must be studied, for if it is possible to kill magic, then that terrible fate could threaten his own world, too. With the help of his apprentice, Rhion, the wizard prepares for the treacherous crossing. To make the journey, they must withstand the hatred that their own world has for magic—a powerful force that the ignorant would wipe out if they could. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author''s personal collection.

From a New York Times–bestselling author: A wizard must return from his Earthly exile when his lover, a computer programmer, is kidnapped by an otherworldly evil. Joanna Sheraton is in love with a wizard. Once an ordinary Californian computer programmer, her life was upended when she was first taken across the Void to a world of magic, where an evil mage threatened to destroy that world and ours. With the help of Antryg, a brilliant wizard who quickly stole her heart, she learned to navigate that strange other land and saved the universe from destruction. When the sinister king sentenced Joanna and her lover to death, they fled back to Earth, to live quietly under the California sun. But their troubles have followed them. A stranger dressed in wizard''s garb kidnaps Joanna, and Antryg gives pursuit back across the Void. What he finds is a world once again in peril, and he must give aid to the Wizard''s Council that condemned him if he is ever to see his love again. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author''s personal collection.

New York Times –bestselling author: After a premonition of death, a young wizard-in-training attempts to stop her sister''s wedding. It''s normal for a young girl to be jealous of her sister''s impending wedding, and Kyra is jealous indeed. A plain looking young magic student whose incipient wizardly abilities have done nothing to attract the attentions of the boys of her town, she is not surprised to learn that her sister has caught the eye of one of the city''s wealthiest merchants. But she is alarmed by some of the signs that are coming up in her prognostication lessons. Water turns to blood, the death card haunts her tarot practice, and finally she has a specific vision: that her sister will die the day she takes her vows. Using every trick in her small magic arsenal, Kyra attempts to disrupt the wedding, going up against a force more powerful than any magic: an impatient bride. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author''s personal collection.

A Hollywood diva. A Chinese curse. A suspense-filled fantasy from the New York Times–bestselling author "who can write well in any genre" (Charlaine Harris). It is 1923, and silent film reigns in Hollywood. Of all the starlets, none is more beloved than Chrysanda Flamande, a diva as brilliant as she is difficult to manage. Handling her falls to Norah, widow of Chrysanda''s dead brother. She has always done her job well, but she was never equipped to deal with murder. When a violent killing shocks Chrysanda''s entourage, and other weird happenings swiftly follow, Norah begins to suspect that some strange power is stalking the star. In Chinatown she receives warning that a curse has been placed on the actress as vengeance for wearing a sacred amulet in one of her films—and this curse could mean death for all who surround her. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author''s personal collection.

From the New York Times–bestselling author: A vampire alliance may turn the Thames blood red in "one of the best vampire novels of the decade" ( Booklist). After a career in her Majesty's secret service, James Asher's quiet London retirement was shattered when the immortal, Don Simon Ysidro, solicited his help, ushering James and his physician wife, Lydia, into the vampire underworld. But now it is Lydia who needs Ysidro's assistance. Her husband is going it alone on the trail of an Austrian spy who is forging a potentially catastrophic alliance with the undead—a secret coalition that has unwittingly lured James into very mortal danger. Lydia can't let that happen. She and Ysidro embark on their own pursuit that snakes across the continent from London to Vienna and finally to Constantinople, where an elaborate power struggle between the living and the dead has just begun. It is one that is plunging all of them into the heart of a terrifying conspiracy—with the fate of the entire British Empire at stake. Following Those Who Hunt the Night, the second book in the James Asher series "captures both the subtle ambiance of turn-of-the-century political intrigue and the even more baroque pathways of the human and the inhuman heart [with] its rich atmosphere and vibrant characters" ( Library Journal). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's personal collection.

A novel of sword and sorcery from the "fabulously talented" New York Times–bestselling author of The Witches of Wenshar (Charlaine Harris). For years, Sun Wolf and his gang of cutthroats were the most feared mercenaries in the land. When Sun Wolf learned he could work magic, he and his lieutenant—the fearsome Amazon Starhawk—left the gang behind so that he could learn to harness his new powers, and his men went their own way. A year later, the old crew reaches out to Sun Wolf for his help. A string of rotten luck has befallen their latest campaign, and they have begun to suspect a curse. Their arrows break; their food rots; their tunnels cave in. They have heard rumors of Sun Wolf's magical abilities, and beg for his help. But when he goes after whatever is targeting his men, he finds himself up against the deadliest force he has ever encountered. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's personal collection.

A computer programmer must rescue an imprisoned wizard to save the universe in this sequel to The Silent Tower from the New York Times–bestselling author. There was a time when Joanna Sheraton knew nothing of the Void. She was an ordinary computer programmer, toiling in a cubicle in air-conditioned Southern California comfort, unaware that sinister forces had penetrated her universe. But from across the interdimensional divide, an evil mage had put in motion a scheme for eternal life, by transferring himself into a computer that feeds on Earth's life force. Called upon to help by the wizard Antryg, Joanna could do nothing more than delay. At the end of her first sojourn across the Void, Antryg was imprisoned and their task seemed hopeless. Now she must depart from Earth once more, to rescue Antryg and save humanity. She is friendless, and the dark mage's forces hound her every step. But a good hacker is not easily deterred. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's personal collection.

A lush and haunting novel of a city steeped in decadent pleasures . . . and of a man, proud and defiant, caught in a web of murder and betrayal. It is 1833. In the midst of Mardi Gras, Benjamin January, a Creole physician and music teacher, is playing piano at the Salle d''Orleans when the evenings festivities are interrupted—by murder. Ravishing Angelique Crozat, a notorious octoroon who travels in the city''s finest company, has been strangled to death. With the authorities reluctant to become involved, Ben begins his own inquiry, which will take him through the seamy haunts of riverboatmen and into the huts of voodoo-worshipping slaves. But soon the eyes of suspicion turn toward Ben—for, black as the slave who fathered him, this free man of color is still the perfect scapegoat. . . . Praise for A Free Man of Color “A smashing debut. Rich and exciting with both substance and spice.”—Star Tribune, Minneapolis “A sparkling gem.”—King Features Syndicate “An astonishing tour de force.”—Margaret Maron “Superb.”—Drood Review of Mystery “A darned good murder mystery.”—USA Today