Death and Hard Cider (Barbara Hambly, Benjamin January #19)

[sholio]

This book is the best thing that's happened to me in this series since Ben and Shaw had to fight a gator on a rooftop on a house floating in a flood during a hurricane. There is something that has been at the top of my iddy wishlist for these books for probably ten books now, but it was just a fun, iddy fantasy; I never thought she'd actually do it. And she did it! Thank you, Ms. Hambly, I will be wallowing in this for years.


My wishlist: Shaw, terribly hurt, has to recuperate at Ben and Rose's place.
This book: *gloriously, iddily exists*

BUT THERE'S MORE!

- SHAW HAS ADOPTED/BEEN ADOPTED BY A BUNCH OF ORPHANS.

- SHAW HAS AN AWESOME CROSS-DRESSING GUN-TOTING HORSE-RIDING GIRLFRIEND.

Although the Ben POV plot was really enjoyable as usual, I really, really want outtakes from Chez January, in which—while Ben is off doing murder-mystery Ben things—a convalescing Shaw, Rose, a bunch of teenage girls, and presumably also Shaw's awesome cross-dressing girlfriend and, frequently, Hannibal are all bouncing around the Rue Esplanade house together. Honestly, I had kind of wondered if Hambly was ever going to give Shaw more of a personal life than a room in a depressing low-rent boarding house and no apparent friends other than Ben, but even if we didn't see much of it in this book and the entire thing has apparently been happening off-page for several books now, just the idea of Shaw accidentally stumbling into an insta-family of orphans delights me beyond my wildest dreams.

But also the murder plot was really interesting too, full of twists, red herrings, and thematically intriguing complications. I have often tended not to enjoy the appearance of actual historical figures in major roles in these books (I was unimpressed by Poe, for example) but I really enjoyed the Henry Clay subplot in this one, and just generally what this book had to say about cynicism vs. idealism, the reflection of politics in 1840 to politics now, and the struggle to be a moral person in a morally difficult world. Ben is just such a decent, brave, admirable guy. I love him. I love them all.

And the character interactions are simply excellent. Hambly is so good at doing deeply serious, wrenching scenes mixed with humor. I giggled a lot at this Shaw-Hannibal bit:

"I can write it for you," offered Hannibal.

Shaw shook his head. "Needs to be an official request to Captain Tremouille, not to bury the poor bastard's body 'til somebody can have a look at it an' be sure."

"I can write it for you in your handwriting."

"You gonna get yourself in real trouble one of these days, fiddler."

(Hannibal wins the argument and forges his handwriting, by the way.)

And this is a few chapters after Ben idly muses whether Shaw knows about Hannibal's sideline as a forger. Uh, if he didn't before, he does now. But seriously, Ben, bold of you to assume Shaw doesn't know about most of your extracurricular activities, including the Underground Railroad side of it.

Also, Ben's stray bit of narration referring to Shaw as the brother he never had lives in my head rent-free. (I know he already kind of said this in The Shirt on His Back, but in that case it was by way of trying to explain his admittedly weird relationship with Shaw in terms that made sense to the person he was talking to. But this was just so gloriously casual and matter-of-fact.)

I know that I've almost entirely been talking about Shaw, and everyone else was great too, but we haven't had a good Shaw book in a long while now, and this one was just so good. And the plot was excellent, the ambiance was great as always - although it started out slow (though in ways that did turn out to be important later) it was just a really, really good book. The one thing that could possibly have improved this book would be if there had been more of it.

Comments

[sovay]

Death and Hard Cider (Barbara Hambly, Benjamin January #19)

I DIDN'T EVEN HEAR THIS ONE HAD HAPPENED.

[sholio]

It looks like it won't be out in hard copy 'til early June, but it dropped in ebook early! I had preordered it at some point, then forgot until it arrived (delightfully) on my Kindle at the exact time that I really needed something distracting to read. I think it's my favorite one since the Haiti book, definitely one of my top picks in the back half of the series.

[sovay]

I think it's my favorite one since the Haiti book, definitely one of my top picks in the back half of the series.

Oh, excellent. Crimson Angel was my most recent favorite as well, but "recent" was like eight years ago now.

P.S. —a convalescing Shaw, Rose, a bunch of teenage girls, and presumably also Shaw's awesome cross-dressing girlfriend and, frequently, Hannibal are all bouncing around the Rue Esplanade house together.

I mean, I haven't even read the book yet and I want that.

[sholio]

Crimson Angel was my most recent favorite as well, but "recent" was like eight years ago now.

I think you might not love this one quite as hard as I did because I think I'm more of a Shaw aficionado than you are, but it also - like Crimson Angel - felt more to me like the earlier books than the (often somewhat dry) recent books. At the very least, it really deep-dives into Ben's life in New Orleans, which we haven't had a lot of lately.

I may have to write fanfic for this one, if only to fill in the many excellent missing scenes that are suggested but not shown.

[ratcreature]

I haven't read this yet, because the ebook is so expensive and my library doesn't have it yet. I mean, I am in favor of authors getting fairly compensated for their work, but 17.75€ is too much for me for an ebook. I bought the last one and that was the most I had paid for an ebook before, but it wasn't quite this much. :(

[sholio]

Yeah, it is terribly expensive, I agree - in US currency I think it's similar. :( I did it because I love the series that much, but I don't think I would have been willing to spend that much on anything else. Fingers crossed your library gets it soon!

[ratcreature]

I have recommended it for purchase, and sometimes that has worked in the past, but in other cases not. They do have the earlier volumes, but not the newest ones. That's why I grudgingly bought the last one despite the price. It looks like there's some testing going on what the pain point is.

[philomytha]

Oh, this makes me think I need to pick up this series again! I read the first half dozen or so some years ago but found them to be on the edge of too grim for me, but I might want to go back to them again now...

[oracne]

I cannot reeeeeeeeeeead this post because I am parcelling out this series and I am not there yet, aigh!!! COLD BAYOU is next up for me.

[chelseagirl]

Oh that sounds fabulous! I'm three or four books behind, as I'd read a few of them casually and then started in earnest maybe four years ago but there are a lot of them and I read lots of stuff. But that is definitely motivation to catch up.

[sheron]

[My wishlist: Shaw, terribly hurt, has to recuperate at Ben and Rose's place.
This book: *gloriously, iddily exists*
BUT THERE'S MORE!
- SHAW HAS ADOPTED/BEEN ADOPTED BY A BUNCH OF ORPHANS.
- SHAW HAS AN AWESOME CROSS-DRESSING GUN-TOTING HORSE-RIDING GIRLFRIEND.]

Heee! That sounds amazing and exactly for your id :D

[sholio]

Oooh, you're getting close though! These books are just so good.

[sholio]

I looooved this book! The recent ones have been kind of hit or miss for me, but this was pure joy.

[sholio]

It was very Made For Me. :D

[sholio]

I mean, legitimately, some of them are INCREDIBLY grim, but for me at least, they frequently make up for it with some absolutely lovely character scenes. YMMV, though!

[lizbee]

I read it over the weekend, and honestly, Shaw having a cross-dressing girlfriend who is a fair bit younger than him (his age is ambiguous, but he has to be in his late twenties at least, right? Maybe early thirties by now?) is all I ever wanted for him.

(Also I was just glad to be back in New Orleans; I can see the appeal of letting January travel, but I miss Rose and the wider community when he's away.)

[sholio]

Yeah, I think Ben estimated his age as early 20s when he first met him (something like 23 or 24, I think?) so he'd be late 20s/early 30s now - I always forget he's as young as he is. So the age difference isn't *too* big, and she seems to have enough life experience that she'd be a match for him, or at least not outclassed and innocent.

I love that you can see what they would plausibly see in each other. I think Hambly in general is good at doing couples who come across that way, but there's a common failure mode of late-in-series love interests where they just sort of feel thrown together - you spend 15 books or 5 seasons or whatever getting to know a character, and then they end up with someone who doesn't seem like a good fit. But this isn't like that at all. I can easily imagine that they'd have plenty of things to talk about, or just enjoy spending time quietly together doing physical things.

Basically, AWESOME CROSS-DRESSING GIRLFRIEND FOR THE WIN. I'm so delighted by this development.

And yeah, I hope she keeps him in New Orleans for a while! Especially now that Rose really can't plausibly travel due to having the kids and the school. I think the road trip books were more fun when Rose could get in on the adventure, but now it feels kind of sad for her (even though the Ben-Hannibal-Shaw road trips are also fun).

[lizbee]

Especially now that Rose really can't plausibly travel due to having the kids and the school. I think the road trip books were more fun when Rose could get in on the adventure, but now it feels kind of sad for her (even though the Ben-Hannibal-Shaw road trips are also fun).

Right! And The Shirt On His Back is one of my favourites, but I love Rose and I want to stay close to home in general for a while.

(Actually, I think the next most recent book, the New York spiritualism one, was the most problematic for me in that way -- I enjoyed the mystery and the setting, but not how Ben was isolated from everyone he knew. And I think Hambly is aware of that problem, too, in that this latest book has a whole section where he muses that he's only made it this far because he has his NOLA community around him.)

[sholio]

Yeah, I barely slogged through the spiritualism one, and also the ones where he's isolated with the Viellards (who I *do* like as side characters, but not nearly as much as I like Ben interacting with his core support system). I can see her getting bored with the NOLA setting and wanting to do other things after nearly 20 books, but I hope the introduction of Shaw's cute little thing with the Valentines as well as further exploring Catherine Clisson (a character I had ZERO feelings about before, but she's really neat!) means a return to developing the NOLA cast more. Honestly, I would love a book or two not in Ben's POV, which also might help if she's having trouble with the saminess of the books by this point in the series.

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Ok, I'm skipping all the spoilers, but I think I'm contractually obligated as a Floridian to read any book that has people fighting a gator on top of a house during a hurricane. Series noted. I'll add it to the (huge) pile.

[sholio]

I should warn you that the series can be pretty dark - the second book is probably the nadir; it's incredibly bleak and depressing; things get better from there. For me, the dark is balanced out by the characters' love and concern for each other, and the books' general focus on doing the right thing and characters being rewarded for being decent people. And there's a lot of swash and buckle, as in the hurricane-gator book! But it's set in the antebellum south with a mostly black cast, so there's always going to be a lot of real-world badness going on in the background.

It's really good, though! It's one of the few series where I snap up every new book as it comes out.