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Having now read the Benjamin January series through "Dead Water"...
... I am now TRAGICALLY bereft of more Benjamin January books until "Dead & Buried" gets here from Amazon (and then I will be done, kaput, no more at all). But there are two as-yet-unreleased new books to look forward to, and the next one - Amazon's pre-order page says it'll be out in June 2011 - made me practically explode from squee when I read the teaser copy. (Let's just say it looks like it'll have lots and lots of a character I've missed in the previous couple of books.)
I could just go on and on about how much I adore this series. I'm still in awe at how well Hambly balances the historical realities of the time period she's writing about (particularly since most of the protagonists are free and black in the Deep South) with swashing and buckling and Murder Most Foul and pirates and all the other fun stuff that one wants from an adventure novel. And the characters -- eeeeeee. These books have found so many of my fangirl buttons and mashed them down SO HARD. I can't pick a favorite character because they're ALL my favorite at different times, and they all get to be awesome.
(Though I must admit Rose is the one that makes me squeak and go ROSE HOW ARE YOU SO AWESOME the most, mostly because she is just so cheerfully herself, in open defiance of everything that a woman in her place and time is supposed to be, particularly a woman of color - she's a soft-spoken geeky schoolmistress who quotes Greek philosophers, and she ALSO has her own set of lock picks, and loves to blow stuff up, and pretends to be her "evil twin sister" in a femme fatale dress, and can shoot a gun and ride a horse and herd cattle and be adorably snarky with her boyfriend and OH ROSE HOW ARE YOU SO AWESOME.)
(And, having said that about Rose, I find it completely hilarious and adorable how the series' resident damsel-in-distress is TOTALLY one of the male characters - and one of the only major white characters in the series, to boot. He's been poisoned on multiple occasions, drugged, kidnapped, tied up and left to die in burning buildings MORE THAN ONCE, framed for murder, thrown down a well, nearly sacrificed on an Aztec altar ... the only reason why he hasn't been tied to the train tracks, I suspect, is because they don't have railroads yet.)
Ahem.
At the same time, I'm kind of glad that I can now recover a little bit of my brain for writing again, because these books are so big and intense and rich in detail that they've been eating up huge chunks of my time as well as my mental real estate. And I have novels to write in 2011!
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comments.
I could just go on and on about how much I adore this series. I'm still in awe at how well Hambly balances the historical realities of the time period she's writing about (particularly since most of the protagonists are free and black in the Deep South) with swashing and buckling and Murder Most Foul and pirates and all the other fun stuff that one wants from an adventure novel. And the characters -- eeeeeee. These books have found so many of my fangirl buttons and mashed them down SO HARD. I can't pick a favorite character because they're ALL my favorite at different times, and they all get to be awesome.
(Though I must admit Rose is the one that makes me squeak and go ROSE HOW ARE YOU SO AWESOME the most, mostly because she is just so cheerfully herself, in open defiance of everything that a woman in her place and time is supposed to be, particularly a woman of color - she's a soft-spoken geeky schoolmistress who quotes Greek philosophers, and she ALSO has her own set of lock picks, and loves to blow stuff up, and pretends to be her "evil twin sister" in a femme fatale dress, and can shoot a gun and ride a horse and herd cattle and be adorably snarky with her boyfriend and OH ROSE HOW ARE YOU SO AWESOME.)
(And, having said that about Rose, I find it completely hilarious and adorable how the series' resident damsel-in-distress is TOTALLY one of the male characters - and one of the only major white characters in the series, to boot. He's been poisoned on multiple occasions, drugged, kidnapped, tied up and left to die in burning buildings MORE THAN ONCE, framed for murder, thrown down a well, nearly sacrificed on an Aztec altar ... the only reason why he hasn't been tied to the train tracks, I suspect, is because they don't have railroads yet.)
Ahem.
At the same time, I'm kind of glad that I can now recover a little bit of my brain for writing again, because these books are so big and intense and rich in detail that they've been eating up huge chunks of my time as well as my mental real estate. And I have novels to write in 2011!
This entry is also posted at http://friendshipper.dreamwidth.org/305539.html with
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These are the Benjamin January mysteries by Barbara Hambly. I just linked
The main (title) character is a black surgeon and musician in 1830s New Orleans. (I must point out that before I started reading these books, I had very little interest in New Orleans, but the books make it come so alive that I've ended up looking up more information on all the various historical tidbits that are thrown into the books. Kind of like Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin books did for me with the Napoleonic Wars.) The books are technically murder mysteries, but there's a definite element of comedy-of-manners about the social interactions between different groups in New Orleans society, with a side order of action/adventure (there's one book, for example, that's about a search for a lost pirate treasure in the Mississippi River delta, complete with actual pirates and a hurricane in the middle of it all).
But mostly, for me, it's about the characters: Ben, his family, and his friends. The characters are always rescuing each other from peril and throwing themselves into danger for the sake of the people they love. The potential for h/c is greater than what you actually get, but this definitely improves as the books go along. :D
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Hee! This sounds like so much fun. If these books weren't already on my reading list thanks to your other posts, they would be now. :D
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And your suggestion of looking at the library took me aback, because... apparently I forgot they have books there, and let people read them. I had just printed out my application for a library card to see if I could find it at the nearest branch, aaaand bizarrely a Kindle edition of the first three books just showed up for pre-order on Amazon. Apparently pressing the "I want this book on Kindle!" button actually works!1 XD I'm going to have quite a bit of downtime week after next, so I think I might try to read through this (and maybe finally finish up Hellburner.)
1 - That, or the publisher is reading this conversation right now.
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I ... had no idea you could request Kindle editions like that. I guess, since it's Amazon's own format, there's every reason in the world for them to make a Kindle version available upon demand, since all they'd be doing otherwise is costing themselves a sale.
That, or the publisher is reading this conversation right now.
Oh wow, I hope not. XD But just in case ... CAN WE HAVE THE NEXT BOOK SOONER THAN JUNE 2011 pleeeez? :D?
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I'm going to go and curl up in a chair and moan the unfairness of not having internet at home.
*wails*
And Yuletide is just about up. :(
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Kindle
Re: Kindle
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Have you seen Barbara Hambly's blurb about the newest one on her LJ? Gives a little more detail about where the story's going. Like you, I'm looking forward to learning a little more about Shaw, so I'm very excited for this book. I'll just have to make sure I get though the rest of the series before it comes out. :D
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I did see that blurb and I am SO EXCITED for that book! SHAW BACKSTORY WHEEEE. :D I can't WAIT.