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On AO3 I ran across this lovely little missing scene for the 5th book in the Ben January series (a scene I very much wanted to see, and was disappointed when the plot skipped right over it!) and now I'm rereading The Shirt On His Back, because SHAW. ♥

Of all the various obscure and semi-obscure books I like, I think perhaps this is the series that I most wish more people were reading -- I know there are a few people on my flist who are following it, but I wish that it had a bigger reader base, not just because it would be nice to be able to discuss it to the extent that I can Dresden Files or Discworld, but because it really is a very good series and, I think, terribly underrated; I know she had to switch to a small-press publisher because her sales weren't high enough for the bigger publisher to keep carrying her. And that makes me sad, because these books are amazing and I wish more people knew about them.

Admittedly it's not a period in history that has a great deal of cachet, in the way of, say, Ancient Rome or Edwardian England, but that's what I like about it, because I knew next to nothing about antebellum New Orleans before reading the series and I feel as if I've learned a lot about it. (Well, as much as you can learn from fiction, and I assume some liberties are certainly being taken, but the books do feel very well researched.) And I love how she deals with the everyday details of working people's lives; these books are not about the wealthy and the politicos, but rather about the seamstresses and laborers and musicians and schoolteachers, the people who are struggling to scrape by. Two factors that are present in every book are the endless struggle to make enough money to live, and a very acute awareness of the social inequalities the characters have to deal with. Which I guess is another reason why the books might not be high on most people's escapist-literature reading list, because they ARE fun and escapist and swashbuckling to a certain extent, but they also deal pretty heavily with the social/racial/gender barriers in the characters' lives.

But, oh, the characters. :)

In case anyone is curious, the books in order on Amazon (there are more than this, but apparently only eight were out when this list was made) and the characters (with scattered spoilers for some future relationship developments).

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I gave the first one to a friend who is very into social justice and representation, but she felt like there was too much swashbuckling and not enough, well, social justice. Which is a shame, because I felt like the series has a good balance in that respect, and when it fails (like the one with the slave uprising and the hurricane?) it does so in interesting ways. And Hambly is delightfully upfront when she learns she has been unintentionally inaccurate.

Yayyyyy, I could talk about these books ALL DAY. :D

And ... and, but ... that's one of the things I really like about the series, that the characters' lives aren't SRS BIZNESS all the time. I mean, I totally get how someone could feel that way, but I think the playful, swashbuckling aspect of the series is actually one of its strengths. The books don't downplay the realities of the characters' lives (at least, I don't think so; mileage may vary) but they're also fun.

(The book with the hurricane, aargh -- I am SO TORN on that book! On the one hand, the slave uprising and the way it was handled in the book is really not good; it's one of the few parts of the series that makes me stop and go, "Wait, I'm really uncomfortable with how this is being presented." But there was so much great character stuff in that book with Rose and Ben, and Ben and Shaw, and Dominique and Chloe! So very torn.)

Yes, that's how I feel about that book, too! And I was DELIGHTED when Good Man Friday brought Chloe back! And that her relationship with ... it's Henri, right? Dominique's lover? Anyway, it's lacking in sexual passion, but they're on a similar wavelength intellectually, albeit in different fields.

Yes! The Henri-Chloe-Dominique relationship is so fascinating and layered -- obviously there is a lot going on with various levels of racial and gender privilege, but it's also just so interesting how twisty and atypical all their relationships have turned out to be. I happen to have a huuuuge narrative kink for having two women (well, two people of any gender really, but especially women because they're so often played against each other) set up as rivals and then becoming friends instead, and the cordial relationship between Chloe and Dominique hit that kink hard, especially in the 6th book when you've had Chloe set up as this ice queen who is going to make both Henri and Dominique miserable, and then she's totally not that at all.

I also really enjoyed seeing Chloe again and finding out how her relationship with Henri had worked out over the last couple of years. There were some bittersweet tinges to the Chloe/Henri relationship in Good Man Friday, but it's totally possible that is entirely coming from Ben, because he has this particularly Catholic-colored idea of how relationships are supposed to work, and I get the idea in that book that he can't quite believe Chloe is happy. But I do get the impression that she is.

Just putting my hand up to say I love these. It's been many years since I read them, because I don't own them, I borrowed them from a library, and there are probably new ones I haven't read, etc, but they are awesome. And Barbara Hambly is one of the great omnivorous writers. There aren't many genres she hasn't at least dabbled in.

I know! I'm really impressed with how many different genres she tackles (though I tend to like her historical fiction better than her fantasy).

And YAY, always delighted to have more people to talk about the books with! :D

Edited 2013-11-22 08:00 (UTC)

I love these! I love almost all Barbara Hambly, actually.

Have you gone to barbarahambly.com to buy pdfs of her short stories for $5? There were several Benjamin January ones -- "Libre" and "Time to Every Purpose" and "There Shall Your Heart Be".

Yes!! I was so delighted, after reading all the books, to find there were short stories too! :D

She's really a fantastic writer, and very underrated, I think -- most people haven't heard of her, or think of her only in terms of light fantasy, when she writes so much more than that.