Barbara Hambly Books In Order

Publication Order of Darwath Books

Publication Order of Sun Wolf and Starhawk Books

Publication Order of Winterlands (Dragonsbane) Books

Publication Order of Windrose Chronicles Books

Publication Order of James Asher Books

Publication Order of Beauty and the Beast Books

Publication Order of Sun-Cross Books

Publication Order of Benjamin January Books

Publication Order of Magic Time Books

Publication Order of Silver Screen Historical Mystery Books

Publication Order of Sisters of the Raven Books

Publication Order of Anne Steelyard: The Garden of Emptiness Books

Publication Order of Abigail Adams Books

Publication Order of Sherlock Holmes Adventures Books

Publication Order of Colossus Films Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Winterlands Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Windrose Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Benjamin January Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Star Trek: TOS (Numbered) Books

Publication Order of Akashic Noir Books

Publication Order of Star Wars Legends Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Barbara Hambly was raised in Montclair, California by parents Edward Everett Hambly Sr. and Florence Moraski. Her childhood was spent alongside younger brother Ed and older sister Mary. She had always been creative, having a love for costumes since she was a little girl. Her fascination for fantasy books started as a child as well, after reading The Wizard of Oz. This fascination led her to devour the creative works of J.R.R Tolkien, Star Wars, The Phantom of the Opera, and even The Beatles. She plastered the walls of her room with the likes of these inspirations, and many of them are obvious throughout her works today.

With over 50 published novels and other works, Barbara Hambly is a prolific and successful author. She has written for a variety of formats, including graphic novels and cartoon television, and in a number of genres. In each case, she has attempted, while staying true to the forms and tropes of each genre, to bring something new and original to her works.

She has written both for the Star Wars and Star Trek tie-in series of novels. However, her own work is varied and defies easy categorization. Hambly has written historical fiction, mysteries, fantasy, and science fiction, working in fantastic settings while creating realistic and down to earth characters that readers can relate to.

Personal Life
Ms. Hambly was born on August 28th in 1951 in San Diego, California. Her father, Edward Everett Hambly, and mother, Florence Moraski Hambly, had moved to the western metropolis from a coal mining town in eastern Pennsylvania. Barbara would grow up in Montclair, California with her older sister Mary Ann and her younger brother Edward Everett Junior.

As a young girl, the classic The Wizard of Oz first attracted Barbara to fantasy, and literature in general. She pursued her love of the written word to other classic works, including The Lord of the Rings, from which she would later take the name of the wizard Ingold in her first book.

This interest also led to other interests, including costume making, and actively participating in the Society for Creative Anachronism. Investigating further led her to pursue a degree in Medieval History from the University of California, Riverside. She received her Masters degree in 1975, after spending time in Bordeaux, France.

Working and Writing
Writing was always a love of Barbara’s, and she decided it was a profession and vocation she wanted to pursue. As a result, she searched out and found a number of jobs that would keep body and soul together while giving her the time to practice her craft. Like many writers, she accumulated a list of interesting jobs, including teacher, model, waitress, editor, and karate instructor.

At the same time, she was writing for several iconic children’s cartoons of the 80’s. She produced scripts for MASK, She-Ra, and He-man, as well as writing for comics. In 1982, Del Ray published her first book.

Published For The First Time
Time of the Dark was the first book in a publishing career that would extend over three decades, and lead to the writing of more than fifty books and counting. It was the first in a series that became a trilogy, and then a sextet, called The Darwath Series.

Telling the story of Gil and Rudy, Time of the Dark was what would later become known as a second world fantasy. The main characters start in what is ostensibly our world. Gil is an academic and bookish student, while Rudy is part of the punk subculture, and an artist. Gil has dreams of a wizard named Ingold, who lives in a world that is being invaded by an evil called the Dark.

Gil is surprised when he meets Ingold, who has come to our world seeking refuge from the invading Dark. However, the Dark follow the wizard, and Ingold is forced to flee back to his own world, taking Rudy and Gil with him. The three go on many adventures, detailed in the first three books. In the process, Gil becomes a warrior and Rudy learns the intricacies of magic.

While this first book is firmly in the fantasy genre, Ms. Hambly’s work has extended beyond it to many other places, times, and genres.

Successful Author
Following the success of the Darwath Series, Ms. Hambly moved on to other projects. The Quirinial Affair was her first historical mystery. Set in the Roman Empire, it evokes that place and time in both the characters and plot. This is a genre Ms. Hambly would return to later with her longest running series.

This series features Benjamin January, a freed African American man who lives in New Orleans before the Civil War. In the first book, A Free Man of Color, we learn that January is a classical educated surgeon and musician. While his mother was a slave, he was freed by father and given a wide and excellent education.

A Free Man of Color follows Benjamin January as he investigates the murder of Angelique Crozat, a woman of mixed race that mixed in the highest reaches of New Orleans society. The complexities of the victim’s race and the mores of southern culture of that time mean that the authorities are reluctant to investigate, leaving January to discover the murderer on his own.

The setting of New Orleans allows Hambly to explore a number of themes and interactions that make for a fascinating book. The city of that time may have been unique in allowing people of color to mix in high society, while hypocritically treating them poorly and as worth less than their white friends and acquaintances. The city, as always, provides a vivid setting for a number of adventures and episodes.

Each of the Benjamin January books explore the city further, following the brilliant detective as he solves a murder.

Ms. Hambly has written a number of other series, such as the Windrose Chronicles, and a trilogy featuring Abigail Adams solving murder mysteries. Many of her works, particularly her fantasy novels, are all set in the same multiverse. Separated by the Void, as established in her very first novel, each world exists on its own, but linked. Many of her novels and series features characters crossing over from our world to another through the void.

Ms. Hambly was elected by her peers to be the President of the Science Fiction Writers of American from 1994 to 1996. She is a multi-award winning author, having won the Locus Award and been nominated several times for the Nebula Awards.