A Free Man of Color (Hambly)

[cahn]

3+/5. I think this is a very good book and worth reading, and I'm definitely going to pick up the rest of the series! I do think that it may have suffered from my reading it at maybe not quite the ideal time. For example, I kept mixing up a lot of the minor characters who don't get much screen time, which really isn't ideal when there's a mystery to be solved (or, well, really in general but particularly for a mystery). I also found the last third a lot more compelling than the rest of it.

However.

Augustus Mayerling is made of awesome. I have a total crush on Mayerling. (I also quite admire, after the fact, the part where Hambly keeps referring to Mayerling as "the Prussian." The fact that this helped to blindside me, I feel, is making Hambly's point for her.)

Also: Barbara Hambly was one of the authors (along with Diane Duane and John M. Ford) that I originally found, as a kid, through her Star Trek novel. Apropos of nothing, really, but it always makes me smile when I see a book by her, remembering that.

Comments

[skygiants]

Hah, I read these years ago and I want to read the rest of the books in the series but I'm afraid I'll have forgotten who everyone is ... EXCEPT AUGUSTUS MAYERLING. NEVER FORGET AUGUSTUS MAYERLING. *__*

[cahn]

Heh. I have that problem and it's only been a week since I read it!

EXCEPT, like you say, AUGUSTUS MAYERLING!

[metaphortunate]

rachelmanija is reading these, if you're interested in her takes on them!

[cahn]

Yes! She was actually the impetus for my reading them -- I had been reluctant until hearing what she thought :)

(And, uh, I may have peeked ahead at her reviews to be happy that Mayerling is in at least one subsequent book :) )