The Silent Tower

Windrose Chronicles #1

by Barbara Hambly

In her latest novel, The Silent Tower, Barbara Hambly has written a complex tale of dark magic, mystery and deadly danger involving a woman computer programmer who struggles to help a condemned wizard save--or perhaps destroy?--two worlds...

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Magic, Romance, Urban Fantasy

369 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 12, 1986

About the author

aka Barbara Hamilton

Ranging from fantasy to historical fiction, Barbara Hambly has a masterful way of spinning a story. Her twisty plots involve memorable characters, lavish descriptions, scads of novel words, and interesting devices. Her work spans the Star Wars universe, antebellum New Orleans, and various fantasy worlds, sometimes linked with our own.


"I always wanted to be a writer but everyone kept telling me it was impossible to break into the field or make money. I've proven them wrong on both counts."
-Barbara Hambly

Reviews

[Elizabeth McCoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, it sounds a little corny, but this book and its sequel... were some of the reasons why I actually thought that relationships could be good. My sire was emotionally abusive to my mom (and sometimes physically so), and the odds of having a good relationship after seeing about 18 years of that... Yeah, well.

I'm not going to say that I didn't wind up having some counseling on the topic, but the initial duology (Silent Tower/Silicon Mage) is one of the things that counteracted all that, and said, "Yo, slightly mad wizards from other dimensions... Okay, there are some hurdles to overcome, but IT MIGHT BE WORTH IT." ...that I wound up moving 2,000 miles away from home, to marry the ...computer wizard... I eventually found, MIGHT BE LINKED! >_>

This is also the book that gave me gibbering fits because as it was closing on the end, I was going, "This is either the mother of all horrible cliffhangers, or one heck of a downer ending, and I don't know which to hope for."

It was a cliffhanger.

Fortunately, anyone getting this book *now* can avoid my screams of anguish at the tie, and get both books together.

It's a really good book. It's got description, adventure, and, y'know, a slightly mad wizard whom I had _such_ a crush on till I found my own.

[Economondos · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best 'crossing to a fantasy world' books and first in a really good series. This is my umpteenth reread in the past 40 years as I got this when it first came out in paperback. Engaging characters on both sides of the void with more realistic than most reactions to situations completely outside their prior lives. The pacing is good and the depth of both the fantasy realm of Ferryth and corporate life in a defense contractor feels right (my wife said management was too nice based on her time in the industry).

A definite recommend for a series that needs to be read in order. 4.25/5

[Petra · Rating 3 out of 5]

An eccentric, bespectacled wizard, shy, insecure computer programmer and a young, duty-bound warrior get tangled up in a sinister multi-world plot, end up being persued by people who think they're responsible for it.

Struggled through the first half, liked the last half of the book, loved the ending. Also, loved the unusual romance and the characters it involved.

A flawed but enjoyable novel.3.5

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book more. The concept was intriguing and the characters were interesting. But the book has a whole was just too slow. I struggled to get through it as chapter after chapter nothing really happened. There was a lot of repetition which is something I hate and I almost dropped the book without bothering to finish it.

After around halfway though the book started improving and finally started moving forward. But it was too little, too late. By the time the good bits rolled around the book was over. And with such a long, long setup it doesn't make me want to try the sequel at all. I think the two books could have been condensed into one much better story.

A shame as I was looking forward to reading it. The idea and the characters were good but the execution left a lot to be desired. Can't recommend it unless you have nothing else to read.

[YouKneeK · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, this book started off really slow. I was interested in the world presented, but it took me a long time to warm up to either the characters or the story. After a while, though, my interest picked up quite a bit.

The story is set in an alternate world where magic still exists, although its influence is starting to fade. Many people aren’t sure if magic is even real, and technology is become more prevalent. A programmer from our world is kidnapped and taken to this alternate world where she gets caught up in events there. It’s too difficult to explain what those events are without spoiling the story, so I’m not even going to try.

The book starts off focusing on a character who wasn’t terribly interesting to me. The focus eventually shifted over to a couple other characters who I found more interesting. The story was published in the 80’s and it does have a slightly dated feel, particularly in its occasional discussions of real-world technology, but not unpleasantly so. I did think it failed to be as twisty as the author seemed to want it to be, maybe just because it relied on tropes that have become familiar to me and so it was easier for me to predict certain things. Plus I found it impossible to buy into the idea that Antryg Windrose was the real villain when a four-book series is named after him.

The ending is a complete cliffhanger. Although most of the main questions are answered, nothing is resolved, and our main characters are in jeopardy. I liked this book well enough by the end that I’m going to continue on and read the next book, so I can find out what happens.

[mo]

that ending was one hell of a cliffhanger, good lord. my thoughts are kind of a jumble about this, but i do know two (2) things:

a) i practically devoured this book
b) i want to read the next one immediately

[Jamie Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

After a dubious beginning this ended up being a good read, mostly because the characters are attractive. I was skeptical about a story where a 1980’s vintage computer programmer is transported to a magical world where she uses her programming skills to fight an evil wizard. I’m still not really buying the concept behind the evil plot to "program a computer to be a mage", but I enjoyed the characters enough to go along with it.

Caris the warrior didn’t impress me very much, but I liked Joanna and the so-called mad wizard Antryg, who never actually seemed more than mildly bemused. Then again, maybe I’m just stuck on Sarah Monette’s version of a mad wizard. (See Melusine.)

While I’m a big fan of Hambly’s writing in general, I was slightly distracted by the unusual amount of repetition in the book. It’s minor quibbling, though.

The ending leaves you hanging, but of course one of the best things about reading an older series is that the next book is available.

[Suzie Quint · Rating 5 out of 5]

Antryg Windrose has got to be one of the most unlikely heroes in fiction ever. A brilliant mage, he is also probably insane, a fact he acknowledges without undue distress. He is also not what one thinks of as a romantic hero. He's tall but gangly, and near-sighted, but if I were going to choose a fictional hero to bring to life, he would definitely be short-listed. I've love The Silent Tower and its sequel The Silicon Mage through many years and many readings. Barbara Hambly is the most stable author on my favorite author's list and this is my favorite of her stories. I can't recommend it highly enough, and though it's catagorized as fantasy, I think it would appeal to a lot of romance readers as well.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barbara Hambly has published works in almost every genre of fiction---and the Windrose Chronicles is one of her best series. In fact, I have been waiting for this series since I first started listening to audiobooks years ago.

Originally written in 1986, the series fetures Antryg Windrose, a renegade wizard who has been held prisoner by the Council of Mages and the Church in Ferryth. Antryg is locked in the Silent Tower where he cannot use any of his magic powers---and he is insane. One of his powers was his ability to open the Void and travel to other worlds. The Archmage, Salteris, and his sassenna, Stonne Caris (also his nephew) travel to the Silent Tower to question Antryg about recent disturbances in the Void. But Antryg manages to escape, Salteris disappears, and Caris follows Antryg through the Void to recapture him.

Joanna Sheraton is a computer programmer in Los Angeles who lives a fairly solitary life. She was attacked in her office while working late one night by someone wearing robes and using a candle for light. After encountering Antryg at a party hosted by her sometime boyfriend Gary, she is kidnapped by Antryg and taken to Ferryth, still pursued by Caris.

Antryg, Joanna, and Caris travel through Ferryth, searching for evidence of Suraklin, an executed evil wizard, and Antryg's former master. Along the way they are pursued by officials of the Church, the Mages, and the Prince Regent who all want Antryg dead or recaptured. Strange disturbances continue to occur, including periods of where all magic seems to disappear. Antryg is convinced that the dead Suraklin is somehow behind these events, the disturbances in the Void, and the rise of Abominations across the countryside.

Be aware that this is a twenty-something year old book which features a computer programmer. While the references to DOS programming, dot matrix printers, etc., were cutting edge then, they will seem very simplistic now. In spite of that, the story is excellent and overcomes the "old-school" computer information. Hambly's characters and plots are first-rate and really deserve a listen, or a read if you're not into audiobooks.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars. A lot of fun. Nice to have Joanna's irreverent voice in the midst of mage mumbo jumbo at times. Just enough. A light touch with an improbable romance. Enjoyable romp through the merging of two worlds - the fantasy world of the eccentric mage Antryg Windrose and the early computer age in the days of massive IBM computers of Joanna, meek and mild computer programmer.

[Alexandra]

12/15/17 $1.99 for Kindle.

[William Leight · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Silent Tower" is basically a reboot of Hambly's previous Darwath fantasy series that began with "The Time of the Dark". Once again our heroine is an intelligent, unsociable misfit from the LA area: this time she's a programmer rather than a grad student, and stuck in a relationship with a man she doesn't particularly like rather than defiantly alone, but the similarities outweigh the differences. Once again, she is carried across the Void by a wizard to a world where magic exists, though wizards are marginalized, fiercely opposed by a monotheistic Church. And once again, the new world is under attack by something terrible. (Also, as always with Hambly, everybody is freezing cold practically all the time: I assume this is due to Hambly being from southern California and thus presumably not being used to the cold.) The differences mostly have to do with the increased sophistication of Hambly's writing. For one thing, her influences are less evident. No characters are named after, or based on, characters from "The Lord of the Rings", and her "Abominations" take advantage of years of post-Lovecraftian development in the horror field, and are more varied than the Dark of the Darwath books. Additionally, Hambly has ditched the usual medieval setting: she was able to do more with it than some, given that it was her field of study, but it's rather cliched for a fantasy trilogy at this point, and Ferryth, the setting for "The Silent Tower", is instead in the early stages of an industrial revolution.

It's not just that Hambly is starting to develop her own ideas about what fantasy ought to look like, though. Her characters are acquiring more depth, as can be seen by contrasting Gil, the heroine of the Darwath books, and Joanna, her updated version. Gil was reserved and unsociable in California but in Darwath she fits in perfectly, making new friends and acquiring new skills. Hambly handles the transition well enough that you don't necessarily question it, but it's not really all that plausible as character development. Joanna, on the other hand, is reserved, unsociable, and disinclined to trust anyone, including herself, in California, and is exactly the same in Ferryth. Her evolving relationship with Antryg is carefully described and is much more plausible than Gil's with Ingold. It helps that Antryg is a much more plausible character than Ingold: Hambly hasn't entirely shaken the tendency to make her main wizard character Mr. Perfect, but though the way that Antryg constantly refers to himself as mad is mainly self-deprecation on his part, he lacks the constant sense of being in control of the situation that made Ingold at times almost exasperating for the reader. Sometimes Antryg doesn't know what to do, and sometimes he requires Joanna's help, not just because he needs somebody but because she brings skills to the table that he lacks. The lack of control extends to personal relationships, too: Antryg doesn't always know the right thing to say, and people -- in particular, Joanna -- don't automatically trust him and feel that he can do no wrong. The result is a much more realistic and hence interesting character.

Hambly's plotting also gets more sophisticated. "The Silent Tower" is much more suspenseful than "The Time of the Dark" and "The Walls of Air" were: we don't even know what's really going on until the end of the book, and for most of it, Hambly intends that we not even be entirely sure which characters to trust. This effort is only partially successful -- despite the circumstantial evidence against him, at no point does Antryg display enough of a dark side that the reader begins to question him -- but it represents a sizable step forward from Darwath, where the lines were pretty much always clearly drawn. The Prince Regent, Pharos, may be the best example of this new complexity (that I can give without also spoiling the plot): he is a tyrant and a sadist, true, but it's made clear that he has a more positive side as well. (It's unfortunate that the tyranny and sadism are firmly bound up with his homosexuality, though.) Additionally, the Darwath books tended to be rather episodic, a series of disconnected or only loosely-connected incidents, while the plotting of "The Silent Tower" is much tighter, binding its parts much more tightly together.

All of which is not to say that "The Silent Tower" is hugely better than "The Time of the Dark": Hambly is a good enough writer that "The Time of the Dark" is quite enjoyable. Nonetheless, the Hambly who wrote "The Silent Tower" is clearly a better writer, with a better idea of what she wants to do and how to do it, and the result is a more fully-realized novel.

[Amy Raby · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I have no idea how this book would stand up if I read it today, this was my absolute favorite book (along with its sequel "The Silicon Mage") when I read it as a 16-year-old back in the 80's. It influenced me tremendously as a writer.

The characters are just fabulous, especially Antryg Windrose, who still stands out in my mind as one of the most fully realized and three-dimensional romantic heroes ever written. (This book wasn't marketed as a romance, but it has a strong romantic subplot, and in my mind the two-book series, taken together, qualify as a fantasy romance. And there's a secondary romance too!) Joanna is a wonderfully strong heroine.

And Caris--what a great side character! This is an older book, but I consider it a classic.

[Mary Lauer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my absolute favorite books of all time. I love everything Barbara Hambly has ever written, but these series is my favorite of hers. It's just as good on a re-read more than twenty years later ...

[Suz · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounded up because I can't figure out why I didn't get into this book. Maybe the narrator, whose voices seem to sound alike but it's hard to tell because there is only a tiny bit of dialog and the rest is narrative. Or maybe the amount of stress in my life right now is making it hard for me to focus. I didn't know what this book was about for about 50% of it.

I liked it well enough to try the next book, but I'm so far not impressed and wondering if this might be one of those books that is better in text.

[Carol Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had read Dragon’s Bane by Barbara Hambly some time ago and enjoyed it. A number of reviews I read, however, warned that the sequels to that book were very grim. I therefore looked for other works by Hambly that I might try and that’s how I came across The Silent Tower.

This is a fantasy of the Alice-down-the-rabbit-hole variety, involving a character from our world who finds herself in another world where the rules are different. In this case it’s a world where there is magic that only a few people have the ability to wield. The authorities (the Church) have decreed that those few aren’t allowed to use magic in any way that affects the other, not-magically-talented, people, and have even tried to convince those people that magic doesn’t exist. The first makes sense from a public safety standpoint, but the second seemed to me a bit perverse. I enjoyed the story in spite of that to the extent that when it ended on a cliff edge I had to rush right out and get the sequel, The Silicon Mage. Really the two books are one story arbitrarily cut in half for easier packaging. (In fact, they are now often packaged together and I recommend buying them that way to avoid frustration.)
Overall I found the magical world detailed and compelling even if the politics felt a bit artificial. Hambly’s writing has a verbal richness and poesy that I enjoyed most of the time, although some readers might find it excessive. My only problem with her writing style is that she has a tendency to over-stuff her sentences. By this I mean interrupting a sentence to insert a subordinate element, set off by commas, that is so long and involved that I’ve lost track of where the original sentence was going by the time she returns us to it. This happened often enough to be distracting but not so often as to make me stop reading - in large part because Hambly is so good with characters. I loved the mad wizard Antryg, although anyone who has any familiarity with actual mental illness must realize that he is not, in fact, mad. He’s eccentric, often hilariously so, but definitely sane. I also enjoyed Joanna as well as all the other lessor characters. The linking of the fantasy world with our world through the villain’s sinister agenda provided a gripping source of conflict.

[Lindsay Stares · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Silent Tower
Barbara Hambly, 1988
New E-Edition 2011

New Ebook Edition. Copy provided by NetGalley.

Premise: In the world of Ferryth, mages are forbidden to interfere with people's lives, but factions in the government and the Church are still looking for a reason to move against them. They might get it when a minor mage is murdered by someone manipulating the dangerous Void, releasing abominations into the land. Caris, bodyguard and nephew to the Archmage, is traveling with him to try and solve the mystery. The first stop is the imprisoned mage Antryg Windrose, mad apprentice to the late Dark Mage who knew the most about the Void. The other piece of the puzzle, however, is held by a computer programmer named Joanna who is being hunted from across the Void by their unknown foe.


How did I miss this one until now? Admittedly, I was a little skeptical of the world-jumping premise, but it's well handled throughout. The fantasy world is grounded enough, and Joanna's reactions to it are reasonable, as are Caris' thoughts during his brief sojourn in California.

Most of the story concerns the mystery: who is working this dark magic, what is his/her plan, what does he/she need a programmer for so badly that they traveled across dimensions to kidnap one? Joanna soon solidifies as the main character, with Caris along as local guide and second opinion.

There's a romantic plot that works without overwhelming, and my attention was fully held by the emotional lives of the characters.

One of the weaker aspects here is that the “modern” technology, while vague enough, is quite dated. Joanna was a programmer in 1988, after all.

Also the version I read had a handful of severe and confusing copyediting problems, including whole phrases misplaced in the next or previous sentence. I really hope those aren't in the paid edition, but I don't know.

I found the penultimate section a bit shaky, but the story finishes very strong. Fair Warning: you're going to want to read the next book right away, to find out what happens next.

Thanks to Open Road Publishing for re-releasing all of Hambly's work as ebooks.

4 Stars – A Very Good Book

[Snarktastic Sonja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Upon finishing this book, I was angry. I did enjoy the novel, and I really liked the characters and enjoyed spending time with them. I appreciated, understood and empathized with Joanna and her fears and her purse. But, the writing wasn't great to me - my mind wandered a lot while I read - and I didn't find it difficult at all to step away from the world. So, while I enjoyed the novel, and would have rated it a solid 3 stars, I was not completely sure I wanted to read the next in the series as I have other books calling me and I just wasn't thrilled. I was, however, encouraged by others to pick up the next one - and told it would be worth it. And, indeed, it was. So much so, that it brought my rating of THIS book up a star.

As an aside, I find it fascinating how many novels of this era compare computer programming and magic.

The first half of this book is really a set up for the second half, so movement is slow. The movement picks up a bit when our three heroes meet up with each other and they begin their journey together. I have wondered if I wouldn't enjoy the story more if this book and the next were not simply one novel, but, in the end, I agree with the decision to separate them. They are, indeed, two journeys taken by the same characters.

All in all, I did enjoy this story. But, be prepared with the second if you want to totally appreciate the book.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it. The Silent Tower is a fast-paced, fun read but it is flawed beyond the anachronisms you'd expect of an almost-thirty year old story written about computers. In fact, those are minor and treated in manner suggesting that Hambly foresaw that the technology of her day would soon be so antiquated as to seen quaint.

In fact, her reference to "extinct Canada Geese" was an even larger--and funnier--mistake. Until open season is declared on those rats with wings, Canada Geese will continue to mar urban life in North America.

Her Cold War rhetoric is sure to confuse younger readers, who know only the terror of terrorism and mass murderers, not that of "the bomb." (The Silent Tower was first published in 1986.)

The particular ebook edition I read had numerous transcription errors which seemed to result from a optical character scan which was only proofed for words that weren't in Spell Check. As a result, the text is marred by "Cans" for "Caris" (a main character), "he" for "be", "me" for "the" and "mat" for "that."

A good, if flawed read.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a bit to get into it (Possibly because a few early chapters are from the POV of a secondary character, though really there was no way to do it otherwise. You literally have no story if you know what one of the main characters knows.) In any case, it was worth it. This was a fun read, and went in unexpected directions that I really enjoyed.

Fair warning: The end is a massive cliffhanger. Since the library system here has no copies of the second book, I bought it. The computer stuff might seem dated (and might be why these don't seem as popular as the author's other series, currently), but the characterizations are great and the plot is twisty without being hokey and predictable. Like, the programmer whisked into a world where magic is real does *not* fall for the handsome, brave knight fellow who more or less rescues her. (My first thought when they met was a sighed, "Here we go" Never been happier to be wrong. :-) )

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my second read of this book. The first read was 20 years ago, and I was curious to see how well time had treated it, and if I loved it as much as I did the first time around. The computer angle was a bit dated of course, but I read it as a book of its time, and not as a "hot off the press" 2012 read. That's the way the computer world was then. I remember a computer we had that did not even have a hard drive. All system info was stored on floppy disks and a megabyte of data was a big deal. :) (OK. Really dated self.) But really, most of the book was set in the alternate world anyway. I loved it all over again. Good read, sympathetic characters, wonderful world building and description, and plot twisty enough to remain interesting even when you sort of remember how it all turned out. Now I will have to read the second book in the series again.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

No one else has even begun to think about and build on the great premise of the this fantasy series -- the interaction between magic and computer technology and why a a powerful mage might still need a great coder, circa 1987. Plus, Joanna has the types of things in her purse that if I were stranded on the wrong side of the void in a 18th century magic-banning society, I'd hope I'd bring with me. Excellent fantasy, great world building, and strong relationships.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joanna, a nerdy programmer with an abusive boyfriend, is swept into a magical alternate dimension to fight an evil mage. While this is one of her earliest books, the characters are complex and well-developed, unlike much of the borderline YA fantasy published nowadays.

A decent read from my books for a rainy day collection, and I can say it's a very wet year.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this re-read of the Silent Tower. Antryg is one of those marvellous flawed characters that you can't help but fall for and I have the hugest crush on him after finishing this series.

[Fred Kiesche · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first came across Barbara Hambly when she first started being published in the 1980's by Del Rey Books, as part of their fantasy line. With books such as the first of the Darwath books (The Time of the Dark) and the Sun Wolf sequence (The Ladies of Mandrigyn). They were fun fantasy novels, different from the usual Del Rey fare, quick reads and interesting reads as well. In 1986 came the first of the Windrose Chronicles, The Silent Tower, with elements of both our world and a fantasy world, with implications for both.

Joanna Sheraton is a programmer at a US government research center who comes across an intruder where none should be, in the heart of a 1980's supercomputer machine room...a man using...candles. No trace of the intruder is seen later until Joanna is drawn into another world when she is at a party of her somewhat flaky boyfriend. She teams up with Caris (guardian of and relative to Archmage Salteris) and Antryg (student of both Salteris and the so-called Darkmage Suraklin) to try and find out whether Suraklin has somehow managed to return from the dead and has taken Salteris prisoner between the worlds.

Friends become enemies and vice versa (intentionally or not) as the trio try to unravel what exacttly is going on as they travel across the Earth-that-is-not-Earth and back to Earth at the ending (spoilers for a book that was first published in 1986) leading to a...cliffhanger.

Good thing I already have the second (first read in 1988, but repurchased as an eBook more recently)!

Like the briefer (and better) Tea with a Black Dragon (R.A. MacAvoy), The Silent Tower mixes our world and the world of our technology—the still nascent world of computer (at that point at least) with decent female characters and a interesting plot. Does it still hold up? I think Joanna gets into the trappings of the alternate Earth a tad fast (especially when it comes to clothing), but she definitely is a strong character and central to the (cliffhanger) resolution. The book held up on this re-reading (some decades later) and I will take up the sequels as well.

[christine ✩ · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, Windrose-
I was somewhat lost between the repetitive descriptions (which, come to think of it, may have a big reason, since it was mainly about Antryg after all and from Joanna's POV but it still absolutely sent me) and slow start, I will say, but overall a fascinating book--I was definitely very interested in the 80s magic & technology conversations happening through the book since this ~is~ a portal fantasy and there is something very funny about a 26 year old Californian computer programmer explaining, well, computers and programs to a young soldier and a half-mad wizard but also cool in conjunction with magic (Antryg describing it as predictions of hope and belief in life (!!)) because that's the point of the book and Joanna's whole deal. Loved electricity as magic, too; that was truly neat. At least one of the twists did actually surprise me, but it was very much a slow build to that point, and the fantasy world's very much soft loose fantasy in a way almost reminiscent of McKillip, but I think that's just a particular genre of fantasy to my brain in general. I was confused for a fair bit bc of that but that's something that just happens w this genre. Also the whole abominations thing… wild. Liked the characters? ? ?? very intriguing in general methinks. Joanna and Antryg and Caris were great (and especially Antryg I have a fondness for whatever trope of character he is). The whole thing was pretty tropey, I'd say, but I am chalking that up to old style fantasy again and it wasn't necessarily that bad to me it just meant I was like ah yeah of course when certain things happened. um. I also just never rly know how to work with older adult fantasy but, like, I did enjoy this, mostly. The fricken HAVOC tshirt was funny tho

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book due to a good review from a goodreads friend, and it definitely lived up to the review she wrote. It also is the first in a series, and it ends up in the air, so now I have to wait to get the next book in the series to find out what happens. I mean, really up in the air. Nothing is resolved at all. You get further along the mystery trail and gain knowledge but you still don't know where Antryg, Caris, and the female programmer are headed. Being a programmer myself, I am interested in what language she is using, since I've seen nothing like it since early OS/DOS, and that it isn't. Anyone recognize it? I don't know anything about Oracle, since it never came my way, so maybe Oracle related? The last time I saw was in the early days of PC's (pre-Apple) when you programmed the machine directly or in Basic.

[Sineala · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Windrose Chronicles -- specifically, the first two books -- are some of my favorite comfort reads ever, and Antryg Windrose is one of my favorite fictional characters ever. (Joanna Sheraton is also up there, as far as awesome, competent, nerdy heroines go.) I like to reread them every year or so, and you know a book's good when I do that, right? Fair warning to anyone picking the series up: the first two are a very tightly-linked duology, and the ending of The Silent Tower is an extremely evil cliffhanger. If you're reading this for the first time and you like it, make sure you can lay hands on a copy of the second one.

Right. These books are a portal fantasy, I think the term is, and that automatically gets them points from me because "person from our world ends up in fantasy world" is actually a genre I really, really like. Stop laughing.

We actually begin the book in the fantasy world, the empire of Ferryth, which I find is actually a refreshingly non-generic fantasy world, poised on the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. It feels like Hambly has done her worldbuilding from history rather than filtering it through Tolkien, and it's a really nice touch. Also I love how she always describes the fabrics, colors and materials of the world in such detail.

There is magic, although magic of the high-magic sort is waning in influence (possibly thanks to the Church and its Witchfinders) and many people don't believe in it, instead trusting in dog wizards who read cards and tea leaves. Saliently, this world is also heavily scarred by the depredations of the evil wizard Suraklin, who was caught and executed twenty-five years ago. We are introduced to the world through the POV of Caris the sasenna (a sort of samurai bodyguard for the Council of Wizards) who is suddenly losing the little magic he has, and is seized by fits of depression. And weirdly, everyone else seems to be too, and there are monsters from the Void between worlds, and then a murder. Suraklin, it seems, knew all about the Void. And only one living man knows as much about the Void. That would be Antryg Windrose, his former apprentice, who has been locked up in the Silent Tower for years. It can't be him, can it?

The dimension-traveler from our world is one Joanna Sheraton, a computer programmer in 1980s LA. Strange things are already happening in her world -- the same fits of depression, strange marks on the walls, and a unknown man who tries to attack her at her work. But one weekend she ends up at a party at the house of her boyfriend Gary whom she doesn't really like much, and Antryg comes through the Void, with Caris chasing him. But then she gets kidnapped -- by whom? she doesn't know! -- and they all end up going back through the Void to Ferryth. While in Ferryth, there are people who would be happy to hunt down all of them, and so she and Antryg and Caris are on the run while trying to figure out what's going on. And none of them are sure how much they can trust each other. This is a problem, given that Joanna is falling for Antryg. Who, you know, may have kidnapped her and may be behind all of this.

Antryg is really, seriously awesome. He is one of the more unique fantasy heroes I have ever read; he is middle-aged, near-sighted, eccentric, brilliant, and also sort of insane. In a charming way. (Picture the Fourth Doctor.) He is basically an unfailingly kind human being, but also possessed of terrifying wizardly powers and an even more terrifying past (Suraklin was not good to him) that clearly haunts him to this day. And he still wants to do right by the universe.

Joanna is also likewise brilliant and competent and gets to be a heroine and has to do some awful things herself. (I do like how the book doesn't romanticize that she has to learn to kill people. Because, hey, wouldn't you freak out too?) Also I am really glad to read a book about a geeky woman where that is important and her knowledge is valued and it's really just... excellent.

There is definitely romance building between the two of them, which... well, it doesn't actually help them out plot-wise, let's say. But it is so great. Why, yes, I ship it. (Yes, sometimes I do enjoy books about straight people.) It makes the ending even more of a gut-wrenching cliffhanger than it could have been. I think the ending hits pretty much all my fiction kinks ever. I think it may have given me my fiction kinks.

I am not as big a fan of the secondary characters in this book; I think Caris et al. develop more in the second book. And I know one of the things that throws people about this is the 1980s tech. This does not bother me in the slightest; it's the 80s, so what? The thing that does bother me, though, is the Prince Regent Pharos, who is definitely the fantasy stereotype Mincing Evil Sadistic Gay Villain. (He is not the ultimate villain, but I think anyone who creepily sexually harasses Joanna and then whips Antryg in the face definitely counts as a villain of some stripe.) He shapes up a little and starts developing a personality and some rationale by the end, but oh God no. It doesn't help that both Joanna and Antryg are negative about the kinky queer thing specifically (Antryg insults him with "you know you haven't any use for a woman," and Joanna thinks of him as a pervert). So, yeah, I could really have done without that. Thanks, 1980s fantasy!

Other than that, really, I love this book. I love this book so very much. I am not claiming that it is the greatest work of literature, but Antryg and Joanna just make me so happy.

[Cathie Stumpenhaus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written story of intertwined parallel worlds with great characters, densely detailed and full of twists and turns. Sorcery meets computer programmer.

[Arminion · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really don't know what to say about this book. At first I was captivated - by the story, characters, world, ideas, magic and the writing. But somewhere in the middle of the book I became bored by all of this, so I really started to drag with the reading.
At first I thought that the idea of a human programmer coming from our world to a magical medieval alien world and viceversa, interesting, but as I said... the story starts to drag and becomes more confusing by every page. We have so many things going on at once - a mysterious murder of a wizard, characters feeling strange apathy, a killer stalking our main heroine Joanna, abominations popping up all over the world, many political factions fighting among themselves, an evil wizard trying to create some kind of super computer to store his memory and makes himself immortal... are you still following this?
I never understood why this wizard wanted to kill Joanna at the beginning of the book. And why pick her to take in the other world? It's not like she is the only programmer on Earth. She also adapts rather quickly in this strange world and keeps talking about computers and programs to this people. Really? You come to a medieval world filled with monsters and magic and you talk about computers?
This whole talk about programming becomes quickly annoying. Ok, we get it Hambly, you know how to work with computers.
Also, her writing often slows the progress of the story than to advance it. For example, person A asks Person B something. Person B doesn't answer immediately, but instead, Hambly starts to describe how that person feels, or the hallway they are currently in, or the people surrounding them, so that by the time the person B answers, I have already forgotten the question.
She also often uses the same description over and over. I can't tell how many times she described Carris as beautiful or how many times the light shined over Antyg's spectacles.
Despite all this, the book does have some surprises. For example, I was pretty sure that Joanna will fall in love in Carris, but I was wrong. There is also a lot of guessing of who's really the villain.
I will probably read the sequels somewhere down the road, although I'm not that invested after reading this rather confusing and overly descriptive story.