What do you think?
Darwath
Pretty Polly
A novelette of 10,000 words - The Keep of Dare is an enclosed fortress: no one knows all its secrets and corners. When people start disappearing, the Archmage Ingold Inglorion and his two Californian companions - warrior Gil Patterson and novice wizard Rudy Solis - are faced with the possibility that some deadly entity is hiding in the darkness of the Keep. And the situation is not improved when Ingold himself disappears.
- GenresFantasyShort Stories
38 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 14, 2015
About the author
Barbara Hambly
181 books1,639 followersaka 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
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
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 4, 2015
Originally reviewed at Bookwraiths Reviews
Barbara Hambly labels this and other Keep of Dare novelette’s as the “Further Adventures” of Gil Patterson, Rudy Solis, and Ingold Inglorion, because life didn’t end for these guys when the Darwath trilogy ended. And being a fan of Darwath (and many other of Ms. Hambly’s fantasy series), I want to thank her for gifting these short stories/novelettes to her fans. They are indeed priceless additions to these tales with Pretty Polly being no exception.
The Keep of Dare has established a normal routine five years after the Rising of the Dark, and while Gil Patterson and Ingold Inglorion continue in their roles as keep guard and keep wizard, they now are also parents to a small baby. But while motherhood is stressful, what Gil has recently been dealing with is vivid dreams of her life and loved ones left behind when she abandoned her former life as a southern Californian graduate student to follow Ingold back to Darwath. Images that make her wonder if they are as true as her old dreams of Ingold Inglorion were before his subsequent arrival upon earth years before.
What is especially unsettling is how Gil’s ominous dreams are occurring at the same time as the disappearance of people around the keep — specifically people in the upper and outer levels where strange noises and reports of spirits have been rampant ever since the remnants of humanity took shelter in the ancient, obsidian cube that is Dare’ Keep.
When Ingold decides to accompany witnesses into the dark recesses of the keep to investigate the disappearances, things go from bad to worse as he himself disappears!
As Gil desperately tries to find the father of her child and the greatest wizard remaining in the world, she quickly discovers that magic and ancient technology will not be of much use to her. Instead, she will have to rely on her quick wits and old-fashioned ingenuity to unravel this newest mystery of Dare’s Keep.
All in all, this was yet another excellent story of this group of survivors. Ms. Hambly mixing in enough mystery (both magical and normal), further characterization, and tidbits of world building to make this a must-read for Darwath fans. And for those unfamiliar with the series, there is no real need to understand the previous books to understand what is going on here and enjoy it all. Highly recommended!
Barbara Hambly labels this and other Keep of Dare novelette’s as the “Further Adventures” of Gil Patterson, Rudy Solis, and Ingold Inglorion, because life didn’t end for these guys when the Darwath trilogy ended. And being a fan of Darwath (and many other of Ms. Hambly’s fantasy series), I want to thank her for gifting these short stories/novelettes to her fans. They are indeed priceless additions to these tales with Pretty Polly being no exception.
The Keep of Dare has established a normal routine five years after the Rising of the Dark, and while Gil Patterson and Ingold Inglorion continue in their roles as keep guard and keep wizard, they now are also parents to a small baby. But while motherhood is stressful, what Gil has recently been dealing with is vivid dreams of her life and loved ones left behind when she abandoned her former life as a southern Californian graduate student to follow Ingold back to Darwath. Images that make her wonder if they are as true as her old dreams of Ingold Inglorion were before his subsequent arrival upon earth years before.
What is especially unsettling is how Gil’s ominous dreams are occurring at the same time as the disappearance of people around the keep — specifically people in the upper and outer levels where strange noises and reports of spirits have been rampant ever since the remnants of humanity took shelter in the ancient, obsidian cube that is Dare’ Keep.
When Ingold decides to accompany witnesses into the dark recesses of the keep to investigate the disappearances, things go from bad to worse as he himself disappears!
As Gil desperately tries to find the father of her child and the greatest wizard remaining in the world, she quickly discovers that magic and ancient technology will not be of much use to her. Instead, she will have to rely on her quick wits and old-fashioned ingenuity to unravel this newest mystery of Dare’s Keep.
All in all, this was yet another excellent story of this group of survivors. Ms. Hambly mixing in enough mystery (both magical and normal), further characterization, and tidbits of world building to make this a must-read for Darwath fans. And for those unfamiliar with the series, there is no real need to understand the previous books to understand what is going on here and enjoy it all. Highly recommended!
October 20, 2024
This short story is set in the Darwath universe 5 years after Gil and Rudy have arrived there.
I would not recommend it to people new to the Darwath universe, but for those who - like me - know and love the original saga and its characters this is some delicious reading candy.
I would not recommend it to people new to the Darwath universe, but for those who - like me - know and love the original saga and its characters this is some delicious reading candy.
November 28, 2022
darn good short tale.
Need to read whole series but all good fun. Imaginative! Magic when ya least expect it would apply but artfully applied a real plus!
Need to read whole series but all good fun. Imaginative! Magic when ya least expect it would apply but artfully applied a real plus!
December 1, 2015
I finally treated myself to this terrific short story, another entry in the Darwath series and written as a 'Further Adventure' taking place after the 5-part book series that began with The Time of the Dark.
Pretty Polly is an eerie, suspenseful, character-filled read that delivers more plotting and better characters in it's relatively short story arc than a lot of authors are able to cram into an entire novel.
Hambly is an author who reliably delivers the goods: her works are universally splendid reads and her characters, even those that appear only briefly, are real people in real and varied situations, carefully researched and richly written.
As I said Pretty Polly takes place after the first 5 books so if you haven't read them, (a) I envy your chance to meet this universe for the first time and (b) read them. Along with Tolkien's Middle Earth and Hughart's "Ancient China" (Master Li and Number Ten ox series), Hambly's Darwath is one of the top ten destinations available to the Fantasy/SF reader.
Pretty Polly is an eerie, suspenseful, character-filled read that delivers more plotting and better characters in it's relatively short story arc than a lot of authors are able to cram into an entire novel.
Hambly is an author who reliably delivers the goods: her works are universally splendid reads and her characters, even those that appear only briefly, are real people in real and varied situations, carefully researched and richly written.
As I said Pretty Polly takes place after the first 5 books so if you haven't read them, (a) I envy your chance to meet this universe for the first time and (b) read them. Along with Tolkien's Middle Earth and Hughart's "Ancient China" (Master Li and Number Ten ox series), Hambly's Darwath is one of the top ten destinations available to the Fantasy/SF reader.
September 2, 2026
Worldcon opens today in Los Angeles and Barbara Hambly is one of the Guests of Honor. I still have fond, in fact extremely fond, memories of Hambly’s Darwath trilogy, which I read when it came out back in the early 1980s. I still have my paperbacks, and the original cover of the first book, The Time of the Dark, is every bit as arresting as it was back then.
Because that cover, featured at left, showed a Gandalf-type wizard in full wizarding garb sitting at what was obviously an already old kitchen table in a run-down apartment holding a can of beer. A CAN of beer, not a mug or a stein or a horn, but an actual aluminum can of beer. WITH a bag of potato chips at his feet.
These things do not – and did not at the time – go together. I HAD to read this book. And I did. And every book that followed.
The ending of the original Darwath trilogy in The Armies of Daylight was a scene that stuck with me, not just the gist of it but the actual words, for decades. Because it was about a light shining in a neverending darkness, about giving a woman the choice to walk into danger instead of protecting her “for her own good” when it was really about protecting himself, and because it ended in a romance of equals that began as anything but.
But the trilogy ended in 1983 with The Armies of Daylight. The series as a whole drew to a close after two sequels, Mother of Winter and Icefalcon’s Quest, in 1996.
Or so I thought.
In my search for something of the author’s to read for Worldcon, I discovered that she was every bit as attached to her characters as her readers, and that she had written short stories set in several of the worlds of her classic fantasy, set after their happy ever afters. In the case of Darwath , that would be after the happy for now, because Darwath is a place where tomorrow is even less promised to anyone than most.
Which is how I found these stories, set in one of the few remaining human habitations in Darwath, the Keep of Dare. As much as I wondered if I could get back into a place and a series that I last read THIRTY years ago, I absolutely could not resist diving in to discover how Ingold Inglorion, Gil Patterson, and Rudy Solis were managing after surviving the end of the world as they knew it.
And I’m glad I did, even though I’m stuck dealing with the book hangover all over again.
Escape Rating A-: I’ve ALWAYS wondered what happened to Ingold, Gil, Rudy and his love, Alde after the end of The Armies of Daylight. ALWAYS. Finding that these Further Adventures existed was such a treat. At the same time, I did wonder whether I could fall back in after so many years, and I’m happy that the answer turned out to be an enthusiastic YES!
So this was certain a case of the right book at the right time.
In the case of this particular series, I wondered what an epilogue or “further adventures would actually look like for this particular series. These further adventures take place after the world has ended – and the people in it have to do their best to survive in conditions that would make most of us give up the ghost.
Which might not be an exit, as the Keep of Dare is filled with actual ghosts.
So the novelettes that tell the tale of these further adventures, Pretty Polly, Whisper, Elsewhere and The Dreamers of the Black Rock, are all stories of endurance wrapped around characters who have already endured a great deal and know that they can’t stop. While they know there’s a light at the end of this deep, dark tunnel, they also know that none of them will live to see it. Their job is to protect the remainder of humanity and teach the next generation the skills they will need to endure and survive.
A lot of the dramatic tension in the individual stories combines an environment that really is out to get them while dealing with the idiocy and/or unthinking privilege of people who still don’t believe the rules apply to them. Not even the rules keeping everyone alive.
Many of the dangers they face are monstrous or supernatural, particularly in Whisper and The Dreamers of the Black Rock. The other two stories (Pretty Polly and Elsewhere) deal more with the stupidity of old powers and dead privilege in a situation where everyone needs everyone else desperately and there is no rescue coming except from each other. And that the old equations of power by inheritance or violence or money have given way to a different equation where power accrues to the ones who are keeping everyone alive.
No one is reading these for a happy ending, then again, they shouldn’t be because that’s not Darwath at all. It’s always been a story about a few desperate people fighting the only fight left to them against terrible odds, and getting up the next morning and doing it again.
Love doesn’t conquer all, but it holds out a hand when the night gets dark that another can cling to. It’s not even about the great and often insane romance between the old wizard and the misplaced scholar, although that’s there too. (And I was happy to see that it’s working out for them as well as could possibly be expected in their terrible circumstances.)
It’s a story about keeping a candle burning in the darkest night, and it caught me by the heart and the throat as much now as it did all those years ago. I’m glad I turned back to see that their candle is still burning.
Originally published at Reading Reality
Because that cover, featured at left, showed a Gandalf-type wizard in full wizarding garb sitting at what was obviously an already old kitchen table in a run-down apartment holding a can of beer. A CAN of beer, not a mug or a stein or a horn, but an actual aluminum can of beer. WITH a bag of potato chips at his feet.
These things do not – and did not at the time – go together. I HAD to read this book. And I did. And every book that followed.
The ending of the original Darwath trilogy in The Armies of Daylight was a scene that stuck with me, not just the gist of it but the actual words, for decades. Because it was about a light shining in a neverending darkness, about giving a woman the choice to walk into danger instead of protecting her “for her own good” when it was really about protecting himself, and because it ended in a romance of equals that began as anything but.
But the trilogy ended in 1983 with The Armies of Daylight. The series as a whole drew to a close after two sequels, Mother of Winter and Icefalcon’s Quest, in 1996.
Or so I thought.
In my search for something of the author’s to read for Worldcon, I discovered that she was every bit as attached to her characters as her readers, and that she had written short stories set in several of the worlds of her classic fantasy, set after their happy ever afters. In the case of Darwath , that would be after the happy for now, because Darwath is a place where tomorrow is even less promised to anyone than most.
Which is how I found these stories, set in one of the few remaining human habitations in Darwath, the Keep of Dare. As much as I wondered if I could get back into a place and a series that I last read THIRTY years ago, I absolutely could not resist diving in to discover how Ingold Inglorion, Gil Patterson, and Rudy Solis were managing after surviving the end of the world as they knew it.
And I’m glad I did, even though I’m stuck dealing with the book hangover all over again.
Escape Rating A-: I’ve ALWAYS wondered what happened to Ingold, Gil, Rudy and his love, Alde after the end of The Armies of Daylight. ALWAYS. Finding that these Further Adventures existed was such a treat. At the same time, I did wonder whether I could fall back in after so many years, and I’m happy that the answer turned out to be an enthusiastic YES!
So this was certain a case of the right book at the right time.
In the case of this particular series, I wondered what an epilogue or “further adventures would actually look like for this particular series. These further adventures take place after the world has ended – and the people in it have to do their best to survive in conditions that would make most of us give up the ghost.
Which might not be an exit, as the Keep of Dare is filled with actual ghosts.
So the novelettes that tell the tale of these further adventures, Pretty Polly, Whisper, Elsewhere and The Dreamers of the Black Rock, are all stories of endurance wrapped around characters who have already endured a great deal and know that they can’t stop. While they know there’s a light at the end of this deep, dark tunnel, they also know that none of them will live to see it. Their job is to protect the remainder of humanity and teach the next generation the skills they will need to endure and survive.
A lot of the dramatic tension in the individual stories combines an environment that really is out to get them while dealing with the idiocy and/or unthinking privilege of people who still don’t believe the rules apply to them. Not even the rules keeping everyone alive.
Many of the dangers they face are monstrous or supernatural, particularly in Whisper and The Dreamers of the Black Rock. The other two stories (Pretty Polly and Elsewhere) deal more with the stupidity of old powers and dead privilege in a situation where everyone needs everyone else desperately and there is no rescue coming except from each other. And that the old equations of power by inheritance or violence or money have given way to a different equation where power accrues to the ones who are keeping everyone alive.
No one is reading these for a happy ending, then again, they shouldn’t be because that’s not Darwath at all. It’s always been a story about a few desperate people fighting the only fight left to them against terrible odds, and getting up the next morning and doing it again.
Love doesn’t conquer all, but it holds out a hand when the night gets dark that another can cling to. It’s not even about the great and often insane romance between the old wizard and the misplaced scholar, although that’s there too. (And I was happy to see that it’s working out for them as well as could possibly be expected in their terrible circumstances.)
It’s a story about keeping a candle burning in the darkest night, and it caught me by the heart and the throat as much now as it did all those years ago. I’m glad I turned back to see that their candle is still burning.
Originally published at Reading Reality
September 21, 2019
A brilliant 'further adventure ' for Hambly fans.
An action packed return to the Keep. Mystery, magic and characters so believable you are with them through sorrow and joy. Thank you Barbara
An action packed return to the Keep. Mystery, magic and characters so believable you are with them through sorrow and joy. Thank you Barbara
March 21, 2025
A nice return to the Darwath series that i stumbled on accidentally but quickly fell back into.
Excellent short-short, but you should read the original trilogy before you try it or you'll find yourself misplaced.
Excellent short-short, but you should read the original trilogy before you try it or you'll find yourself misplaced.
May 27, 2019
Fun continuing stories
I'm very glad that Ms. Hambly has had interesting stories to share with beloved characters. I'm also glad i stumbled into them.
I'm very glad that Ms. Hambly has had interesting stories to share with beloved characters. I'm also glad i stumbled into them.
July 4, 2023
Novelette in the Darwath series. Mostly Gil's POV. Well-written.
October 6, 2024
Yay, more Darwath story!
January 22, 2016
Hambly's note at the end of this short story--and it is a short story despite being billed as a "novelette" on Amazon--is that she has always wondered what comes after "happily ever after" and that these stories (in her various worlds) are forays into that idea. I, for one, enjoy visiting characters of well loved books again and seeing what they're up to, and so I am pleased to find these tales. While I currently only have the Darwath novelettes, I intend to collect others and visit with the old friends that inhabit their pages.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews