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1[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/barbara_hambly_2005.jpg]]
2Barbara Hambly (born August 28, 1951) is an American SF and mystery writer. Her works include several otherworld fantasy series, a historical fantasy series with vampires, and a series of [[HistoricalDetectiveFiction historical mysteries]].
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4On the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism, her works tend to be a ways off from the Idealistic end. The heroes are good people, but realistically complex and possessed of human imperfections, and they often face large and complicated problems that can't be solved simply by smiting monsters. And when it comes to monsters, the fanged squamous horrors are often given a run for their money by some of the human beings.
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6Two good starting points for Hambly are ''Literature/BrideOfTheRatGod'', in which an actress in [[UsefulNotes/TheSilentAgeOfHollywood 1920s Hollywood]] becomes the unwitting target of an ancient Chinese curse, and ''Literature/StrangerAtTheWedding'' (aka ''Sorcerer's Ward''), a mixture of Regency romance and murder mystery with the added twist that the protagonist has foreseen the murder magically and is trying to solve it ''before it happens''. Both are standalone novels, and feature smaller-scale problems that admit of relatively neat happy endings, but are still sufficiently characteristic to give you an idea of whether this is the kind of thing you like.
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8In addition to her self-originated work she has written three Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse novels (''Literature/{{Ishmael|1985}}'', ''Ghost-Walker'' and ''Crossroad''), two Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse novels (the first and third books in ''Literature/TheCallistaTrilogy''), and two tie-in novels for the ''Series/{{Beauty and the Beast|1987}}'' TV series, as well as episodes of ''WesternAnimation/JayceAndTheWheeledWarriors'', ''WesternAnimation/{{MASK}}'', ''WesternAnimation/SheRaPrincessOfPower'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Centurions}}''. She also collaborated on the first ''Literature/MagicTime'' novel with the franchise's creator, Marc Scott Zicree.
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10!!Works by Barbara Hambly with their own trope pages include:
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12[[index]]
13* ''Literature/BenjaminJanuary'' series
14* ''Literature/BrideOfTheRatGod''
15* ''Literature/TheCallistaTrilogy'': ''Children of the Jedi'' and ''Planet of Twilight''
16* ''Literature/{{Darwath}}'' series
17* ''Literature/{{Dragonsbane}}'' series
18* ''Literature/{{Ishmael|1985}}''
19* ''Literature/SearchTheSevenHills'' (aka ''The Quirinal Hill Affair'')
20* ''Literature/StrangerAtTheWedding''
21* ''Literature/SunWolfAndStarhawk'' series
22* ''Literature/TalesFromJabbasPalace'' (the short story "Taster's Choice: The Tale of Jabba's Chef")
23* ''Literature/TalesFromTheMosEisleyCantina'' (the short story "Nightlily: The Lovers' Tale")
24* ''Literature/ThoseWhoHuntTheNight'' series
25* ''Literature/TheWindroseChronicles'' series
26[[/index]]
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28!!Barbara Hambly's other works include examples of:
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30* ArrangedMarriage:
31** In ''Circle of the Moon'', it is mentioned that Raeshaldis (known simply as the Eldest Daughter in her own family), ran away from an ArrangedMarriage to study FunctionalMagic. She is not happy to learn that one of her younger sisters -- much younger -- now looks like being forced into the match instead.
32** Tally in ''The Rainbow Abyss'', which caused a few problems when Rhion showed up.
33* {{Ghostapo}}: In the ''Sun-Cross'' duology, two magicians in a medievalish fantasy world respond to a call for help from beyond the Void from a world without magic. They travel through the Void to help those mages...and land in the Third Reich. Luckily the hero is pretty smart and quickly realizes they're the bad guys.
34* GrandTheftMe: In "The Adventure of the Antiquarian's Niece", a Franchise/SherlockHolmes/Creator/HPLovecraft-inspired short story.
35* HistoricalFantasy: The ''Sun-Cross'' duology begins in a medievalish fantasy world before the protagonist travels to a world without magic: ours, in the 1940s.
36* PerspectiveFlip: ''Renfield'' reworks ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' from the POV of, obviously, TheRenfield. It turns out [[spoiler:to be a very odd romance in which Renfield actually survives the novel and gets to live happily ever after with one of Dracula's "wives"]].
37* PurpleProse: Her ''Franchise/{{Star Wars|Expanded Universe}}'' novels have a, shall we say, ''mauve-ish'' tinge to them. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools Done fairly well, though]].
38* SeparatedByACommonLanguage: In ''The Magicians of Night'', an American OSS agent working with the British SIS recalls an occasion when an operation went off the rails because the person who briefed him was speaking in British English and he was listening in American English.
39* SpiritAdvisor: In the ''Sisters of the Raven'' books, Pontifer Pig is this to Pomegranate. Those who know her mostly assume that she is hallucinating about the ghost of her late pet. (In ''Circle of the Moon'', however, some consideration is given to the theory that Pontifer might have been a djinn who is managing to use Pomegranate as a host.)
40* VoidBetweenTheWorlds: The Rainbow Abyss in the ''Sun-Cross'' duology.

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