History Creator / BarbaraHambly

* HistoricalFantasy: The ''Sun-Cross'' duology begins in a medievalish fantasy world before the protagonist travels to a wrold without magic: ours, in the 1940s.

* PurpleProse: Her ''Franchise/{{Star Wars|Expanded Universe}}'' novels have a, shall we say, ''mauve-ish'' tinge to them. [[TropesAreNotBad Done fairly well, though]].

Barbara Hambly 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]].

** As well as in the ''Windrose Chronicles'' and the ''Darwath'' series, and a similar multiverse in the ''Dragonsbane'' series. It seems this concept comes up a fair bit.

* ComicBookFantasyCasting: Ingold Inglorion is very obviously the late Sir Alec Guinness as [[Franchise/StarWars Obi-Wan Kenobi]], brown robes, beautiful voice and all.
* CorruptChurch: The "Darwath" series has a generic "The Church" that frequently makes Our Heroes miserable, having as a central tenet of its faith that wizards are evil and soulless. It also generates some interesting Church vs. State conflicts regarding food distribution and legal jurisdiction, wrangles between two bishops - the compassionate Maia of Thran (an ex-soldier) and the fierce ascetic Govannin Narmenlion, who is less 'corrupt' than utterly convinced of the rightness of her beliefs - and is, on occasion, somewhat helpful by providing historical records.
* DataCrystal: In the Darwath Trilogy, the earlier human civilization that built the Keep of Dare used magitech data crystals to store information.
* ExpectingSomeoneTaller: In ''The Time of the Dark'' (first book of the Darwath Trilogy), when Rudy sees a young woman being given lots of bossy instructions when she takes the baby heir to the throne out for a bit of air, Rudy assumes the girl is the most junior nursemaid. She's the Queen.
* FunctionalMagic: In the Darwath books mages possess an inherent gift, which must then be developed with training in RuleMagic.

* SinglePreceptReligion: "The Church" in the Darwath Trilogy has no visible theology other than "wizards are evil", no connection with the real life of the people, and no discernible purpose beyond making people, and especially Our Heroes, miserable.

* TrappedInAnotherWorld: The Darwath series. It's not that Ingold ''can't'' take Gil and Rudy back to Earth, but if they don't deal with the Dark first there's the risk of the Dark learning how it's done and coming to eat Earth.

In addition to her self-originated work she has written three Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse novels (''Ishmael'', ''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.

* AwesomenessByAnalysis: In the Star Trek tie-in novel ''Ishmael'', Spock excels at pool without thinking about it, later commenting to a surprised onlooker that it is nothing but simple geometry and physics.

* IntercontinuityCrossover: Her Star Trek tie-in novel ''Ishmael'' is an extended crossover with the 1968-1970 ABC series ''Here Come The Brides'', including several {{Mythology Gag}}s spanning both series. (It also includes cameos from a number of other series, most noticeably ''Series/DoctorWho'' and ''Series/HaveGunWillTravel''- jarring, considering CBS has only the rights to the latter.)

* DividedByACommonLanguage: 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.

* AwesomenessByAnalysis: Bunches.
** In the Star Trek tie-in novel ''Ishmael'', Spock excels at pool without thinking about it, later commenting to a surprised onlooker that it is nothing but simple geometry and physics.

* {{Deconstruction}}: Of classic fantasy clichés: Often.

* LowFantasy: All her fantasy novels.

* {{Ghostapo}}: In ''The Magicians of Night''
* HistoricalFantasy:
** ''The Magicians of Night''

* TrappedInAnotherWorld: The Darwath series.

* IntercontinuityCrossover: Her Star Trek tie-in novel ''Ishmael'' is an extended crossover with the 1968-1970 ABC series ''Here Come The Brides'', including several {{Mythology Gag}}s spanning both series. (It also includes cameos from a number of other series, most noticeably ''Series/DoctorWho'' and ''Series/HaveGunWillTravel''- jarring, considering Paramount and/or CBS have never had rights to any of those series.)

* IntercontinuityCrossover: Her Star Trek tie-in novel ''Ishmael'' is an extended crossover with the 1968-1970 ABC series ''Here Come The Brides'', including several {{Mythology Gag}}s spanning both series. (It also includes cameos from a number of other series, most noticeably ''Series/DoctorWho'' and ''Series/HaveGunWillTravel''.)

In addition to her self-originated work she has written three Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse novels (''Ishmael'', ''Ghost-Walker'' and ''Crossroad''), two Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse novels (the first and third books in ''Literature/TheCallistaTrilogy''), and two tie-in novels for the ''Series/BeautyAndTheBeast'' 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.

On the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsRealism, 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.

'''Barbara Hambly''' 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]].