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All of Hambly's books in long series are hard for me to read in order due to multiple publishers and similar titles, but I have the most trouble with her vampire books, and accidentally read this one out of order. This is the one where James falls from a height, breaks multiple bones, and gets pneumonia; also WWI begins. The next one (which I read before it) is the one where he's still recovering from pneumonia and Lydia is at the front. I just thought there had been an awful lot going on between books!
In this one, James is in the hospital having strangely vivid dreams of Simon's past, while Simon and Lydia try to find out who attacked him. While the past story was interesting, it was so jumbled and feverish that I was way more into the present story, which was satisfyingly dark, exciting, and emotionally tangled.
Hambly has some recurring themes that I don't see often in fiction. One of them is the human tendency to value the lives of those we know and love above the lives of strangers, and how incredibly damaging yet inescapable this is. This is probably the theme in these books, in which Lydia and James can't help loving and rescuing Simon, despite knowing that every day he exists means another death of someone they don't know. In turn, Simon loves and rescues them, while knowing that some day their delicate balance of morality against love might tip and reward him with a stake through the heart.
Darkness on His Bones: A vampire mystery (A James Asher Vampire Novel Book 6)
In this one, James is in the hospital having strangely vivid dreams of Simon's past, while Simon and Lydia try to find out who attacked him. While the past story was interesting, it was so jumbled and feverish that I was way more into the present story, which was satisfyingly dark, exciting, and emotionally tangled.
Hambly has some recurring themes that I don't see often in fiction. One of them is the human tendency to value the lives of those we know and love above the lives of strangers, and how incredibly damaging yet inescapable this is. This is probably the theme in these books, in which Lydia and James can't help loving and rescuing Simon, despite knowing that every day he exists means another death of someone they don't know. In turn, Simon loves and rescues them, while knowing that some day their delicate balance of morality against love might tip and reward him with a stake through the heart.
Darkness on His Bones: A vampire mystery (A James Asher Vampire Novel Book 6)
