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Title: Sold Down the River (Benjamin January (Paperback)) by Barbara Hambly ISBN: 0-553-57529-5 Publisher: Bantam Books Pub. Date: 29 May, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.53 (15 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: excellent feel
Comment: I've always been a fan of Hambly's and the Benjamin January series has been a great favorite for not only the excellent, believable charactors and solid storylines, but the little details. The motivations for the charactor's actions and the way they react come through, especially in this book. A regular reviewer would put it this way: Ben finds himself pursuing justice on a plantation run by a brutal former master, and the difficulties with reconciling with his past as well as the prejudices he faces get in the way of his investigation.
But it is much more - one sees motivations and the way that friendships develop under adverse conditions, and what prices people pay to protect themselves and their loved ones to the best of thier abilities. And how people reconciliate thier actions to themselves.
Yes, there are a few spots that are a little jarring to the consistancy, and a bit of a deux ex machina at the end, but in all, the plot development, the charactors, and the logical actions and reactions blended quite well - as well as the historical and location feel.
When Ms. Hambly is your historical tour guide, you can feel the mists and swampy miasma rise around you as you make your way through the cypress tangles bordering the cane fields along the river...
You won't get sold down the river with this one...
Rating: 5
Summary: This is a Terribly Real Period Piece!
Comment: It is very difficult to read this book of Ms. Hambly's because her portrayal of slavery and the slave's lot in 19th century America is so real. The book is filled with horror from cover to cover, but there is warmth, fellowship and love there too. When people are together in misery very lasting and strong bonds and friendships are forged, and Benjamin January rediscovers this when he goes undercover on a cane plantation to try to determine who is behind all the accidents and deaths occuring on his old master's plantation. January certainly has no love for Simon Fourtier, but he can't help going to help because if tragedy occurs to the white folks on a plantation, it can't help but be felt by the slaves, and they usually end up suffering the more for it. January goes to help, and goes to work as a field hand with the threat of being plunged back into the slave's life very real to him. He makes some lasting friendships, but at the same time uncovers an evil so grotesque that he can hardly take it in. Luckily for Ben, his old friend Hannibal and Abishag Shaw come to his rescue before he is actually "sold down the river". Ms. Hambly's research is very extensive, and she captures this era better than anyone I've read.
Rating: 4
Summary: Haunting, and very, very good.
Comment: I think I should begin by saying that Barbara Hambly may be my favorite author. I keep the Darwath books by my bed, to read again and again on nights I can't sleep--Gil Patterson is a soul sister. Hambly wrote the Darwath books many years ago, and of course I have read everything else she's written, the good ones and the terrific ones. The Benjamin January books fulfill the promise of her earlier work, and they are splendid stories and engrossing mysteries, but beyond that, they stand alone as literary works of art and mood. You feel the fears, the heat and the miseries, the joys and the sorrows of this Free Man of Color, but more than that, you begin--only begin, of course--to understand the true horror of slavery and the shining glory inherent in the ability of some men and women to maintain their essential goodness when faced with the stark, uncaring inhumanity of their fellow men. No, these books won't ever help me into calm and dreamless sleep--they have a value far beyond that. Benjamin January, like Gil Patterson, is a person to me--a friend I would know immediately if I met him in real life.
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Title: Graveyard Dust (Benjamin January (Paperback)) by Barbara Hambly ISBN: 0553575287 Publisher: Bantam Books Pub. Date: 02 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Die upon a Kiss by Barbara Hambly ISBN: 0553581651 Publisher: Bantam Books Pub. Date: 30 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Fever Season (Benjamin January (Paperback)) by Barbara Hambly ISBN: 0553575279 Publisher: Bantam Books Pub. Date: 04 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Wet Grave by Barbara Hambly ISBN: 0553581597 Publisher: Bantam Books Pub. Date: 29 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.50 |
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Title: A Free Man of Color (Benjamin January (Paperback)) by Barbara Hambly ISBN: 0553575260 Publisher: Bantam Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1998 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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