The Ladies of Mandrigyn, by Barbara Hambly
Title: The Ladies of Mandrigyn
Series: Sun Wolf and Starhawk #1
Author: Barbara Hambly
Format: Hardcover (Book Club Omnibus titled The Unschooled Wizard, combining this title and The Witches of Wenshar)
Publisher: Nelson Doubleday
Year: 1984
Pages: 319
Genre: Sword and Sorcery
Jacket Description
The mercenary captain Sun Wolf had two rules he refused to break: never fall in love. . . and never mess with magic. He and his soldiers would face any ordinary danger, but when it came to fighting sorcery, well, there were easier ways to commit suicide.
So when the Lady Sheera Galernas offered him 10,000 gold pieces to lead the women of Mandrigyn against the evil Wizard King Altiokis, the Wolf just laughed. It wasn't that he doubted women's ability to fight -- his own most trusted lieutenant, Starhawk, was fearless, expert in the arts of war, and no less a woman for it. But Altiokis had spent 150 years building his power, expanding his empire and hunting down any wizard who could possibly oppose him. Mere swords, even in the hands of the Wolf's crack troops, were useless against such might.
But Sun Wolf had underestimated the determination of Sheera and her rebels -- a determination fueld by the knowledge that Altiokis was working their men to death in the foul mines beneath his mountain fortress. Robbed of what they cherished most, these women would stop at nothing.
They kidnapped the mercenary chief, brought him to Mandrigyn and offered him a dismal choice: he could agree to train Sheera's soft, city-bred women and lead them against the Wizard. . . or they'd let him die an agonizing, unbearably slow death from the poison they'd secretly given him.
Forever practical, Sun Wolf decided to break one of his rules and help them fight the Wizard -- never suspecting that he would soon break his other rule as well. . .
My Review
I owe my decision to make this my next Barbara Hambly novel (after Stranger at the Wedding, which I enjoyed but did not love) to comrade_cat, and all I can say is thank you thank you thank you! The Ladies of Mandrigyn is utterly delightful. It is, in fact, exactly what I was looking for when I attempted Jennifer Roberson's Sword Dancer, which so disappointed me. The Ladies of Mandrigyn makes no pretensions to being anything more than a pure sword-and-sorcery novel, replete with heroic acts and larger than life characters played out against a highly romantic background, but the execution is flawless, the characters never cease being sympathetic (or devolve into charicatures) and, most importantly, there is plenty of humor.
Sun Wolf and Starhawk, needless to say, are stock characters. What so delighted me about this novel was that Hambly handled them like real people without ever losing what has made those stock characters so successful in the fantasy genre. She spent most of the novel inside their two heads (though it was technically written third-person omniscient, because when it suited her Hambly did delve into other characters' motivations at will), letting us see the pasts that made them what they are. And by staying in their heads so closely through all the action, we were also able to see the fears and doubts that neither character would ever share with those around him/her, maintaining both the realism for the reader and the virtual perfection for the observer inside the novel.
What set this novel apart even further from the run of the mill sword-and-sorcery novel was that that realism of character extended to all of the minor characters in the novel. Every character that has a speaking role is an easily identified stock character that Hambly makes completely three dimensional. Where this is most impressive (or at least most noticeable) is with the eponymous ladies of Mandrigyn. Most fantasy novels, even those written by women, have very few female characters. This may be because fantasy is usually action or politics oriented and women traditionally have not been leaders in those spheres; it may be because the female fantasy authors today grew up reading male fantasy authors who only introduced women to their novels as damsels in distress; it may be because women still grow up in a society that places more value on men. Whatever the reason, I have learned to enjoy the occasional strong female character in isolation from her own kind. Starhawk is this type of strong female character, and if the story had been about Sun Wolf and Starhawk in their mercenary band that is exactly what it would have looked like.
But the brilliant (though of course still not unique -- I can name one or two other authors that have a similar premise, but only one or two) thing that Hambly did in this novel was make Sun Wolf the fish out of water, a lone strong man surrounded by women. She didn't take the cop-out route of making the women a bizarre Amazonian exception to all the normal gender roles; she set him down firmly among women who were used to fulfilling those traditional gender roles and are being forced out of them by circumstances out of their control. The myriad ways the women reacted to this unwanted freedom is wonderfully realized, as is Sun Wolf's gradual awareness of how similar and different these women are from the men (and the occasional solitary woman) he is used to training. I especially loved Hambly decision to give Sheera that calamitous magic that true leaders have, that charisma that turns otherwise intelligent human beings into lemmings, rather than simply making her leader because her soon-to-be husband possesses that magic.
There isn't that much else to say about the novel. I will admit, Hambly doesn't write her battle scenes terribly well; I found myself lost within them at several points. However, she seems to know that this is a weakness, because she lets most of the battles occur off stage, keeping the focus of the story on those things she does best: funny dialogue and wonderful characterization. I am eagerly looking forward to reading the second volume in this trilogy.