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Miscellaneous Dragonstar by Barbara Hambly $6.99 / Del Ray / 2003 Barbara Hambly's Dragonstar, the final book in the Dragonsbane series, starts off with a bang when John, Thane of the Winterlands, is burned alive for consorting with demons while his wife Jenny lies dying of a poisoned arrow deep in the gnomes' caverns below the crown city of Bel. At the same time, Gareth, the prince regent, discovers that demons have taken over his senile father and dead wife. As the demons reanimate his kingdom's dead, they will soon have enough manpower to take the throne. He also discovers that the demons draw their strength from the Dragonstar comet and, with it, a time limit. If they gain power before the comet vanishes, the demons will control the world. But if they fail, they will be banished for a thousand years. Returned from hell and the service of the Demon Queen, John must find his wife and re-awaken her, retake the kingdom for Gareth, and banish three different groups of demons before the next full moon, not to mention escaping his execution. Aiding him is Morkeleb, a dragon that John once swore to kill. I admit to a feeling of trepidation when I picked up Dragonstar. While the Dragonsbane series began with a traditional medieval fantasy, both setting and conflict transformed in book two, and even more so in book three. Most of the latter, Night of the Demon Queen, took place in a strange parallel world, somewhere between our own magicless earth and a demonic hell. But this latest book returns to Dragonsbane's medieval, magical world and opens with a summary of the previous three novels-and this is good, for every weapon and character hails from a previous book. But in Dragonstar, these characters are refined and completed as it cycles back to meet the first, finishing the saga in a single fantasy world, as good and evil clash in a final conflict. As in her other series, author Barbara Hambly weaves a strong, living world with complex details from all aspects of daily life. Hambly's nonhumans, such as dragons and gnomes, are also given brilliant, lifelike characteristics, which sets them apart from the clichéd standard. Although Dragonstar has an immense cast of characters and almost too many plots to keep track of, the book concludes with all questions explained. —Valerie Frankel

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