Traveling with the Dead
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3.4 • 5 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
From the New York Times–bestselling author: A vampire alliance may turn the Thames blood red in "one of the best vampire novels of the decade" (Booklist).
After a career in her Majesty's secret service, James Asher's quiet London retirement was shattered when the immortal, Don Simon Ysidro, solicited his help, ushering James and his physician wife, Lydia, into the vampire underworld. But now it is Lydia who needs Ysidro's assistance. Her husband is going it alone on the trail of an Austrian spy who is forging a potentially catastrophic alliance with the undead—a secret coalition that has unwittingly lured James into very mortal danger. Lydia can't let that happen.
She and Ysidro embark on their own pursuit that snakes across the continent from London to Vienna and finally to Constantinople, where an elaborate power struggle between the living and the dead has just begun. It is one that is plunging all of them into the heart of a terrifying conspiracy—with the fate of the entire British Empire at stake.
Following Those Who Hunt the Night, the second book in the James Asher series "captures both the subtle ambiance of turn-of-the-century political intrigue and the even more baroque pathways of the human and the inhuman heart [with] its rich atmosphere and vibrant characters" (Library Journal).
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's personal collection.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The vampire subculture of 19th-century Europe serves as a vehicle for ruminations on love and honor in Hambly's follow-up to Those Who Hunt the Night. The time is 1908, and biologist Lydia Asher is hot on the trail of her husband, James, a former spy and Oxford don who in turn is shadowing Charles Farren, the vampire Earl of Ernchester, and Farren's mortal traveling companion, the nefarious mercenary Ignace Karolyi. Lydia's pursuit of James parallels a similar trek made by Farren's wife, Anthea, who travels in James's company and is as passionately concerned about Farren's welfare as Lydia is about James's. International adventures take these characters from London to Vienna and ultimately to Constantinople, where they become enmeshed in the byzantine political power struggle that has lured Farren there against his will. Although Hambly invests these vampire and mortal personages with the traditional values being threatened by an evolving modern Europe, her vivid portraits allow them to emerge as memorable personalities distinct from the viewpoints they represent. Believable and sympathetic, pursuer and pursued carry the story over its occasional plot muddles and gothic contrivances to a spectacular finale. Hambly covers no ground that hasn't been explored in the historical vampire sagas of Anne Rice and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, but once again she uses familiar elements skillfully to tell an engrossing tale. 50,000 first printing; author tour.
