Barbara Hambly was born in 1951, has written more than forty novels, and has recently started playing World of Warcraft. She is also my favourite author, beating out some fairly classy competition, as you’ll see from columns to come.

She has a Masters in Medieval History and spent a year in Bordeaux as a part of her work for that degree. In the time between that and writing fulltime, she worked as a high school teacher, model, waitress, technical editor (which shows up a bit in her inside knowledge of mainframe computers in one of her series), all-night liquor store clerk, and Shotokan karate instructor.

I first discovered her writing with The Silicon Mage. It’s actually the second book in a loose trilogy, but at the time, that didn’t stop me, and I’m rather glad it didn’t. Antryg Windrose, who is more or less the hero, although not the protagonist, has since made himself comfortably at home in my mind, and his crazily sane points of view creep out at the oddest of moments. Hambly writes brilliant characters, each with their own flaws and virtues, who spring off the page fully formed, and she’s not afraid to make their lives difficult. The Winterlands series are particularly notable for this, with prosaically named John and Jenny going through trauma after trauma, in search of what’s right for the world – or their little part of it – and what’s right for them.

Hambly is also a master world-builder. Stranger at the Wedding (also known as Sorcerer’s Ward), is a very fine example of this, arriving at a complete picture of a developed, complex world with never even the slightest indication of an infodump. And yet, it’s the characters that keep drawing me back to her work, and mean that the copy of Dog Wizard I own is the third one I’ve bought, having worn out the previous two.

I can’t recommend her writing highly enough, and choosing a book to recommend as the first to read has been really difficult. However, after much consideration, I’d say to start nearly where I did, but with the first book in that set: The Silent Tower.

You can read more about Barbara Hambly on her official website.