Bride of the Rat God

by Barbara Hambly

Book Overview

Chrysanda Flamande was the sultriest vamp of the silver screen in Hollywood, California, in the year 1923. Then an elderly Chinese gentleman warned her that a trinket she'd worn in her last movie had... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345381017
• ISBN13: 9780345381019
• Release Date: October 1994
• Publisher: Del Rey Books
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful!!

I wish there were more like this one! Barbara Hambly creates such vivid three-dimentional pictures of a by-gone era. This book evokes the images of great black and white adventure movies with heroines slinking through in elegant floor length gowns and no gentleman went out with out a hat. Even though the story is from her superb imagination, she has taken incredible pains with the accuracy of the setting. Living in the great megalopolis of Los Angeles/Orange County, we often forget that once there were tremendous open spaces, that we wouldn't be living here if not for the film industry. How skillfully Ms. Hambly gives us a history lesson about what is under our very feet and enthralls us with a great story at the same time. As always, I look forward to her next endeavor.

Funny, intelligent book!

The only thing wrong with Bride of the Rat God is cover illustration. It seems that the artist only read the squib on the back cover.Christine Blackstone, aka Chrysanda Flamande, is one of the biggest stars of the silent film era. She lives with her widowed sister-in-law, Norah, and her Pekingese dogs, in the hills of Los Angeles. After wearing an ancient Chinese necklace in one of her movie costumes, she is cursed to be killed by the Rat God.Sounds just like a pulp thriller, right? Fortunately this particular book was written by Barbara Hambly, so what you get instead is an intelligent, well researched, somewhat spoof of Hollywood in the 1920's. The characters are well rounded, the plot is interesting but not overly complicated, and the writing is superb. Now if there was only some way to get rid of that terrible cover....

Incredibly immaginative saga of good vs. evil

This book had the wonderful combination of keeping me turning the pages to find out what was happening next and laughing hysterically. While very unlike Barbara Hambly's other books, each one of which I have loved, this book shines out as a more lighthearted version of the same gripping plot, deep characters, cohesive world view, and some creeping horror that must be fought, if only they can figure out how in time. I bought extra copies of this book and sent them to three friends who were having a hard time right then with their life. All three reported that 'Bride of the Rat God' brought immediate relief from depression!

This is a can't-put-it-down kind of book.

Ms. Hambly portrays early Hollywood so well, you find yourself surprised to look up from the book and see the 1990's. Nora Blackstone is the person telling the story, a practical down-to-earth sort of woman, the widow of Jim, brother of silent film actress Chrysanda Flamande. Jim was killed in WWI, barely a few years after he and Nora were married, and much of the book is driven by Nora's recovery from mourning and her concern for her sister-in-law, who has been inadvertantly promised to (you guessed it) the Rat God. It is an action-packed book, with wonderfully presented and believable characters, and a joy to read. The only drawback is the cover of the book. If I hadn't already been aquainted with the author and how good she is from her vampire books (Those Who Hunt the Night, and Traveling with the Dead), that cover would've put me off for sure.

One of her best books!

This is a great book! Set in 1923 in a nascent Hollywood, Hambly has presented the hectic life of early movie people, and mixed it all up with an ancient evil Manchurian Rat God, and Chinatown in Los Angelas. Her totally charming heroine, "Chrysande Flamande", with 3 little pekinese dogs, which are also Fu dogs, born to fight demons is at the center of this great story. But there is also the dignified, sholarly brown haired Norah, and her new love, Alec, the short and stocky cinematography. The only problem with the book is the truly awful cover, which completely misses the feeling of the book: nostalgia; kindliness; and ugly scuttling evil out there in the dark....