The Door Into Fire (The Tale of the Five #1) [Mass Market Paperback]

Diane Duane (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (August 15, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812536711
• ISBN-13: 978-0812536713
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,551,863 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Diane Duane was born in New York City -- a descendant of New York's first mayor -- and worked there as a psychiatric nurse before leaving the profession for the only one she loved better, the business of writing. Since the publication of her first novel in 1981, she's written fifty more, not to mention numerous short stories, comics, computer games and screenplays for TV and film, and has picked up the occasional award here and there. (She has also worked with Star Trek in more media than anyone else alive.)

Right now she's probably best known for her "Young Wizards" series of young adult fantasy novels, featuring the New York-based wizards Kit Rodriguez and Nita Callahan -- in business for twenty-five years now, their most recent adventure being described in the ninth YW novel, "A Wizard of Mars" (just released in paperback).

DD shares a two hundred-year-old cottage in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland with her husband, the Belfast-born novelist and screenwriter Peter Morwood, a laid-back white cat named Goodman, and various overworked computers... an odd but congenial environment for the staging of epic battles between good and evil and the leisurely pursuit of total galactic domination. (And a lot of ethnic cooking: her own favorite foods come from the cuisines of central Europe and the Mediterranean.) In her spare time she gardens (weeding, mostly), studies German and Italian, listens to shortwave and satellite radio, and dabbles in astronomy, computer graphics, iaido, amateur cartography, and desktop publishing ... while also trying to figure out how to make more spare time.

Her favorite color is blue, her favorite food is a weird kind of Swiss scrambled-potato dish called maluns, she was born in a Year of the Dragon, and her sign is "Runway 24 Left, Hold For Clearance."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In Quest of a Focus, August 21, 2003

By 

Arthur W. Jordin (Smyrna, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Door into Fire: Tale of the Five Volume 1 (Paperback)

The Door Into Fire (1979) is the first novel in the Tale of Five series. Herewiss is the heir to the Brightwood, a principality within the Kingdom of Darthen. Herewiss has the potential to be the first male in centuries to use the Power of the Flame; the fire is within him, but cannot be expressed in any meaningful way without a Focus.

While training with the Rodmistresses, he has tried various forms of Rods as his Focus, but they all burst. Then he tried swords of wood, ivory and bone, but they all burst. Finally, he tries to imbue steel swords with a form of pseudolife, but even they all burst.

In this novel, Herewiss is working on yet another steel sword in the smithy that he has constructed in his bedroom when he receives a message via pigeon that Freelorn, his loved, and his small band have been trapped by a thousand or more armed men in an old keep south of Madeil. Freelorn wants him to come and use his sorcery to save them once again. After getting permission from Hearn, his father and Lord of Brightwater, Herewiss leaves to rescue Freelorn. He rides out on Dapple, who has been blessed with the talent of being at the right place at the right time, but finds another mount at a wayside shelter during a torrential thunderstorm.

Sunspark is a fire elemental in the form of a red horse with a golden mane. Since it is newly come to the planet, Sunspark spends too much time absorbing the energy from a brush fire and the rainstorm catches it away from shelter. The water is gradually eating away its energy, but it hears Herewiss calling and almost reaches the shelter before it is unable to move anymore. However, Herewiss and Dapple carry and drag it out of the rain, where it soon recovers.

This novel is a tale of adventure and character development. Both Herewiss and Freelorn mature during this novel. Segnbora, another one frustrated by an almost inexpressible Flame, exhibits some changes that might blossom later in this series. However, the major changes occur in Sunspark, the energy being who knows nothing about humanity but is very curious.

This novel expresses a philosophy of Life that underlies every aspect of the story: the only way to cheat death is to maximize Life and Love in all its forms. When he has his epiphany, Herewiss finds that he is just a small part of the Life that permeates the Universe. This worldview also underlies the Young Wizards series.

This novel incorporates a variant of the Triple Goddess religion as the major spiritual influence; in fact, the Mother and the Maiden play a significant part in the story. This religion promotes various forms of sexual experiences, of which heterosexual sex is special only in that it produces offspring. The Goddess herself has Twin Lovers, her own children by parthenogenesis, who are originally both male, but who die and return, sometimes as male and sometimes as female.

Other aspects of the story show a definite Irish influence, but one that antecedes the Celtic infusion. The Fyrd, the aboriginal fauna in the Middle Kingdoms, include horwolves, nadders, and keplians. However, there were no Sidhe nor any other sentients occupying the land prior to the coming of the humans.

This series is being republished after being long out of print. The Door Into Fire and The Door Into Shadow were issued as an omnibus edition in 2002 (see The Sword and the Dragon) and the other two (including the hereto unpublished The Door Into Starlight) are scheduled to be released in 2004 (or later).

Highly recommended for Duane fans and anyone else who enjoys tales of sword and sorcery with some serious character development.

-Arthur W. Jordin

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful world and characters, uniquely spiritual, May 27, 1998

By 

Cory Kerens (Boston area, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Door Into Fire (The Tale of the Five #1) (Mass Market Paperback)

When this book first opens, it seems like it will be standard sword-and-sorcery -- heros, villans, quests, and magic. But the deeper one gets into the book, the clearer it becomes that this is something special. Imagine a world in which the deity is not a matter of faith but of fact, because everyone has met her. Imagine a world in which who one loves is not important, as long as one does love. Imagine as hero not the usual charming but amoral rogue but a thoroughly decent, kind and generous man. Imagine a book that teaches us that our own fears are the biggest obstacles of life and that overcoming our pasts and accepting our true selves are the truest victories. Except that you don't have to imagine all of this, because Diane Duane has already done it for you.

I've bought a dozen copies of this book, and I press it on friends at every opportunity.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Fantasy Novel I've Ever Read, June 14, 2001

By 

"unicorness" (Renton, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Door Into Fire (The Tale of the Five #1) (Mass Market Paperback)

This novel is one that I've read and reread in both the editions I have -- the original paperback and the Bluejay books edition. It is a story of enduring love, the triumph of love over fear and hate, and most of all, the best truly different fantasy world I've ever seen made up. It is culturally, historically, and religiously different without being dry, like some science-fiction books that try to portray another really different culture get.

It's main character is Herewiss, a man who has the potential to wield great magic but cannot break through to connect with it and manifest his magic. He joins forces with Freelorn, the exiled heir of a neighboring kingdom and his lifelong love, Segnbora, a mysterious troubled woman, and some of Freelorn's faithful friends (Harald, Moris, and Dritt) in an adventure that leads them to the edges of their world, and involves door into other worlds and the mastering of a fire elemental whose favored form is that of a horse!

The next two books in the series are The Door into Shadow and The Door into Sunset. At last, I hear news that Ms. Duane has written the fourth (The Door into Twilight) that I have hounded the bookstores about now for years, diligently searching in the "Du" section of fantasy and science fiction with every trip.

For those who really love the world of the Middle Kingdoms, there's a little-known short story by Diane Duane published in Flashing Swords! #5: Demons and Daggers (edited by Lin Carter, Nelson Doubleday 1981) called "Parting Gifts." It is about an older rodmistress, the Shadow, an young swashbuckler, and a kitten. It features a wild hunt and facing down the Shadow in his lair. I cry whenever I finish it. If you can find it, read it and add it to your knowledge of the world setting.

I've used Ms. Duane's Middle Kingdoms setting as the basis for my personal D&D campaign for years now. Sure, my campaign is by no means her books, but she provided such a rich tapestry (and map!) that I didn't have to go far to have a solid foundation for a whole world.