Customer Reviews

Fire Sea (Death Gate Cycle)

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Haplo the Patryn and his dog leave the Nexus on their third journey, this time to Abarrach, Realm of Stone. Haplo tours the four elemental worlds at his lord's command, preparing the sundered realms for the coming of the Patryn leader and for an easy conquest of the worlds by the Patryns. Haplo also searches for traces of the Sartan, the godly wizards who are the ancient enemies of the Patryns and who, except for one weak survivor in the realm of Air, seem to have died out.

It is this very Sartan, the clumsy and apologetic Alfred Montbank, who, while Haplo crosses Death's Gate to Abarrach, materializes on Haplo's ship. Haplo must grudgingly accept the presence of his sworn enemy at his side as he enters a world in which the two must combine their powers simply to survive.

In the dying world of Abarrach, the Mensch races have all died out long ago, leaving only corrupt, powerless remnants of the Sartan, weakened by many generations of living in a world of caverns, fuming lava and noxious gases. Haplo and Alfred soon discover that the Sartan on Abarrach practice the forbidden art of necromancy - raising all their dead for everyday use in menial tasks and chores.

Our two protagonists come in contact with a young Sartan prince and his people, who have travelled from their barren land in the colder parts of the world in search of a long-lost colony on the edge of the great fire sea, nearer to the core of the world. This land is ruled by a crafty Sartan wizard, Kleitus, who knows of the world's peril and wishes to find Death's Gate, and through it not only salvation from his dying world but also the power of other worlds.

Haplo and Alfred find themselves embroiled in a civil war between Kleitus's city and the prince's people. But when a young man, in grief over his lost love, raises her from the dead far too soon, the world is plunged into a wave of mass killing and death by horrid, vengeful undead creatures.

Haplo, wishing to bring the knowledge of resurrection back to his lord to benefit the Patryns' cause, must come to realize the horrifying consequences of the Sartan's use of this dark art on Abarrach, as both he and Alfred fight to stay alive in a dying world, slowly taken over by the living dead.

In all probability, people who read the first of the Death Gate Cycle books and like it, are going to want to read all of the books in the series (regardless of any flucutation in the individual books' ratings). Ditto for the reverse: if people don't like the first book, then they're probably not going to want to read any of the other books in the series. Thus, instead of individual book ratings, I've rated the whole series and given a short blurb on any specifics for each book.

Overall, this is a very good series. The authors were amazingly creative in coming up with this concept and the books are well-written, extremely interesting, and internally consistent (mostly -- see below for some exceptions). I highly recommend this series of books for everyone. My comments for the indidual books follow:

Vol. 1 -- Dragon Wing: This book covers the exploration of Arianus: the realm of Air. It introduces us to the two main characters (Haplo and Alfred) and many of the recurring characters throughout the series. It's a well-paced, well-written book that's an excellent reresentation of what to expect in most of the rest of the series. Essentially, if you like this book, you'll like the other six books. If you don't like this book, then there's no sense in reading any of the others.

Vol. 2 -- Elven Star: This book covers the exploration of Pryan: the realm of Fire. Alfred is entirely missing from this book, and Haplo isn't really the centerpiece. Instead, the book is mostly written from the perspective of the mensch and of the newly introduced (and recurring) Zifnab. The one possible weakness in the book is that Weis/Hickman wrote it such that the structure of Pryan itself is more of a mystery than Arianus was in the first book.

Vol. 3 -- Fire Sea: This book covers the exploration of Abarrach: the realm of Stone. Once again, both Haplo and Alfred are present. The characters and areas presented in this book are key elements for the entire series. An interesting book, but not a very happy one at all.

Vol. 4 -- Serpent Mage: This book covers the exploration of Chelestra: the realm of Water. Both Alfred and Haplo are on this world. But, for the most part, they follow separate plot lines. There's a lot of action taking place throughout the book and Weis/Hickman introduce some actual Sartan (besides Alfred). They also bring in an ancient evil to balance the ancient good introduced in the previous book. The most irritating thing about this book is that it ends in a cliff-hanger. The previous books tied up their worlds' activities fairly nicely. Not so in this book. It ends at a very inconvenient spot.

Vol. 5 -- Hand of Chaos: This book returns Haplo to Arianus and the people he met there earlier. Whereas the first four books of the series cover the exploration of the four realms, this book starts the synthesis of the various threads from those books into a movement towards closure. It's a good book, but, unfortunately, it doesn't do anything with Alfred. The previous book left Alfred heading towards a bad end. This book doesn't do anything with that. So, while reading the book, you constantly have this little voice in the back of your mind going "what's happening with Alfred?" Irritating.

Vol. 6 -- Into the Labyrinth: This book ranges across just about all of the worlds of the Death Gate. It brings all of the various threads from the other books to a head. Most importantly, it finally does something with Alfred. The unfortunate thing about this book is that it contains a lot of technical errors (or, more specifically, contradictions). For instance, in Dragon Wing, we're told that a person needs to be familiar with an area to use a transportation spell to get to that area. Yet, very close to the beginning of the book, one of the characters uses such a spell without ever having been to her target location. There are also several instances where the characters COULD have used such a spell, but don't. Likewise, there are problems with replication spells. In Fire Sea, Haplo and Alfred use such a spell to replicate enough food for a large group of people. Yet, in this book, no one seems to consider using a replication spell to produce more of some food. But, later on, those same people are using that same spell to replicate weapons. Plus, at one point, Xar uses a spell to just materialize both food and drink for a party. But, if such a thing is possible, why do the Patryns hunt and, apparently, farm in the Labyrinth? Also, the size of the Labyrinth seems wrong. From the previous books, it's taken hundreds (if not thousands) of years for various Patryns to traverse the hundreds of Gates in the Labryrinth. Yet, in this book, from the very beginning of the Labyrinth they can see the results of things happening at the Final Gate. There's also the problem of how people at the center of the Labyrinth would know anything about the Final Gate.

Vol. 7 -- Seventh Gate: This is the conclusion of the Death Gate series. Unforunately, I didn't much care for it. Basically, it comes across as being pretty sappy. All of a sudden, Haplo and Alfred are best buds and want to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. Most of the various threads are tied up adequately (if not very satifyingly). But, the sudden push towards liberal "peace, love, and harmony" is trite. Of the seven books in this series, this one is the least good. Once again, I didn't much care for the tone of this book. But, since it adequatly ties up most everything that needed tying up, I'm not going to downgrade the whole series because of that.

Of all the Death Gate Cycle books, this is the most macabre for it deals in the dead. Here, Haplo and Alfred go to the realm of stone, completely underground. The world is dying, the "lower" races having completely died out, leaving only a diminished and woefully lacking race of sartan who have used their magic only to keep themselves alive, and lost much of the rest of it. They can not even reactivate the failing glyphs throughout the caverns.

To supplement the lack of servants found in the lower races they now use the undead, using necromancy, a magic that is expressly forbidden. In the end it is their undoing as a war breaks out between the dead and the living. Now Haplo and Alfred must fight their way free.

Superbly written, awesome backdrop, and truly one of the best in this series.

Set on Abarrach, world of stone, Fire Sea delves into the arts of forbidden magic and the consequences of using it. The novel slowly unravels the mystery behind the Sartan disappearance from all the realms and forges a grudging bond between two demi-gods that are sworn enemies. The cover for Fire Sea caught my eye in one of my local bookstores, so I bought it, took it home and read it. I was fortunate that the beginning of the book gave a rough overview of the first two books, which I had not read at the time, so I was somewhat up to speed. Upon starting this book, I could not put it down. Page after page this book got more and more intense until I finished it well after midnight. Let me say that at home, alone, in the middle of the night might or might not be the best way for Fire Sea to be read, depending on how you enjoy a haunting novel. If you are the type who likes to engage yourself within the confines of a great book, then this is it. Fire Sea takes you in and makes you walk the aged and decrepit tunnels of Abarrach and lets you smell the acrid air that swirls throughout the dying land. Fire Sea holds hostage your attention and does not let loose until the story is through with you. The Death Gate Cycle is a magnificent accomplishment for fantasy, and is what fantasy and epic story telling is all about. The only question left unanswered after reading all of the books in the series is how will Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman ever top it?

I got to the Death Gate books from the computer game. I started playing it and I loved the idea so I started reading the books and I havn't regreted it for a moment. Fire Sea is a great book, advancing you further into the plot. When I read "Elven Star"(book 2) I thought the plot was getting very dark, but it was nothing compared to this book: It shows you the Horrible things that happened to the Sartan's "wonderfull" plan for the worlds and tells the story of a dying world where there is only a handfull of living people where there were once thriving kingdoms. The books gives more info on the history of the world and more info on the whole story, though there are many things that you still don't understand. All in all, a great book! I can't wait to read the next one.

The third volume of the Death Gate Cycle just blew me away when I read it. The story takes a darker turn, looks at death and our perceptions of it, and becomes more depressing than the other books of the series, while maintaining the fast pace and enjoyability I have come to expect from Weis and Hickman. The cast of characters, again renovated, as in the first two, is by far superior to Dragon Wing and Elven Star. Living, dead, and undead, all the characters are made real by the vivid writing styles of the two authors. This book is disturbing, but also amazing. Even if you didn't like the first two, they're worth it just to get to this one. A couple warnings, though: first, this book contains some major violence, and I wouldn't recommend it for readers younger than, say 13. Another, on a different topic: make sure you have Serpent Mage handy when you finish this book, the ending is a direct lead-in to the fourth book. Amazingly enough, Weis and Hickman manage to keep the quality of the series nearly as high as this book for the last four volumes!

There is a lot I could say about a book this good but I'll stick with this short story. I was an avid reader in high school and this book was so hard to put down that I got in trouble for reading it while the teacher was talking. I know that sounds lame, but seriously, I just couldn't help finding out what was going to happen next. That doesn't happen very often...

I read this book, and the rest of The Death Gate Cycle when it first came out and I was about 14 years old. (About 10 years ago I think). Back then, I thought it was the best series ever, etc etc. I've written reviews for the previous books in this series, so if you look for them, you'll find them.

Fire Sea, the third book in this seven book series, is fantastic. I literally read it in one 24-hour period because I was so into it. It's been a week since I finished now, but I still remember how fantastic it was.

I won't go into too much plot because other reviewers nicely summarize it. The book reunites Haplo and Alfred, the two main characters in the series. Alfred was not in the second book, and it's good to see him back. They are reluctant companions in a journey to an underground world where everything is dead. The world's source of heat and light is dying, and the once peaceful Sartan have become fragile shells of the once great people they were. Their magic has turned to necromancy, and anybody who dies is brought back to life as a walking zombie.

This book succeeds for three reasons. First are the contrasting relationships in the book. Alfred and Haplo, ancient enemies by birth, need to learn lessons from the other, but don't think they do. Their survival however, depends on it. We see Haplo begin to doubt his Lord's motives, and we see Alfred begin to doubt his people. Jonathan and his wife are the epitome of the young, loving couple. The sheer emotion put into their story is worth your time alone.

Secondly, there's almost no way you can predict what's going to happen. Unlikely characters become major players and do things you'd never expect, and small things mentioned early in the book become extremely important. Lastly, the back-story is finally told! At last, after three books, I was thrilled to be told at last how the Sartan and the Patryns came to be, of their Great War, and what the Chamber of the Damned was used for. Read those chapters carefully: there is stuff in there that I think isn't supposed to make a lot of sense now, but in the final books is absolutely essential.

My only complaint for this book is that some of it, like many of the things in the series, is a little too contrived and is never explained very well. You never really figure our in the beginning how Alfred managed to get onto Haplo's ship. I get the impression the authors just wanted to get to the point and didn't bother explaining that, and a few other things.

The ending to this book is simply amazing. Very few books I've read have the sort of suspense and drama that were in this one. Like <i>The Empire Strikes Back</i>, the good guys don't win and they only manage to escape. The last chapter and the epilogue ends everything perfectly. After reading the last sentence of the book, and finally understanding it's meaning, I was covered in chills.

This could quite possibly end up as the best book in the series. I'll move onto the fourth book, and see if it can compare.

Dragon Wing was okay - Elven Star was good - I picked up Fire Sea more out of curiosity than out of a burning desire to find out what happened next. This is the book that finally got me swept into the series. More is learned about the history of the sundered realms, and the characters of Haplo and Alfred are developed further. I think the most interesting thing about this series is that it is, at least initially, written mainly from the point of view of those who would normally be considered "the bad guys" - the Patryns. Eventually, of course, good and bad get all muddled up as the *true* evil is discovered, and although this doesn't really happen until later on in the series, it begins in Fire Sea. The book is full of revelations that don't really make that much sense until the later books, but that give you enough of a taste of what's going on to get you completely hooked. It is a dark, macabre story, that holds a faint promise of redemption.

Fire Sea, the third of seven books in Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Death Gate Cycle is just as good as the previous two, if not better. This entry in the series takes place in Abarrach, the Realm of Stone.

It starts out different from all the rest, with the first seven chapters being part of a diary from Balthazar, King Edward's necromancer. Soon, as Haplo is about to enter the Death Gate, Alfred (from Dragon Wing) drops in and goes with Haplo to Abarrach. They soon discover that the Sartan found here practice Necromancy, or the art of bringing back the dead. This is discovered much to Alfred's horror, as he cannot believe his race would do such a thing.

The book continues, with many conflicts and sub-conflicts rising up and making for a very dark and interesting read. We get to see inside Haplo, and we discover he is not all Sartan-hater we think he is. We also find that Haplo is not invincible and that Alfred is more powerful than we knew.

Fire Sea is an amazing book in the Death Gate Cycle, and I cannot wait to read Serpent Mage!

P.S: Be sure to read the appendicies...They're important!