The Gate of Gods: Book Three of The Fall of Ile-Rien (Fall of the Ile-Rien) [Mass Market Paperback]

Martha Wells (Author)

Book Description

Series: Fall of the Ile-Rien | Publication Date: July 25, 2006

Tremaine Valiarde and a small, brave band of heroes ventured into a wondrous new realm on their desperate mission to save Ile-Rien from the conquering Gardier. Now, as a relentless enemy creates chaos and destruction -- with the fate of the magical city of Lodun hanging in the balance -- the last hope of a land besieged may rest on the far side of a secret portal.

But the doorway leads to a mysterious ruin hidden behind the awesome Gate of Gods -- and to perils that dwarf anything Tremaine and her allies could have possibly imagined. . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of the final volume in Wells's imaginative and complex Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy (after 2004's The Ships of Air), her resourceful and witty heroine, Tremaine Valiarde, and a ragtag band of followers have the magic of the Viller spheres to help resist the almost invincible invading Gardier. Unfortunately, too many pieces of the puzzle remain missing for them to effectively defend what's left of the country of Ile-Rien, let alone liberate the rest of it. When the sphere-entrapped sorcerer Arisilde sends them a spell that eventually leads to "a train station for world-gates," Tremaine and her cohorts may have finally found a way to drive the Gardier out of Ile-Rien. New readers are advised to start with the first in the series, The Wizard Hunters (2003), as an acquaintance with numerous characters and previous action is essential.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Two books ago, in The Wizard Hunters (2003), Wells showed Ile-Rien about to fall to the mysterious, unstoppable Gardier, who attack from black airships; thanks to a sphere created by sorcerer Nicholas Valiarde, his daughter Tremaine and a ship's crew of defenders are thrown into a world more primitive than Ile-Rien. In The Ships of Air (2004), the Gardier, revealed as hailing from yet another world, are revealed to be using magic they don't completely understand, and Ile-Rien's defenders learn enough to defeat the Gardier. Now, in The Gate of Gods, Tremaine Valiarde and her comrades have found a hidden Gardier base and hints of what may stop them, though it calls for jumping near blindly through more sorcerous gates, and Ile-Rien is running out of time. Wells shows us some very convincing characters in a desperate situation: attacked without warning, their usual weapons made ineffective, and with allies sometimes as strange as their enemies. The plot is very complex, so start the trilogy at the beginning. Frieda Murray
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Harper Voyager (July 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380808005
• ISBN-13: 978-0380808007
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #340,310 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Martha Wells is the author of eleven fantasy novels, including Wheel of the Infinite, City of Bones, The Element of Fire, and the Nebula-nominated The Death of the Necromancer. Her most recent fantasy novels are The Cloud Roads and The Serpent Sea, to be published by Night Shade Books in 2011 and 2012. She has also written a fantasy trilogy: The Wizard Hunters, The Ships of Air, and The Gate of Gods, all currently out in paperback from HarperCollins Eos. She has had short stories in the magazines Black Gate, Realms of Fantasy, Lone Star Stories, and Stargate Magazine, and in the Tsunami Relief anthology Elemental and The Year's Best Fantasy #7. She has essays in the nonfiction anthologies Farscape Forever and Mapping the World of Harry Potter from BenBella Books. She has also written two media-tie-in novels, Stargate Atlantis: Reliquary and Stargate Atlantis: Entanglement. Her books have been published in eight languages, including French, Spanish, German, Russian, and Dutch, and her web site is www.marthawells.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Satisfying concusion to a superior fantasy series, November 6, 2005

By 

Kathbyrd "kathbyrd" (Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Gate of Gods: Book Three of the Fall of Ile-Rien (Hardcover)

This is a very satisfying conclusion to Martha Well's Fall of Ile Rien series. It is a strong on action, but also continues developing the relationships, the world, and the cultures of all those involved. It also manages to tie elements together into a satifying bow without feeling pat -- including elements from earlier Ile Rien novels. Tremaine Valiarde is now one of my favorite fictional female characters, with some of the same elements that make Harriet Vane (of Dorothy Sayers) enjoyable to meet and root for. My only regret is that the series is complete -- I'll look forward to Well's next work.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 4 out of 5 aint bad, August 26, 2006

By 

C. Stevens (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gate of Gods: Book Three of The Fall of Ile-Rien (Fall of the Ile-Rien) (Mass Market Paperback)

I have read all of Martha Wells' books and have enjoyed each of them a great deal. Her world building is always rich and original, her prose is sharp, her plots well paced and engaging, and her characters likeable...and that is a lot to like (far more than most fantasies I've read). There was a bit to much deus ex machina in the series (well...literally this time)...and as some reviewers said not a great deal of insight into the characters motivations...and after reading all of her books there is a...familiarity about the characters despite the very different backgrounds...but make no mistake, this is GOOD fantasy, and if it's not high literature, so be it...I'll still be eagerly awaiting her next work.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A world is saved but our characters don't grow much more, January 3, 2006

By 

K. Maxwell "katmax1" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gate of Gods: Book Three of the Fall of Ile-Rien (Hardcover)

While I enjoyed the first two books in this series, I would have to say that this volume was a disappointment to me. The mystery behind the Gardier aggression, the fate of Arisilde and the future of Tremaine's and Ilias relationship is resolved in this novel, but despite that I ended the book feeling dissatisfied.

The pace of this book seemed more uneven and slower than the previous two novels, and at the end of it, while the war is finished, and Tremaine is no longer suicidal, I didn't feel like I had a real insight to Tremaine's character aside from some nasty episodes in her past that made her feel that society wasn't "worth it". On reflection this is a series I should have bought in paperback given my feeling of let down at the end, but it had some unique moments, especially in book 2 on "the Ravenna".