Customer Reviews

Hell Hath No Fury (BOOK 2 in new MULTIVERSE series)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Hell Hath No Fury (2007) is the second SF novel in the Multiverse series, following Hell's Gate. In the previous volume, Commander of One Hundred Hadrign Thalmayr finally arrived to relieve Hundred Jasak Oldenhan. When Thalmayr tried to take the prisoners -- Shaylar Nargra-Koymayr and her husband Jathmar Nargra -- Jasak declared them to be shardonai, under his personal protection. Jasak took them back to his homeworld when he left the command.

Two Thousand Nith mul Gurthak quickly sent forward Masters Rithmar Skirvon and Uthik Dastiri of the Union Arbitration Commission to conduct a parley to gain time. Under the orders of his secret masters -- the Mythalan Council of Twelve -- mul Gurthak carefully prepared a counterstrike. Arcanan troops and dragons assembled on islands near the portal.

In this novel, Dorzon chan Saskey commands the group of soldier functioning as diplomats in the parley with the Arcanans. His Talents are beginning to distrust the motives of the Arcanans. Saskey sends a Flicker message to his backup team and passes the word within his group.

Half the Arcanan honor guard at the parley are Special Operations troops, who have been briefed on the operation. When the time comes, Tharian Narshu uses a hidden dagger stone to take out the Voice. The dragons are due shortly afterward.

Unfortunately, Hulmok Arthag is ready for any aggressive move by the Arcanans. When Natshu draws his hidden weapon, Arthag draws his pistol and his men are close behind him. Unluckily, Natshu's single shot takes out the Sharonan Voice as well their Flicker Talent.

The Sharonans win that small fight, but have no means of warning their backup forces without the Voice and Flicker. They quickly interrogate their prisoners for immediate intelligence and learn about the dragons. Then they take the prisoners and head toward a side gate within the portal cluster.

In this story, the Arcanans move through the portals one by one, taking out the Voice network as they go. They attack the portal forts with dragons -- about which the Sharonans know nothing -- and push down the multiverse chain for four thousand miles. Then they reach Fort Salby.

Nith mul Gurthak regularly sends reports on the attack back to his secret masters. The Council has provided him with a spell to encrypt and compress these reports and embed them within ordinary mail to his brother-in-law. Only two others have the spellware to retrieve these messages.

Voice Darcel Kinlafia heads back to Sharona. After forty-eight thousand miles of travel, Kinlafia is escorted into the presence of Zindel chan Calirath, the Emperor of Ternathia and the designated Emperor of Sharona. He finds the Emperor to be very easy to relate to, although Zindel is somewhat terrifying if only for his heritage.

Kinlafia shares a Glimpse with the Emperor and learns about his future relationship with the Secondary Heir, Imperial Princess Andrin. He also meets Privy Voice Alazon Yanamar, who is to coach him on political affairs. As Voices sometimes do, both Kinlafia and Alazon suddenly recognize each other as the love of their life.

Meanwhile, Shaylar and Jathmar have traveled over halfway to the Arcanan home universe, with only forty thousand miles to go. Shaylar has discovered that the marriage bond between Jathmar and herself is wakening. When Jathmar tries his Mapping Talent, he also discovers that it is weaker. They carefully don't tell the Arcanans about their failling Talents.

This story concludes with the end of Arcanan secrecy. The Sharonans at Fort Salby have discovered the Arcanan aerial transport and combat capabilities and have finally gotten word back to Sharona. Moreover, the Sharonan relief division has arrived at Fort Salby.

The military story resembles the Japanese drive through the Pacific islands during World War II. However, the story includes at least two factors that differed from that operation: the communications blackout and the bottleneck at the portals. Submarines and airplanes provided the Allies with intelligence and caused havoc among the supply ships during the island campaign. Yet the Sharonans did not even know that they were under attack until the dragons flamed their forts.

This tale combines military combat with political intrigue in Weber's successful style. The storyline has mostly concentrated on Sharonan politics in the first two volumes, but the Arcanan side probably will dominant the next volume. Enjoy!

Highly recommended for Weber & Evans fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of military conflict, political intrigue, and a touch of romance.

-Arthur W. Jordin

[Warning: Plot spoiler.]

Weber and Evans continue their Multiverse series with this second book. Much improved over the first, if only because it now has three things lacking in the former. A map of the network of Earths. A glossary of two sets of terms. (There are two different worlds that are clashing, and each has its own references.) Plus a list of characters. Of necessity, I still had to continually refer to all three while reading. But much more convenient than trying to keep a scad of unfamiliar names and relationships in my head. Which was the big drawback of book 1. Still, there is room for improvement in book 2. The main battle scene could have done with a map. Complicated enough to warrant this. Perhaps the authors don't think so. But they undoubtedly were conversant enough not to need it. It's different for the reader.

The plot of this book seems to be a reworking of the Pacific War, from Pearl Harbour to Midway. Arcana as Imperial Japan and Sharona as the US and its allies. To be sure, the analogy is not as close as in Turtledove's Civil War series, where the latest books are an explicit recap of World War 2. But the resemblences here are still striking. Arcanan diplomats stall negotiations long enough for their forces to launch a surprise attack. Much like Japanese diplomats in DC while their fleet approached Pearl. Arcana has air power, while Sharona completely lacks any such capability. Ok, here is one instance where the analogy does break down. The US, of course, had an air force. So you should not take the analogy too far.

More correlations arise. All the conflicts in this book take part on land. Initially, seemingly different from the Pacific, which were mostly naval conflicts. Actually, the book's battles are really akin to being fought over small islands vastly separated from each other. The worlds being explored are sparsely populated with Sharona and Arcana forts.

Another overlap is where Sharona's technology is roughly that of the US, between the World Wars. With the exception of electronics, where this has been replaced by psionics. So Sharona has the equivalent of radio and radar. Also, despite differences between Arcana and Sharona, the latter has far more logistical capability. Not a significant factor in this book. But it may come into play later. There is a strong hint of this in one character's observation. And I give nothing away by saying that there will be future books.

The overwhelming of the Sharona fort at Hell's Gate is the first battle of the book. How this occurred maps onto the attack on Pearl. One difference is that Arcana captures the fort, while Pearl never fell to the Japanese. (Though Turtledove has provided a history where this happened, if you're interested.)

Arcana then goes on to take a series of Sharona forts, mostly by surprise, with trivial casualties. These are the Japanese successes in the Pacific (Guam, Wake, Phillippines, etc) until Midway. Another correlation is in how the sides treat prisoners. Sharona does so humanely. But Arcana has several officers who deliberately torture and kill prisoners. Notably, not all the Arcana officers approve of this. But it is condoned as military necessity.

Finally, Midway. Sharona has a prince present at a key fort, with many soldiers and weapons. His visions of an Arcana attack are timely enough for his side to prepare and defeat it. The visions are the American breaking of the Japanese cryptography that told Spruance and Nimitz of the fleets approaching Midway.

Keep in mind that the analogy is thus far only in book 2. Book 1, while it laid the groundwork for this book, really did not use the analogy. And there is no guarantee or necessity for the authors to pursue this device in later books.

One possibly disappointing aspect to some readers is the death of the prince in the last battle. Used as propaganda by the Sharonan government to motivate its people. If you have read Weber's recent "On Armageddon Reef", he does a very similar action at the end of that book. While both scenes are well written, you can really see Weber at a figurative photocopying machine, simply pushing a button.

This book hits the nail on the head of every criteria for a 5 star book you care to name.

Believable and emotionaly provoking characters? Check
Well thought out and executed battle scenes? Check
Intruiging and original plot? Check
Bad guys that are Realy bad and good guys that are realy good? Check
Thought provoking political debates? Check
Believable civilizations? Check
And of course the centerpiece of any sci-fi novel. Inteligent, Well thought out, magic and technology.
In short, this is among the best books I have read in Years.
5 stars

I am a DW fan from way back. This story is't bad but it takes a while to set up and get moving. The second book is really the second half of the first book. Wait for the paperback and save the hard cover price. Other wise it's an enjoyable read.

In HELL'S GATE, David Weber and Linda Evans created an interesting new series of universes in which to play and posited a first contact scenario between the two civilizations as a botched effort, rife with misunderstandings on both sides and tragic violence. In this second volume, the situation just gets worse as misunderstandings proliferate and people with ulterior motives and hidden agendas do their best to promote themselves at the expense of their societies.

One of the civilizations under scrutiny is fairly backward from a technological point of view and could best be described as pre-industrial. To make up for this lack, they employ genuine magic, complete with fire breathing dragons. Since the other side has no conception of this, it is difficult to fight.

The other side has a Victorian industrial base but supplements itself with various psionic powers. This too proves formidable for their opponents who have no conception at to how this might operate.

In this installment, the magical side has launched an offensive cloaked by negotiations in an order to gain the military high ground. The campaign is being run by officers in the area and their high command has no idea of what is going on or even that a war has broken out. This book takes us several months into the conflict and the line of communications is so long that the home world has not yet even found out about it. This leaves the in theater commander free to wreak havoc for his own personal agenda and that of his ethnic group.

The opposing side is remote but not as remote from the point of contact. They have been ambushed and are mad. They are mobilizing for total war but again, they are hampered by personal agendas.

We are only a few months into the series and it promises to be a long affair. I look forward to reading about it.

Having recently read the first book in this series, I was eager to read the second one. I found that this second book builds very well on the interesting dilemma or enigma of the first, namely what happens when a universe populated by humans who use magic meets a universe populated by humans who use various telepathic and telekinetic abilities? One of the things this book, like the first, makes crystal clear is that even with telepathy and magic, humans remain human, with all the good and bad things that implies. The good character development in the first book continues in this second one, and the seeds of many issues (no doubt to be resolved in future volumes) are well sown here. All in all a good read, and one that leaves me hungry for the next volume!

Very interesting, juggling 2 multiverses and many cultures. I got comfused a bit, but couldn't put the book down. I can hardly wait untill the next volumn comes out.

David Weber has proved that he is one of the best Sci Fi writers in his generation, and he is on track to equal the best of the best in Science Fiction history. His new series depicts a collision between two vastly different civilizations. One, more like ours, but with elements of magic and one that depends more on magic, but has some practical science as well. The second of his Multiverse series continues from where the first left off and offers hints about the nature of the multiverse that may decide the ultimate outcome of the clash of civilizations.
If you have not read the first of these two books, don't read this one until you do. If have read it you should already by hooked beyond escape. Weber's prose is dynamic. His action and battle scenes are as good as anyone's. Although some of his characters may seem to be too good to be true, or too bad to be believable, he makes them both seem real. Best of all he paints a very realistic picture of both of the civilizations he has created. I can't wait until the next in this series.
This series has the potential to match his Harrington series. It is fast paced and absolutely captivating. You shouldn't miss it.

I enjoyed this book, just as I did the first one. The many hints and sub plots made me anxious for the next installment. There are so many things I want to see played out.

But after 6 years, I guess it's not going to happen. I should have expected it after my disappointment with Evan's 1996 Edge of Darkness (part 1), but I figured David Weber would not let that happen.

I can't recommend this book, even though it would be 4 or 5 stars if I thought it would ever continue. Rather we are left hanging, between chapters, so to speak.

Very disappointing.

This is a hard slog. The authors have, with no doubt commendable attention to detail, created not one, but two deeply detailed civilizations to throw against one another.

Unfortunately, they dump it on you in leaden chunks, page after page, chapter after chapter. Lengthy detailed discussions of politics and geography bury the actual plot to the point that when the viewpoint changes, as it does with maddening frequency, the reader is perfectly safe to simply skip pages--or chapters--until something recognizable shows up and be no worse off.

You see, it's not merely a matter of civilizations and a few quirks and important cultural motivations, no. It's mostly geography. The authors have, no doubt, a heavily annotated map somewhere--we don't get a copy--that shows both of their fantasy worlds in excruciating detail, along with the names of every prominent landmark and area.

This may not seem like a bad idea until you try and read through the thing. When combined with the semipronounceable fantasy names that each of the battalions of characters bears, not to mention rank structures, a single sentence may contain seven to ten made up words, each understandable only by context and careful attention.

For example, the glossary, a lengthy and necessary, but nevertheless frustrating document, contains more than a dozen names for terrain features in the equivalent of Spain alone. This despite the fact that in the two books so far, not a single page has taken place there.
It's as if, having gone to such trouble, no one had the heart not to include the names of every river and silver strike in the vicinity wherever a character happened to go. Or merely thought about.

And as for the characters, they are of course standard cookie cutters; nothing wrong with that at all. But the names! Soooo many names. So many titles, so many home regions to discourse upon and none of it explained in a sentence when three paragraphs will do.

I want to read this story. It interests me--what I can see of it through the wall of text.

On the other hand, it's been several years since this second book, which went nowhere, so maybe the authors became as bored as I did.