The Land Beyond the Gate [Mass Market Paperback]

Lloyd Arthur Eshbach (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 12, 1984

science fiction, fantasy

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey; First Edition edition (September 12, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345316479
• ISBN-13: 978-0345316479
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 3.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,939,882 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars The land of the living dead, May 14, 2009

By 

Raymond Mathiesen (Armidale, N.S.W., Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Malcolm MacDougall is born in the United States but of Irish heritage. On holiday in the 'old country' he comes across a patch of countryside which seems strangely familiar though he has never been there before. Following this familiar feeling he comes upon a stone tower where he encounters supernatural forces he could never have imagined possible. For years later Malcolm's brother Alan comes looking for him as he has become a missing person. On the same stretch of countryside Allan hears a gentle chimimg that leads him to the tower. There, after various supernatural events, Alan discovers a doorway to another world, a place he refers to as Tartarus, a place of the living dead. So begins a rollicking adventure in which Alan unwittingly becomes tired up with the fate of that world.

If you enjoy ripping yarns of alternate worlds, amazing cities, magic, Druids, Celtic dieties and repeated captures and escapes, this book is for you. The tale is not quite of the sword and sorcery genre, but something akin to that. Alan has a sword, but is not adept in using it. Also, he learns some sorcery, but only a little. He is more an unlikely hero. Eshbach is a Christian and there is some development of the theme of the nature of evil, but that is not a dominating part of text. This is much more escapist fantasy than a commentary on the nature of life. Eshbach writes in an easy to read, exciting style that is never boring. He continually introduces new material as Alan tours the alternate world, and of course sometimes includes the completely unexpected.

I have one criticism. In Chapter two we are told a long account of the earliy history of our own world, plus a description of the alternate world, its four cities, its various inhabitants and a description of various 'gods' resident in Tartarus. I found all of this a bit overwhelming and confusing, plus later in the story I had to glance back to this chapter as I had forgotten the whys and wherefores of various circumstance. Surely Eshbach could have found a better way of integrating this information into the story where and when it was needed. But this did not greatly depreciate my enjoyment of the story. It was just an annoyance.

This book is a complete novel, but it is also the first of a series of adventures surrounding Alan MacDougall and gateways to alternate worlds. The series is called THE GATES OF LUCIFER: Book (1) One: The Land Beyond the Gate; Book (2) Two: The. The other books in the series are The Armlet of the Gods, The Sorceress of Scath and The Scroll of Lucifer. If you like this tale, as I did, there is plenty more to read when you once again get the fancy to dip into another entertaining, light hearted, fantasy world.

4.0 out of 5 stars The land of the living dead, May 14, 2009

By 

Raymond Mathiesen (Armidale, N.S.W., Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Malcolm MacDougall is born in the United States but of Irish heritage. On holiday in the 'old country' he comes across a patch of countryside which seems strangely familiar though he has never been there before. Following this familiar feeling he comes upon a stone tower where he encounters supernatural forces he could never have imagined possible. For years later Malcolm's brother Alan comes looking for him as he has become a missing person. On the same stretch of countryside Allan hears a gentle chimimg that leads him to the tower. There, after various supernatural events, Alan discovers a doorway to another world, a place he refers to as Tartarus, a place of the living dead. So begins a rollicking adventure in which Alan unwittingly becomes tired up with the fate of that world.

If you enjoy ripping yarns of alternate worlds, amazing cities, magic, Druids, Celtic dieties and repeated captures and escapes, this book is for you. The tale is not quite of the sword and sorcery genre, but something akin to that. Alan has a sword, but is not adept in using it. Also, he learns some sorcery, but only a little. He is more an unlikely hero. Eshbach is a Christian and there is some development of the theme of the nature of evil, but that is not a dominating part of text. This is much more escapist fantasy than a commentary on the nature of life. Eshbach writes in an easy to read, exciting style that is never boring. He continually introduces new material as Alan tours the alternate world, and of course sometimes includes the completely unexpected.

I have one criticism. In Chapter two we are told a long account of the earliy history of our own world, plus a description of the alternate world, its four cities, its various inhabitants and a description of various 'gods' resident in Tartarus. I found all of this a bit overwhelming and confusing, plus later in the story I had to glance back to this chapter as I had forgotten the whys and wherefores of various circumstance. Surely Eshbach could have found a better way of integrating this information into the story where and when it was needed. But this did not greatly depreciate my enjoyment of the story. It was just an annoyance.

This book is a complete novel, but it is also the first of a series of adventures surrounding Alan MacDougall and gateways to alternate worlds. The series is called THE GATES OF LUCIFER: Book (1) One: The Land Beyond the Gate; Book (2) Two: The. The other books in the series are The Armlet of the Gods, The Sorceress of Scath and The Scroll of Lucifer. If you like this tale, as I did, there is plenty more to read when you once again get the fancy to dip into another entertaining, light hearted, fantasy world.

4.0 out of 5 stars Alternate worlds in obedience to Lucifer, May 13, 2009

By 

Raymond Mathiesen (Armidale, N.S.W., Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Land Beyond the Gate (Paperback)

Twentieth century engineer Alan MacDougall goes to Scotland in search of his missing brother Malcolm. Far from the cities, in the wilds of the highlands, he comes across a broch, an ancient stone tower, in which he finds an armlet, which magically reveals to him four gates which seem to lead to alternate realities. Stepping through the gates MacDougall finds himself on amazingly beautiful, yet strangely sinister, islands. In this alternate reality magic is real. Some people are centers of so much magic power that they are considered gods. MacDougall meets Taliesin, the Bard of Bards, who becomes his friend and long-term companion. Taliesin tells MacDougall that all those who live in these lands once lived on earth, but died fourteen centuries ago. These lands are a realm created by Lucifer and all who live there are under his command. MacDougall is not a Christian, but he is also far from being a servant of Lucifer. What adventures will befall him?

For more detailed analyses of these books see my reviews under each individual title.

In this series Eshbach writes in a manner that is entertaining and able to hold the interest to the end. These books are a bit above pulp fiction but they are not high 'literature' as say Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: 50th Anniversary, One Vol. Edition is. Eshbach's books will never be studied in universities, or have critical works written about them. They are, never-the-less, ideal for pleasure reading and will certainly while away the hours quickly.

Eshbach's imagination is interesting, but highly derivative. The idea of people becoming centers of magical power through mass adulation, was, for example, used earlier by Van Vogt in The Book of Ptath (1943). If we accept this derivativeness, and allow Eshbach to work his spell, the fantasy takes off with light but successful power.

When viewed over the full expanse of the sequence of novels MacDougall and Taliesin have some arch of development, as does the character Nuada, the King of the Tuatha de Danann to a lesser degree.

The third book, The Sorceress of Scath, is perhaps the best of the sequence, especially because in that novel Eshbach moves away from his regular plot devices making the story move in new and interesting directions.