The Seventh Gate (Death Gate Cycle) [Hardcover]

Margaret Weis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1994 | Series: Death Gate Cycle (Book 7)

The conclusion to the Death Gate Cycle finds Alfred in the Labyrinth of a fearsome dragon, Haplo on the verge of death, and Marit resolving to lead the band into the dreaded Seventh Gate to confront old and new enemies. 55,000 first printing. $55,000 ad/promo.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Thousands of pages have been spent getting to this seventh and final book in the massive Death Gate Cycle (Into the Labyrinth). Only the most voracious fans of Weis and Hickman will feel it was worth the effort; anyone else will find that incomprehensible (and poorly sketched) landscapes and tedious prose make this volume both dizzying and dull. Here, Marit (a sorceress), Hugh the Hand, Alfred the Sartan and Haplo the Patryn join forces to stop various nefarious (or at least misguided and misunderstood) villains as they try to subjugate each other's races, get to Death's Gate and destroy the world as they know it. A significant portion of the more interesting lore and stories (of elves who imprison their souls in ornate boxes, etc.), however, gets little more than footnotes, an epilogue or a short mention in the appendices. While these addenda seem an attempt to add literary flavor to this hodgepodge of zombies, sorcerors, dragons and a schizophrenically postmodern God who occasionally thinks he's James Bond, they succeed only in upping the page count.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A spectacular journey that takes heroes Haplo and Marit through each of the sundered realms and beyond the sinister Seventh Gate culminates with a battle against the forces of evil in this conclusion to the seven-volume "Death Gate Cycle." Purchase where the series is popular.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Spectra; First Edition edition (August 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553096478
• ISBN-13: 978-0553096477
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #488,825 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Final Book in a Very Good Series, May 23, 2004

By 

David A. Lessnau (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Seventh Gate: A Death Gate Novel, Volume 7 (Paperback)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not up to the standards set by the rest of the series..., July 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Seventh Gate: A Death Gate Novel, Volume 7 (Paperback)

While I loved the first six books in the series, I was really disappointed by the ending- it seems to rely on many, many Deus Ex Machina additions to resolve the conflicts set up in the first six books... In particular, I didn't like the circumstances of Haplo's reappearance ("Just kidding, everybody! Group hug!"), and was very disappointed at the circumstances of Sang-drax's destruction.

Honestly, it seemed to me as if Wies and Hickman didn't really know how to end the series, so they just threw something together at the last minute. There are at least one or two major plot holes in this one. While I'd like to stress that it's not a BAD book, it's also definitley not the best in the series.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Could have been much better, October 27, 2006

By 

E. Brady "Shadowstorm" (Cleveland, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Seventh Gate: A Death Gate Novel, Volume 7 (Paperback)

I just finished this book about 10 minutes ago and I am extremely miffed that it ended the way it did. I cannot understand how a book series can go from being extremely detailed to just nothing at the end. What was the point of dragging the series on for 7 books if it was going to be ended with a dull moan. There was so much room for detail and if the book had another 10 chapters I believe it would have been much better. The ending of Hugh the Hand was a EXTREME letdown...he was just gone, very anticlimatic.

Problems I had with it...SPOILER ALERT

1) Became much to sappy towards the end

2) Hugh the Hand dies without a parting word

3) Haplos daughter never makes a entrance

4) The final outcome of the two races was never discussed

5) Who the heck was Zifnab

6) The whole book just seemed rushed to be over with

7) Inconsistencies throughout the book

8) Just left with a sad feeling of "THATS ALL???"

I am glad I finished the series but in truth it was a major letdown.