Subject: Review of _The_Death_Gate_Cycle_ by Weis & Hickman

From: [email-masked] (Doug Ingram)
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996 21:28:19 GMT

The Death Gate Cycle
                     by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
                 Review copyright (c) 1996 by Doug Ingram

[Bibliographic information at the end of the article.]

	My last experience with the Very Long Fantasy genre, Jennifer
Roberson's _Chronicles_of_the_Cheysuli_ (see my previous review on the Web
at the URL http://www.astro.washington.edu/ingram/books.html), left me
wondering if any author might be capable of holding a reader's interest over
7 or 8 books.  That series, while it had an extremely promising beginning,
really started to tail off after the initial trilogy and didn't really pick
up the pace even with the final book.  Nevertheless, it was certainly
readable...just not something I'd recommend with enthusiasm.  That pretty
much sums up my feelings about _The_Death_ _Gate_Cycle_ (_DGC_) by Weis and
Hickman.

	_DGC_ is not so much intended to be a seven-book series as it is to
be a four-plus-three-book series.  The universe of _DGC_ is split into seven
worlds.  First is the Vortex, which is essentially a null world whose only
exit leads to the Labyrinth.  The Labyrinth is a terrible world in which a
race of magicians (the Patryns) were imprisoned long ago by their rivals,
the Sartan.  Originally intended as a "reform school" of sorts for Patryns,
requiring them to overcome physical tasks and suffer great hardship as they
passed closer and closer through a series of "gates" to the final gate.  The
Labyrinth, however, seems to feed off of negative emotions and grow more
powerful, leaving the bitter Patryns in a vicious cycle of fear and hatred
in an ever more dangerous world for them.

	Outside the Labyrinth is the Nexus, a Sartan-built city where a
group of Patryns who have escaped the Labyrinth have settled.  The four
other worlds (each the setting for one of the first four books of the
series) are founded upon the four basic "elements".  First is Arianus, a
world of air, where islands of lighter-than-air coralite house cities of
"mensch" (lesser races to Patryns and Sartans but still capable of minor
magics, these are elves, dwarves and humans).  Second is Pryan, a world of
fire that is actually just a huge, hot, steamy jungle planet constantly lit
by a fiery set of suns.  Third is Abarrach, a world of stone, consisting of
a series of interconnected caverns laced with rivers and seas of hot lava.
Fourth is Chelestra, world of water, with habitable "islands" sprinkled
throughout inside of air bubbles.

	The series begins as the de facto ruler of the Patryns, Xar, the
first escapee from the Labyrinth, sends one of his most talented Patryn
servants, Haplo, on a mission to learn more about each of the four worlds in
turn.  Haplo is to learn about the worlds, instill a little chaos into their
politics if possible, and return to help his Lord plan to conquer them all
with an army of Patryns.  As Haplo travels through each of the worlds, we
are introduced to several subplots involving the mensch, the vast majority
of which are unfortunately not only trivial to the storyline but also fairly
uninteresting.

	As Haplo experiences what each of these worlds has to offer, his
character, easily the best written of the series, evolves and matures,
coming to accept (with no small conflict, external and internal) his place
in the grand scheme of things.  In fact, all of the major characters show
some growth throughout the series, and it is to the credit of the authors
that, while there is certainly clear-cut evil in these worlds, the "good"
characters are rarely quite so undeniably good as you might find in less
subtle fantasy (pardon the slam, but _The_Belgariad_ leaps to mind).

	By the end of the fourth book, the situation is clear to both Haplo
and Xar, and the plot proceeds to throw the Patryns' ancient enemy, the
Sartan, into the mix with gusto as well as an evil race of dragon snakes
bent on throwing every world into turmoil.  While Haplo and his erstwhile
traveling companion, Alfred (not to mention the most entertaining character
in the series by a mile, Haplo's dog, aptly named "Dog"), try to find a way
to stop the snakes, Haplo's Lord Xar begins to seek out the legendary
Seventh Gate (not to be confused with any of the "gates" in the Labyrinth),
which he believes will bring him the ultimate victory and power over the
rest of the worlds

	Probably the biggest strength of this series is the imagination
behind the four elemental worlds.  Even though the first two books start the
series off fairly slowly plot-wise, the worlds they describe are certainly
unusual and entertaining to learn about.  My favorite was definitely
Abarrach, the world of stone, probably because the storytelling here was the
most powerful.  The highlight of the series is definitely the first hundred
pages or so of the third book, which would serve very well as a short story
on its own.  Not that each of the other worlds had something interesting and
unexpected about it.

	One of my two major problems with this book shouldn't be all that
surprising given the seven-book length: The plot was entirely too thin.
Much of the story that didn't revolve around Haplo and Alfred involved
mensch characters who, while important to the story (Limbeck the dwarf on
Arianus, for example) just weren't that interesting to read about.  Among
them, Limbeck's story and the story of Balthazar (not really a mensch but of
similar stature) on Abarrach are the most engaging.  But for every Hugh the
Hand (arguably the most well-drawn mensch character and the most
interesting), there were two or three mensch subplots that led nowhere.  I
got the feeling there was some serious padding going on in order to sell a
series of extraordinary length, especially since the majority of the mensch
plots amounted to nothing, dwindled out without resolution or just plain
vanished.

	The other major problem I had was the presence of a completely
unnecessary character, the eccentric yet powerful (stop me if you've heard
this) wizard, Zifnab.  Now I appreciate good comic relief as much as the
next reader, but the Zifnab character was the equivalent of seeing a Jim
Carrey cameo in "Julius Caesar".  Not only that, Zifnab regularly made
references to both the Real World (we eventually are led to believe that
this universe is sometime in our future after most of humanity dies out and
magic returns against triumphant over science) and other milieus such as
Tolkien and Ian Fleming as if he were personally familiar with characters
from those works.  It was so awkward at times I was simply embarrassed for
the authors.  The ultimate insult was the discovery Zifnab really didn't
even have an important role to play in the grand scheme of things other than
to act as little more than a gossip.

	But I don't want to end this review on such a negative note.  After
all, I am perfectly capable of reading over (what I think are) flaws in a
fantasy work to enjoy it on some other level, and there was much to enjoy
about this series.  If you're a fan of authors who construct brand new
worlds and tell you all about them in loving detail, then this series is
definitely for you.  I should mention here the very detailed appendices at
the end of each book, describing aspects of each world in more depth, which
some readers will certainly appreciate.  The main thread of the plot was
very interesting as well, albeit uneven.

	So while I wouldn't enthusiastically recommend this work to anyone,
I would argue that it is very readable.  If you can find this at a used
bookstore (I see parts of it all over the place), then it is certainly worth
picking up.  On my scale of 1 to 10, I give it a 6.

Doug Ingram -- [email-masked] // "Carpe Datum."
  More reviews:  http://www.astro.washington.edu/ingram/books.html

%A Weis, Margaret
%A Hickman, Tracy
%T Dragon Wing
%I Bantam Spectra
%C New York 
%D 1990
%G ISBN 0-553-28639-0
%S The Death Gate Cycle

%A Weis, Margaret
%A Hickman, Tracy
%T Elven Star
%I Bantam Spectra
%C New York 
%D 1991
%G ISBN 0-553-29098-3
%S The Death Gate Cycle

%A Weis, Margaret
%A Hickman, Tracy
%T Fire Sea
%I Bantam Spectra
%C New York 
%D 1992
%G ISBN 0-553-29541-1
%S The Death Gate Cycle

%A Weis, Margaret
%A Hickman, Tracy
%T Serpent Mage
%I Bantam Spectra
%C New York 
%D 1993
%G ISBN 0-553-56140-5
%S The Death Gate Cycle

%A Weis, Margaret
%A Hickman, Tracy
%T The Hand of Chaos
%I Bantam Spectra
%C New York 
%D 1993
%G ISBN 0-553-56369-6
%S The Death Gate Cycle

%A Weis, Margaret
%A Hickman, Tracy
%T Into the Labyrinth
%I Bantam Spectra
%C New York 
%D 1994
%G ISBN 0-553-56771-3
%S The Death Gate Cycle

%A Weis, Margaret
%A Hickman, Tracy
%T The Seventh Gate
%I Bantam Spectra
%C New York 
%D 1995
%G ISBN 0-553-57235-X
%S The Death Gate Cycle