The Seventh Gate. Major letdown.
Rob P Schuldt
this killing of a good series. I knew right away when I saw the book
was only 285 pages that this series was in trouble, but my hopes remained
high. First I'd like to say that this series was on pace to become my
favorite, well after this last book forget that. Here some problems Ihave
with this book.
A. What the hell is with the good dragons coming to save the day, Weis
Hickman wake up, that already happened in Dragonlance.
B. The death of Hugh the Hand, you hear about the death of one of the coolest
characters in the book in this manner.
Marit : "Oh yeah did I mention that Hugh died"
Haplo : "oh, bumer"
I kind of pictured Hugh finally gaining the ability to kill
in the seventh gate, stopping Xar from sundering the world with a Knife
in the back. I mean this is like hearing about the death of Sturm in DL
from a third party, over a drink in some bar.
C. the death of Xar. He died like a weakling. Once again if hugh had stabbed
him, he could of with his dying breath took hugh down with him.
D. Zifnab not being a god. I agree with this, but what the hell is this
were all gods crap, whatever.
I don't have the time for a whole plot rewrite, all I know is I
expected much better things from this book. It's like Weis and Hickman just
got bored with the series said "screw it" lets cash in and write some
more dragonlance ASAP. Why in the hell don't they kill dragonlance
I liked the first 6 books + The Legend of Huma + Brothers Majere, but
the series should die, the last time I looked I saw an actual book
about Lord Toede, anyone who bought that should be shot on sight, what next
are they going to write books about the dragonloance heroes pets.
By the way did Death Gate ever make the bestseller list?? just curious.
sorry if this post is a little screwed up, my editor seems to be
possessed. If the post is okay, oh well.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Rob Schuldt |
| schu...@gold.tc.umn.edu |
| University of Minnesota |
| |
| "Hope is the denial of reality" ... Raistlin |
| |
| "Every breath leaves me one less to my last." ... Dream Theater |
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Windsor D Williams
DeathGate books. I felt the ending (The Seventh Gate) fit well with
the rest of the series, which is one of my favorites. Let me give my
impressions on Rob's points:
In article <schu0173.777861477@gold>,
Rob P Schuldt <schu...@gold.tc.umn.edu> wrote:
> Anyone else out there shell out $24 bucks (with tax) to read
>this killing of a good series. I knew right away when I saw the book
>was only 285 pages that this series was in trouble, but my hopes remained
>high. First I'd like to say that this series was on pace to become my
>favorite, well after this last book forget that. Here some problems Ihave
>with this book.
>
>A. What the hell is with the good dragons coming to save the day, Weis
>Hickman wake up, that already happened in Dragonlance.
This is NOT a surprise...the good dragons have been expected since the
fourth book, and have been SEEN in the form of Zifnab's...uhm...keeper.
The evil serpents are the manifestation of evil...and the Wave always
corrects itself.
>B. The death of Hugh the Hand, you hear about the death of one of the coolest
>characters in the book in this manner.
> Marit : "Oh yeah did I mention that Hugh died"
> Haplo : "oh, bumer"
>
> I kind of pictured Hugh finally gaining the ability to kill
>in the seventh gate, stopping Xar from sundering the world with a Knife
>in the back. I mean this is like hearing about the death of Sturm in DL
>from a third party, over a drink in some bar.
Hugh's death was just as it should have been. He was only still alive
because of Alfred's magic. Hugh had come to terms with his life and his
past (particularly his attitude about death, which was heavily influenced
by both his childhood with the Kir monks and his...career....with the
Brotherhood). He was _ready_ to die.
>C. the death of Xar. He died like a weakling. Once again if hugh had stabbed
>him, he could of with his dying breath took hugh down with him.
Xar's death was crucial to the sequence of events. Xar realized the
truth about the serpents (and faced his own fear) in time to die bravely,
opposing the serpents at the last. His death mirrors that of Samah, who
also overcame his fear (with Jonathon's help).
>D. Zifnab not being a god. I agree with this, but what the hell is this
>were all gods crap, whatever.
Zifnab was a useful plot device and relayer of information (kind of
like Spock or Data in ST, when something need to be explained or some
new twist introduced into the story). As for the 'everyone is a god,'
that's a fairly common theme: God (or the Wave, in this case) works
through the agency of mortals; thus we are all, in a sense, divine.
[munch!]
If a "Dragonlance" book isn't actually written by Weis & Hickman,
avoid it like the plague. It is likely to be worthless trash.
>By the way did Death Gate ever make the bestseller list?? just curious.
Don't know. But I enjoyed it quite a bit, whether it did or not.
Windsor
(re-reading Bujold's _The Warrior's Apprentice_ -- heartily recommended!)
Anastacia Rechelle Lear
> Anyone else out there shell out $24 bucks (with tax) to read
>this killing of a good series. I knew right away when I saw the book
>was only 285 pages that this series was in trouble, but my hopes remained
>high. First I'd like to say that this series was on pace to become my
>favorite, well after this last book forget that. Here some problems Ihave
>with this book.
Luckily, *I* didn't 0 I borrowed it from a friend who did. I agree that
it was a letdown, especially after _Into_The_Labyrinth, which I think
was the best one of the series. And then there's my favorite line: the
one in which Haplo says something to the effect of "I lied, I'm not a
mysteriarch - I'm a god." To me, that has to be one of the best lines
ever - next to "Sturm's sun shattered," which I liked because I never
*have* been able to stand Sturm. I was prety happy when his sun got
dumped in the ocean, so to speak.
>A. What the hell is with the good dragons coming to save the day, Weis
>Hickman wake up, that already happened in Dragonlance.
Once again, I agree. I actually had to go back to the 6th book and
read the last couple of chapters so I could figure out what was going
on!
>B. The death of Hugh the Hand, you hear about the death of one of the coolest
>characters in the book in this manner.
> Marit : "Oh yeah did I mention that Hugh died"
> Haplo : "oh, bumer"
I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt that way - as if Weis and
Hickman had forgotten about him and had to put his death in there as an
afterthought or something.
> I kind of pictured Hugh finally gaining the ability to kill
>in the seventh gate, stopping Xar from sundering the world with a Knife
>in the back. I mean this is like hearing about the death of Sturm in DL
>from a third party, over a drink in some bar.
>C. the death of Xar. He died like a weakling. Once again if hugh had stabbed
>him, he could of with his dying breath took hugh down with him.
I would rather have seen Haplo kill him, but your proposed ending is
still better than what happened.
Anastacia
--
_____ _____
/( )_ ) \ ||--||--||-* Anastacia Rechelle Lear *-||--||--|| / ( _( )\
/ // /\' \, ||--||--||-* Queen of the Universe *-||--||--|| ,/. /\ \\ \
\| |/ \| ||--||--||-* kit...@catt.ncsu.edu *-||--||--|| |/ \| |/
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
Michael Dosmann
a day. I expected this huge face off at the end, with all kinds of moral and
ethical and blah, blah, blah implications--but they simplified it too much.
The deaths of Hugh and Xar were a joke. I expected Hugh's Sartan knife
to play a role in the end. The definition of the existence of Dog was interesting, although a little unexpected. It does seem to make Haplo a more well-rounded character. I guess you could feel the same about Alfred/Coren--two personalities.
I was a big fan of
Dragonlance until the novels and novellas became sort of generic--like the one one Toede. I think TSR should close the gate to Krynn--or at least limit the
amount of Authors who visit there!
Michael
ms...@expert.cc.purdue.edu
Jason O. Dueck
> I don't have the time for a whole plot rewrite, all I know is I
>expected much better things from this book. It's like Weis and Hickman just
>got bored with the series said "screw it" lets cash in and write some
>more dragonlance ASAP.
Heh heh heh... I've never read the above-mentioned series, so I suppose
it's my gain.
>Why in the hell don't they kill dragonlance
If YOU owned a money tree, would YOU chop it down???
>I liked the first 6 books + The Legend of Huma + Brothers Majere, but
>the series should die, the last time I looked I saw an actual book
>about Lord Toede, anyone who bought that should be shot on sight, what next
>are they going to write books about the dragonloance heroes pets.
Damn straight.
I'd also like to add "Knight of the Black Rose" to your list, even though
it's technically a "Ravenloft" book. If any "minor" character deserved his
own book, it was Soth.
---Jay
--
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| "Never underestimate a man's ability to underestimate a woman." |
| ---V.I.Warshawski |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
Cong Do
: Damn straight.
: I'd also like to add "Knight of the Black Rose" to your list, even though
: it's technically a "Ravenloft" book. If any "minor" character deserved his
: own book, it was Soth.
Yeah, I liked that book too. It was cool learning more about his past.
The newer DL books can't compare to it. BTW are there any promising DL
books that are going to come out soon?
// \\ *---[ Lord Soth <con...@netcom.com ]-------------------*
// \\ | "A bird in the hand is better than one overhead." |
|| /-----\ || *-----------------------------------[ Unknown ]--------*
||===/ /---\ \===|| | For some good TIE Fighter and X-Wing related files, |
||===\ \---/ /===|| | as well as some UHS files, take a look at my ftp |
|| \-----/ || | directory: ftp.netcom.com:/pub/sordsoth. Feel free |
\\ // | to upload stuff to the incoming directory. |
\\ // *---[ Finger for PGP Public Key ]----------------------*
Gareth Rees
perhaps you should read the Geraldine Harris novel of the same name,
which has a gorgeous double-take trick ending. "The Seventh Gate"
concludes the series begun with "Prince of the Godborn", "The Children
of the Wind" and "The Dead Kingdom". They were marketed as "young
adult" novels in the UK when they were published by Unwin, but they're
worth reading if you liked the atmosphere and unsentimentality of Le
Guin's "Earthsea" series.
--
Gareth Rees
Robert Groover
Does anyone know what else she has written?
Robert Groover
gro...@netcom.com
pat...@attmail.com
Chris Dollin
gd...@cl.cam.ac.uk (Gareth Rees) writes:
........................ the Geraldine Harris novel of the same name,
>which has a gorgeous double-take trick ending. "The Seventh Gate"
>concludes the series begun with "Prince of the Godborn", "The Children
>of the Wind" and "The Dead Kingdom". ............................
Does anyone know what else she has written?
She has a short story in ``Arrows of Eros'' (can't recall the editor)
and another in ``Hidden Turnings'' (ed. Dianna Wynne-Jones, if I recall
correctly). As of a couple of years ago, she'd published no new novels,
(I hope I'm recalling this right), although she *had* been working on
some.
Mumble. I think she was doing a children's book on Egyptology, as well.
Grrr. Brain-cell rot. (Mine, not hers.)
--
Regards, | ``"I can't suit myself," said Weinbaum, a little petulantly.
Kers. | "I work for the Government".'' - Blish, "The Quincunx of Time".
Ken Walton
> I loved this series, but they vanished quickly in the US.
>
> Does anyone know what else she has written?
There's a short juvenile fantasy called White Crane's Castle - based on
Japanese mythology. Published by Macmillan in the UK some years ago. I've no
idea if it's still in print. A pleasant but rather short read, if you can find
it.
--
---
Ken Walton
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Corinna Mergelsberg
|> If the Weis & Hickman novel "The Seventh Gate" was a major letdown,
|> perhaps you should read the Geraldine Harris novel of the same name,
|> which has a gorgeous double-take trick ending.
I loved the _Seven Citadels_. I wonder they don't come up more often in
one of the myriads of Top Ten lists here.
But as to the ending... I thought you could see that coming even from
the first book. I mean - which self-respecting fantasy reader nowadays
expects a mysterious deus-ex-machina to save everything in the end?
But than Kerish probably didn't read much except the Book of the Emperors
(sorry, bad one).
Anyhow, I still cried my heart out over the end.
Corinna
--
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Corinna Mergelsberg e-mail: cme...@whu-koblenz.de
Tenet insanabile multos scribendi cacoethes.
(Juvenal)
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