GATEWAY TO HELL'S FURY
The Union of Arcana has expanded through the portals linking parallel universes for over a century and a half. In that time, its soldiers and sorcerers have laid claim to one uninhabited planet after another—all of them Earth, and in the process, the Union has become the most powerful, most wealthy civilization in all of human history. But now the Union's scouts have discovered a new portal, and on its far side lies another human society, Sharona, which has also been exploring the Multiverse, and the first contact between them did not go well. Arcana is horrified by the alien weapons of its sudden opponents, weapons its sorcerers cannot explain, weapons based upon something called . . . science. But Sharona is equally horrified by Arcana's "magical" weapons. Neither side expected the confrontation and each thinks the other fired first. But as the initial disastrous contact snowballs into all-out warfare, both sides can agree on one thing. The portal which brought them together is Hell's Gate itself!
"Magic and high tech collide in this exciting military SF novel from bestseller Weber and Evans, the first of a new series. . . . The authors treat both societies sympathetically and realistically, with human vices and virtues evenly distributed."—Publishers Weekly
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Plenty of political intrigue and military action, Weber and Evans at their best.
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Product Review"Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti .....
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..... Seven years go by waiting for the restPosted on
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Product ReviewI enjoyed the first two books in this series very much, and I thought it was extremely promising.
My best wishes go to Linda Evans, whom I sincerely hope will return to good health and continue the series.Posted on
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Product ReviewUnfinished Cliff-hanger !!@!
Unfinished Series !@!#!
Could have been short fiction.
Way too long.
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Product ReviewI stopped reading books that worked like the "Perils of Pauline" years ago. This book made me very sorry I paid good cash for it. Had I known they weren't going to finish the book I'd never had bought it.
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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.Posted on
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Product ReviewBut where's the final book? There has to be a sequel to this.....
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