Fire Sea by margaret weis

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 1,2025

Yeah I think I finally have to pull out of this series. This set of characters had more pull for me, but at this point with my level of investment all the pages and pages or background and politics and world info had me skimming.

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slayerdart

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 1,2025

I’m re-reading this series after being a devoted fantasy/sci fi reader throughout my teen years.
I struggle with this series because there seem to be inconsistencies in the logic of characters’ motivations at times and some of the baseline reality of the powers of the Characters vis-a-vis their capabilities In magic are confusing.
Although Weis has put a bit of effort into the backstory of the magic it sometimes seems to devolve into sometimes ‘the characters are capable and powerful’ and ‘sometimes they are not’—and it seems inexplicable exactly how that is determined except by what feels like artificial plot maneuvering.

I like the theory and premise of the story and the promise for uncovering more “truths” of this universe so I’ve committed to continuing through to the end(I can’t remember the details of any of these books at least until I get through them and reread)
Worth it?? I’m on the fence-I need to revisit and see if there are other fantasy series that I may be interested in that I didn’t read as a teen.

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Singulariity

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 1,2025

The setting and circumstances we are thrown into in this book are as gloomy and doom-laden as a Norse saga. The world was shattered into elements long ago in the war of the Sartan and the Patryn, and this is the world of earth. Intended to receive power from the world of Pryan (the setting for Elven Star, the previous book), it was instead cut off and used streams of magma as the soruce for heat and light. For centuries now this source has been cooling, and the Sartan have used more and more terrible magics to keep the last few of their kind alive.

The story that follows is a wild ride, throwing our anti-hero Happlo and the bumbling Alfred (who is unaware of his own powers) together (the common refrain of the series) in a last ditch effort to prevent the entire world from becoming a tomb, and looking for a way back out.

I put this in the top 5 modern fantasy novels I've ever read, on par with Northern Lights/Golden Compass.

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FlowMAL

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 1,2025

Here the story turns into an epic.
Love this book still.

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Mattack10

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 1,2025

As many reviews of "Elven Star" had seemed to promise, this book was much better over the previous installment, though it didn't quite match the first ("Dragon Wing").

First, Alfred is back. I don't think I'm spoiling anything by revealing this as you find him in the first couple of chapters, and in my review of "Dragon Wing," I think I mentioned that he was the most interesting character of the first novel. The relationship dynamic between Haplo and him was the best part of this particular journey.

Second, there were relatable secondary characters. In "Elven Star," it was difficult to feel much of anything for the wooden archetypes we were presented with. It felt like a lot of these new characters on the world of Abarrach had a back story and it was interesting to try to catch them up.

Third, the story felt like it was going somewhere. "Elven Star" was just a bunch of running, screaming, and randomly feeling in love with members of different species, then running and screaming some more. "Fire Sea" builds simultaneously within its own tale and the greater narrative at large.

One weakness of this story (and I harped on this same thing a bunch in most of Terry Goodkind's later Sword of Truth novels) is that it could have been told in roughly 2/3 of the time. Much of the middle stretches felt like filler, Alfred falling down again, more filler, Haplo feeling bad about feeling a minor level of empathy, more filler, dog has intelligent eyes, more filler, the prince is still dead, etc.

The dynast was also a fairly weak villain. So far, the mysteriach is the best villain of the series, though it's sledgehammer clear that the Lord of the Nexus is THE villain - though I feel like, just perhaps, the Sartans should be...

Anyway, this one was interesting, so I'll continue on to "Serpent Mage."

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Ethereal-peace

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 1,2025

Vuurzee beschrijft dit verhaal veel beter dan de omschrijving "Het rijk van steen". Boek 3 in de reeks is eigenlijk vooral akelig en dit door het thema van de necromancie.
Weis & Hickman beschrijven het herrijzen uit de doden op een plausibele manier (het zijn niet voor niks mee van de beste Fantasy auteurs ter wereld) maar leuk is het allemaal niet. Toch wordt het stramien van de vorige verhalen aangehouden. Eerst krijgen we een heel stuk waar de lokale bewoners en hun omstandigheden worden beschreven, een gevaar dat hen bedreigt en een queeste die daar uit volgt. Dan komen Haplo en dit keer ook Alfred (ik vraag me af of de verstrooide tovenaar in het vorige deel Alfred in vermomming was?) zodat het duo (met Hond eigenlijk een trio) samen ten strijde trekt. Nu ja, samen? Veeleer tegen mekaar dan met elkaar. Het zorgt wel voor veel verduidelijkingen doordat de auteurs de gedachten en gesprekken van de Patryn en Sartaan ten volle kunnen benutten. Hond speelt en speciale rol, Alfred heeft het door, beter dan Haplo en, vermoedelijk, de meeste lezers.
Ook het einde is niet geheel onverwacht, opnieuw een vlucht door de Poort des Doods, de manier waarop is wel net zo origineel als het geheel. Als drakenliefhebber vind ik dat de vuurdraak een speicale vermelding verdient.
Hopelijk kunnen de schrijvers dit onwaarschijnlijk hoge niveau in de volgende delen behouden, het liefst dan toch wat vrolijker.

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ayamiren

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 1,2025

I have to agree with most reviewers in Goodreads... after the lukewarm experience that was Elven Star, the third instalment of the Death Gate cycle puts most things back on track. Certainly, certain passages of Fire Sea are a little heavy-handed on world-building and exposition, but the story itself is engaging (and actually eerie and blood-curling at times) and we can relate to both the main and the secondary characters (both recurring and new). Indeed, they are doomed from the start: the introductory chapters make a great work of conveying the imminent fate of a dying world and the heroic, but doomed, efforts of this fallen gods to save their civilization. However that doesn't mean that we can't actually share their plight and their trials, even if they are the direct consequence of their own hubris and their dabbling in a dark strain of magic. Weis and Hickman were quite successful in creating a dark world that matched the dark themes they were tackling in this book. The twisted ecology of this fire world is far more cohesive and logical than in the two previous books and it is a perfect setting to reveal some of the darker aspects of the Sartan-Patryn conflict and the actual nature of the world before it was torn apart.

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Suntanned_Duck2

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 1,2025

Where the Death Gate cycle takes a turn into horror. Haplo and Alfred land on a world where the dead are used by the living as slaves. The authors create a disturbing society that as you read, you realize it's consuming itself (I don't mean literal cannibalism). And while you think "this is a horrible place!", you don't want to set the book down.

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The Death Gate Cycle #3

Fire Sea

margaret weis tracy hickman

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margaret weis

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