Fire Sea (The Death Gate Cycle, Vol. 3)

I read this book, and the rest of The Death Gate Cycle when it first came out and I was about 14 years old. (About 10 years ago I think). Back then, I thought it was the best series ever, etc etc. I've written reviews for the previous books in this series, so if you look for them, you'll find them.Fire Sea, the third book in this seven book series, is fantastic. I literally read it in one 24-hour period because I was so into it. It's been a week since I finished now, but I still remember how fantastic it was.I won't go into too much plot because other reviewers nicely summarize it. The book reunites Haplo and Alfred, the two main characters in the series. Alfred was not in the second book, and it's good to see him back. They are reluctant companions in a journey to an underground world where everything is dead. The world's source of heat and light is dying, and the once peaceful Sartan have become fragile shells of the once great people they were. Their magic has turned to necromancy, and anybody who dies is brought back to life as a walking zombie.This book succeeds for three reasons. First are the contrasting relationships in the book. Alfred and Haplo, ancient enemies by birth, need to learn lessons from the other, but don't think they do. Their survival however, depends on it. We see Haplo begin to doubt his Lord's motives, and we see Alfred begin to doubt his people. Jonathan and his wife are the epitome of the young, loving couple. The sheer emotion put into their story is worth your time alone.Secondly, there's almost no way you can predict what's going to happen. Unlikely characters become major players and do things you'd never expect, and small things mentioned early in the book become extremely important. Lastly, the back-story is finally told! At last, after three books, I was thrilled to be told at last how the Sartan and the Patryns came to be, of their Great War, and what the Chamber of the Damned was used for. Read those chapters carefully: there is stuff in there that I think isn't supposed to make a lot of sense now, but in the final books is absolutely essential.My only complaint for this book is that some of it, like many of the things in the series, is a little too contrived and is never explained very well. You never really figure our in the beginning how Alfred managed to get onto Haplo's ship. I get the impression the authors just wanted to get to the point and didn't bother explaining that, and a few other things. The ending to this book is simply amazing. Very few books I've read have the sort of suspense and drama that were in this one. Like The Empire Strikes Back, the good guys don't win and they only manage to escape. The last chapter and the epilogue ends everything perfectly. After reading the last sentence of the book, and finally understanding it's meaning, I was covered in chills. This could quite possibly end up as the best book in the series. I'll move onto the fourth book, and see if it can compare.

Haplo the Patryn and his dog leave the Nexus on their third journey, this time to Abarrach, Realm of Stone. Haplo tours the four elemental worlds at his lord's command, preparing the sundered realms for the coming of the Patryn leader and for an easy conquest of the worlds by the Patryns. Haplo also searches for traces of the Sartan, the godly wizards who are the ancient enemies of the Patryns and who, except for one weak survivor in the realm of Air, seem to have died out.It is this very Sartan, the clumsy and apologetic Alfred Montbank, who, while Haplo crosses Death's Gate to Abarrach, materializes on Haplo's ship. Haplo must grudgingly accept the presence of his sworn enemy at his side as he enters a world in which the two must combine their powers simply to survive.In the dying world of Abarrach, the Mensch races have all died out long ago, leaving only corrupt, powerless remnants of the Sartan, weakened by many generations of living in a world of caverns, fuming lava and noxious gases. Haplo and Alfred soon discover that the Sartan on Abarrach practice the forbidden art of necromancy - raising all their dead for everyday use in menial tasks and chores.Our two protagonists come in contact with a young Sartan prince and his people, who have travelled from their barren land in the colder parts of the world in search of a long-lost colony on the edge of the great fire sea, nearer to the core of the world. This land is ruled by a crafty Sartan wizard, Kleitus, who knows of the world's peril and wishes to find Death's Gate, and through it not only salvation from his dying world but also the power of other worlds.Haplo and Alfred find themselves embroiled in a civil war between Kleitus's city and the prince's people. But when a young man, in grief over his lost love, raises her from the dead far too soon, the world is plunged into a wave of mass killing and death by horrid, vengeful undead creatures. Haplo, wishing to bring the knowledge of resurrection back to his lord to benefit the Patryns' cause, must come to realize the horrifying consequences of the Sartan's use of this dark art on Abarrach, as both he and Alfred fight to stay alive in a dying world, slowly taken over by the living dead.

Set on Abarrach, world of stone, Fire Sea delves into the arts of forbidden magic and the consequences of using it. The novel slowly unravels the mystery behind the Sartan disappearance from all the realms and forges a grudging bond between two demi-gods that are sworn enemies. The cover for Fire Sea caught my eye in one of my local bookstores, so I bought it, took it home and read it. I was fortunate that the beginning of the book gave a rough overview of the first two books, which I had not read at the time, so I was somewhat up to speed. Upon starting this book, I could not put it down. Page after page this book got more and more intense until I finished it well after midnight. Let me say that at home, alone, in the middle of the night might or might not be the best way for Fire Sea to be read, depending on how you enjoy a haunting novel. If you are the type who likes to engage yourself within the confines of a great book, then this is it. Fire Sea takes you in and makes you walk the aged and decrepit tunnels of Abarrach and lets you smell the acrid air that swirls throughout the dying land. Fire Sea holds hostage your attention and does not let loose until the story is through with you. The Death Gate Cycle is a magnificent accomplishment for fantasy, and is what fantasy and epic story telling is all about. The only question left unanswered after reading all of the books in the series is how will Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman ever top it?

Dragon Wing was okay - Elven Star was good - I picked up Fire Sea more out of curiosity than out of a burning desire to find out what happened next. This is the book that finally got me swept into the series. More is learned about the history of the sundered realms, and the characters of Haplo and Alfred are developed further. I think the most interesting thing about this series is that it is, at least initially, written mainly from the point of view of those who would normally be considered "the bad guys" - the Patryns. Eventually, of course, good and bad get all muddled up as the *true* evil is discovered, and although this doesn't really happen until later on in the series, it begins in Fire Sea. The book is full of revelations that don't really make that much sense until the later books, but that give you enough of a taste of what's going on to get you completely hooked. It is a dark, macabre story, that holds a faint promise of redemption.

The third volume of the Death Gate Cycle just blew me away when I read it. The story takes a darker turn, looks at death and our perceptions of it, and becomes more depressing than the other books of the series, while maintaining the fast pace and enjoyability I have come to expect from Weis and Hickman. The cast of characters, again renovated, as in the first two, is by far superior to Dragon Wing and Elven Star. Living, dead, and undead, all the characters are made real by the vivid writing styles of the two authors. This book is disturbing, but also amazing. Even if you didn't like the first two, they're worth it just to get to this one. A couple warnings, though: first, this book contains some major violence, and I wouldn't recommend it for readers younger than, say 13. Another, on a different topic: make sure you have Serpent Mage handy when you finish this book, the ending is a direct lead-in to the fourth book. Amazingly enough, Weis and Hickman manage to keep the quality of the series nearly as high as this book for the last four volumes!