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The Death Gate Cycle - A must read for anyone interested in fantasy.

ShanadeusShanadeus Registered User regular
edited August 2011 in Debate and/or Discourse
DeathGateCycle.gif

It is a seven-part series of fantasy novels written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
Any more and I'll risk giving away some very, very interesting plot twists (do not read up on this series on Wikipedia)

I've so far read two of the seven books below, and I am fucking hooked.

Dragon Wing
Elven Star
Fire Sea
Serpent Mage
The Hand of Chaos
Into the Labyrinth
The Seventh Gate


Feel free to discuss the books so long as you properly spoiler tag things.

Shanadeus on

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    DrezDrez Registered User regular
    OK now you're just trolling.

    Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
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    Linespider5Linespider5 ALL HAIL KING KILLMONGER Registered User regular
    Huh. I read one of these. Might've been the first one. It was alright.

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    SentrySentry Registered User regular
    Wow... so either the most basic information about these books is a plot twist, or this is the laziest OP I've ever read.

    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    wrote:
    When I was a little kid, I always pretended I was the hero,' Skip said.
    'Fuck yeah, me too. What little kid ever pretended to be part of the lynch-mob?'
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    DrezDrez Registered User regular
    But in all seriousness, they may be bad writers or whatever but I always enjoyed the Weis/Hickman books I read. Never read Death Gate Cycle but I did read Chronicles, Legends, the Raistlin books, and two of the post-Legends books and enjoyed them all.

    Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
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    SentrySentry Registered User regular
    Drez wrote:
    But in all seriousness, they may be bad writers or whatever but I always enjoyed the Weis/Hickman books I read. Never read Death Gate Cycle but I did read Chronicles, Legends, the Raistlin books, and two of the post-Legends books and enjoyed them all.

    I read them when I was a kid. I sometimes wonder if I should go back a re-read them, and wonder if they will be as good.

    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    wrote:
    When I was a little kid, I always pretended I was the hero,' Skip said.
    'Fuck yeah, me too. What little kid ever pretended to be part of the lynch-mob?'
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    ShanadeusShanadeus Registered User regular
    Sentry wrote:
    Wow... so either the most basic information about these books is a plot twist, or this is the laziest OP I've ever read.
    The former.
    I checked out the wiki, and was spoiled big time just from the first couple of sentences.
    Trying to keep you guys in the dark.

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    AtomikaAtomika Live fast and get fucked or whatever Registered User regular
    To play the board curmudgeon a bit, do we really need more books about dragons? Where does it end?

    We have so many books about dragons, and most of them are really long. I mean, Twilight is concentrated awful, but at least it was awful in a new-ish kind of way.


    I'm good on dragons. At the very least, the sales pitch of, "Hey, look. Read this book. It's got Dragons." no longer has any pull on me whatsoever.

    Which is a shame since so few good movies about dragons exist.

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    ShanadeusShanadeus Registered User regular
    Regarding Dragons:
    From what I've read so far, it's not quite as it seems. They seem to be relatively minor part of the books.

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    SentrySentry Registered User regular
    959759477_6Cf3c-L.jpg

    or, alternatively
    215546869_oiifJ-L-2.jpg

    In other words, I agree.

    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    wrote:
    When I was a little kid, I always pretended I was the hero,' Skip said.
    'Fuck yeah, me too. What little kid ever pretended to be part of the lynch-mob?'
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    Hi I'm Vee!Hi I'm Vee! Formerly VH; She/Her; Is an E X P E R I E N C E Registered User regular
    Weis and Hickman are great world-builders and average writers.

    The universe they set up in the Death Gate series is one of my favorite fantasy settings. I'd love to run a campaign in it (if I was any good as a DM -- I'm not -- and if I could figure out who the PCs would be). I like the setting in the Darksword novels as well, but I didn't really like the books that much so I quit about halfway through the second book.

    The writing in the Death Gate series is good enough that it doesn't distract you from the amazing setting, though. Granted, there are a fair number of cliches, but I really appreciated the way they brought all of them together in a fairly unique way.

    vRyue2p.png
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    DynagripDynagrip Break me a million hearts HoustonRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    Deathgate was a lot of fun when I was in late junior high/early high school. not sure how i'd feel about it now. maybe i'll try to dig them back up. of see if i can get one at Half price

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    DranythDranyth Surf ColoradoRegistered User regular
    Huh... this is a random topic to see. I actually played the Death Gate point and click game in addition to reading the novels... though it's been so long I can't remember if I played the game first or not.

    Anyway, I do remember quite enjoying the series of books.

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    HozHoz Cool Cat Registered User regular
    I read this series when I was a freshman in high school and I have fond memories of it, but then again I loved dragonlance in middle school so take my childhood reading interests with a grain of salt.

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    bwaniebwanie Posting into the void Registered User regular
    are these the haplo and alfred books?

    Yh6tI4T.jpg
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    ShanadeusShanadeus Registered User regular
    Yep.

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    bwaniebwanie Posting into the void Registered User regular
    edited September 2011
    oh.

    i think i gave up somewhere during the fourth book.

    it's not bad per sé, but my does it have some issues.

    i am curious how it ends though.


    off to wikipedia.

    bwanie on
    Yh6tI4T.jpg
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    Evil MultifariousEvil Multifarious Registered User regular
    I don't want to spoil the ending, but I really didn't like it, nor the general theme of the last few books

    It gets really preachy.

    Other than that, decent genre fiction when I was a lad.

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    Hi I'm Vee!Hi I'm Vee! Formerly VH; She/Her; Is an E X P E R I E N C E Registered User regular
    I don't want to spoil the ending, but I really didn't like it, nor the general theme of the last few books

    It gets really preachy.

    Other than that, decent genre fiction when I was a lad.

    Hrm, I don't remember the preachiness, but it's been awhile since I last read them. I do remember liking the first four books a lot better than the last three.

    What specifically did you find preachy about the last few books? (In spoilers if necessary)

    vRyue2p.png
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    CptHamiltonCptHamilton Registered User regular
    Dranyth wrote:
    Huh... this is a random topic to see. I actually played the Death Gate point and click game in addition to reading the novels... though it's been so long I can't remember if I played the game first or not.

    Anyway, I do remember quite enjoying the series of books.

    I played the game but never read the books. It was an okay game. Some of the puzzles were fairly good, the art was mostly decent for that sort of thing, and I seem to recall the magic rune drawing mechanic involved in some of the puzzles being amusing and different.

    PSN,Steam,Live | CptHamiltonian
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    ShanadeusShanadeus Registered User regular
    Finished the books and I too found the last few books a tad preachy.

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    shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    Drez wrote:
    But in all seriousness, they may be bad writers or whatever but I always enjoyed the Weis/Hickman books I read. Never read Death Gate Cycle but I did read Chronicles, Legends, the Raistlin books, and two of the post-Legends books and enjoyed them all.

    I'd say Deathgate is their best work. Not that this is saying all that much.

    It's ok. Tie-In fiction quality basically. The series kinda goes all to hell in the last 2 volumes though.

    The setting is pretty awesome though.

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    ShanadeusShanadeus Registered User regular
    The setting is the best part of it all, would be great for PnP or a videogame.
    Just gotta add in less "cosmic"-scale enemies. Could take place a couple of centuries after the books, when the wave has returned the whole creation to a more chaotic state with new adventures and foes awaiting.

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    JacobkoshJacobkosh Gamble a stamp. I can show you how to be a real man!Moderator mod
    I prefer to see OPs with more content than this.

This discussion has been closed.