Hell's Gate (BOOK 1 in new MULTIVERSE series) [Mass Market Paperback]

The first fifty pages of this book sucked. I was ready to toss the book out the window. Good thing you can't open windows on the airplane.

It's the first book in a series about the multiverse. It's basically a chain of universes linked together by portals with the same planet at it's center. At one end of the chain are the Arcanans, a universe where the code of magic has been broken and is used for everyday life. At the other end of the chain are the Sharonans. They use technology of the 1880's. The laws of physics apply in that neck of the wood. Except they have a high percentage of telepaths. The Sharonans are up to steam power and gunpowder and are working on oil.

The two civilizations meet at one of the portals, which they call Hell's Gate because of all the shooting involved from both sides.

Why did I hate the first fifty pages. My god did they need editing. It was page after page of exposition and tangents. Both authors felt the pressing need to tell us everything about everyone. I can understand the need to explain the world and it's people, but it never let up. They'd be in the middle of an action sequence and suddenly it was time to talk about the main Sharonan women's mother and father and how she was an ambassador to the cetaceans and how she lived on this spit of land near the ocean and there was a bell the dolphins could ring to get her attention and her father and it would not stop. You forgot what the hell was going on by the time you got back from the byway. It was like a first novel without an editor.

They eventually toned the exposition down but it would creep in through out the novel. Isn't it better to do things in novels rather than talk about them?

Eventually the action moved forward and the pace picked up. In the beginning both sides of the shooting incidents were good guys appalled by the bloodshed. Then the incompetents showed up to make the misunderstanding worse. It's typical Weber. There are only supremely competent individuals or supremely incompetent individuals. And if one of the Competents is in a jam, an incompetent will come along and make the situation worse. There are no shades of grey.

Fortunately, before everything gets sorted out, opposing parties in the Sharonan and Arcanan universes see oppurtunities for advancement by escalating the conflict.

The second half of the book was okay. There is a noticeable rise in tension. All the opposing sides are being drawn nicely. I'm just hoping they get a really good editor before the next book.

And one last quibble, what's with Weber and his fascination with people carrying around pets? In the Honorverse, we had the Cats. In this book it's Birds of Prey. Why? Why do some people always have to have a semi-sentient familiar? Couldn't you find some other way to make the people stand out?

As a few other reviewers have noted, this book bogs down repeatedly on endless expositions about the nature of the two different multiverses and their diverse cultures. The problem is that by the time you're halfway through the book you practically need a Clifnote edition just to keep track of who's who and what's happening next. And after what seems like the 37th exposition about how long it takes to travel from one end of the multiverse to the other it's to the point of "Get ON with it!"

All in all, wait until you can pick this up cheap. It's not worth the full hardcover price; it's not even worth half that. Considering I am normally one of David Weber's biggest fans, that's saying a lot.

I just managed to plod through this first of a new series, and I must say that I find it less than enjoyable. W Boudville's review of the book is quite appropriate here. I agree that it is much like the war in the Pacific, and most of his further description.

My biggest gripes were the sheer complexity of the names: I could not keep track of them as I would have liked. And what makes this so perplexing is that the use of current time, volume, and distance are in our language, yet the names are not. This is a bit far fetched. Further, the lack of maps or indexes are frustrating, because the book is very difficult to keep complete track of all the kingdoms and worlds. Certainly not advantageous to a good series.

Here is something that I did not see mentioned by others: the blending of fiction and fantasy. I am Not a fan of fantasy, so I find the use of 'magic' to be not to my liking. I will probably take a raincheck on further books in the series. I have been noticing that this blend of science fiction and fantasy seems to be going strong within the Bean Books world of late. Even John Ringo, and some others have preceeded Weber, and I have not bothered to take the bait there either. Sorry, but I will stick to more mainstream SF.

Fortunately, I did not spend any money on this book, but checked it out from the library. Money well saved.

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