Death Gate Cycling

I've been enjoying books from the Death Gate Cycle (by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman) lately. In fact, I've been really enjoying them.

I had been meaning to read them for several years when I bought the first two books when I was living in Atlanta. I'm glad I bought the first two books rather than just the first, because Vol 1 was ok but not all that great. However, Vol 2 was awesome and really got me into the story. After a brief break for Amy Tan and Bob Salvatore novels, I quickly gobbled up Vols 3 and 4, and I just started the 5th volume today.

Vol III saw the protagonist Haplo visit Abarrach, the world of stone. He saw lots of dead people and the creation of some really nasty undead called Lazar, who are planning all sorts of nastiness (like making the other Sundered Realms similarly under the control of the dead).

Vol IV saw Haplo visit Chelestra, the world of water. This is where some Sartan (including the Council) were hibernating. The head of the council, Samah, is a royal dick, by the way. I guess he's supposed to be lawful good (in the sense of a paladin with a 10-foot pole up his ass), but he seems like LN to me (if one wants to use those labels). I would say that Haplo is either LN or NN, and that Alfred (the "bumbling" Sartan) is NG.

Haplo thought that he lost himself in III, but he realized in IV that he was actually beginning to find himself. The fact that he started with answers to everything and ended with questions about everything indicates that. (That's the same thing in science. After the best research, one typically has many more questions than one did before. A couple things typically get answered, but in the process, many more questions were revealed.)

As we start Vol 5, Haplo is poised to escape his house arrest (in a room in Samah's house) as the magic-nullifying water rises and cancels out (temporarily) some Sartan runic magic. The writing style seems to have changed a bit with this volume, and some things suddenly have been given names. The Lord of the Nexus all of a sudden has a name. (I don't remember him being referred to by name in prior volumes.) The Sartan's land mass all of a sudden has a name as well. The dolphins' dialogue is being simulated now rather than just described. In the beginning of the book, several facts were stated in more precise fashion than than were in volume 4. (For instance, in Vol 4, they discuss Alfred's reaction to what's in the books Samah didn't want him to read without stating precisely what it was. In the beginning of volume 5, in the summaries written by Haplo of what happened on the previous four worlds, the authors decided to be more explicit. One thing I had been hoping in Vol 4 was an appendix excerpting some of what Alfred read in the library.)

Anyway, this is enough of a description for now. I'll write another entry after I finish Vol 5 or something.

(By the way, this isn't the only cyclist team I'm on---I'm also one of the members of the extended quantum chaos cyclist team, where the "cycles" in question technically refer to cycle [i.e.,periodic orbit] expansions to study dynamics. I am extended part of the team by virtue of having contributed to the online book to which I am linking. In recognition of this book, I awarded its lead author a Pulitzer Prize in perhaps my best ever April Fools Day prank. He claims to be prouder of this prize than his just-garnered APS Fellowship.)