F/SF

Dit boek is het hoogtepunt van de serie wat mij betreft. De strijd komt op een cruciaal punt terecht en Haplo en Alfred beginnen elkaar echt te waarderen. ( )

Xar, Señor del Nexo, ha viajado al terrible mundo de Abarrach para aprender el arte secreto de la nigromancia, con la esperanza de formar un ejército de muertos y conquistar con él los cuatro mundos elementales. Sin embargo, descubre un modo más sencillo de conseguir su propósito. La Séptima Puerta, la cámara mágica que utilizaron los sartán para dividir el universo primordial, existe todavía y quien penetre en ella puede crear mundos... o destruirlos.

This is the 6th novel in the Death Gate Cycle and won't make much sense unless you have read the previous 5 books. Into the Labyrinth continues the action packed story of Haplo, Alfred, and Dog, who have been stranded in the deadly Labyrinth; and of Xar who is hell-bent on conquering the world via zombie apocalypse. ( )

Best of the series. Haplo and his dog are recovering on ( )

The seventh gate is revealed, as the gate where all power resides. The serpentsnakes play a much bigger role and their opposites are shown thru the single personage of Zifnab’s dragon. But the ‘goodpower’ just seems to stay hidden, very disappointing. Lots of cool things happen tho. Haplo finds his old lover and Alfred stops running and accepts his status of serpentmage. ( )

A common threat creates an uneasy truce.

Peace has come to Arianus, but for Haplo the fight continues. His only hope lies in convincing Lord Xar of the truth, and stopping him. For Lord Xar has found a new ambition, the Seventh Gate. Now Haplo must contend with Xar’s messenger. Unwilling to kill, Haplo must convince a fellow Patryn to join him in open rebellion.

At first the story relies on a series of vignettes to establish where each character is, gradually bringing them together, uniting the diverse threads into two parallel plots. Most of the story focuses on self-contained subplots, relying on frequent changes of perspective to conceal the sluggish pace of the main plot. Internal conflicts dominate, bringing characters together in pairs for brief scenes, revealing a small amount of information about each character, then breaking them apart, sending each character off to collide with another character, starting a fresh scene. Tensions slowly build towards climactic group discussions, which make strong use of each character’s distinct voice before scattering the group once more. Touching moments bring one storyline to a predictable conclusion, while the other ends on a cliffhanger, paving the way for the final installment.

+Strong Characters
+Strong Dialogue
*Strong but Fragmented Plot
*Frequently Changing Perspectives
-Slow

3.5/5 ( )

Best book out of the Death Gate Cycle so far, a plethora of action (finally) worth reading all the rest of the book to get this far - the descriptions of battles, scenery etc are mind blowing. And the characters that you have become attached to through out the series finally pick up the (action) slack and fight! ( )

In the sixth book of the Death Gate cycle Haplo and Alfred enters the dreadful Labyrinth to fight a common enemy. This series still amazes me wih its details and originality. No papiermache, black & white characters (ok, the dragon-snakes ARE evil...), good plot and yes, I like the senile old wizard and his anachronistic, out-of-this-world sentences.. :-) ( )

Deel 6 van de Poort des Doods serie. Het ging niet zo snel met dit deel, maar dat lag zeker niet aan het boek, maar meer aan het feit dat er andere boeken tussendoor gelezen 'moesten' worden. Dit deel werkt zeker naar het einde toe. De draadjes komen langzamerhand bij elkaar. Deel 7 is aanzienlijk dunner en daar ben ik dan ook gelijk maar in begonnen. Ik ben nog steeds erg benieuwd naar wie of wat er achter een aantal personages zit. Waar komt Hond vandaag en wat is de rol van Zifnab en zijn draak? En vooral hoe zit het met Alfred. Ik heb helaas niet zo veel met Haplo, maar dat doet voor mij niets aan het verhaal af. ( )

Although the pace picks up in the latter half of Labyrinth, there is no disguising the languishing pace of the first half and the absence of any noteworthy scenes. Labyrinth is setting the stage for the final conflict, drawing together a fellowship, with the usual traitor within, and actually creates some worthy tension as a result. Distracting from that is Fizban, a plot mechanic so absurd that it immediately dissolves any engagement with the story. Why the James Bond gags? It's high fantasy, not comedy and it's strikingly out of place. The final stage is worth fighting to though and at that point the lengthy build-up does pay dividends and ensures that readers will be yearning for resolution in the final chapter to follow. ( )

To me, the series began to suffer at this point. ( )