Into the Labyrinth

Alfred and Haplo enter a terrifying prison maze that has long been shrouded in mystery and are followed by two assassins sent to take Haplo's life. 50,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo.

Alternating between incoherence and impenetrability, the sixth volume in the Death Gate series takes place in Abarrach, a land filled with magic, necromancers and the walking dead. Xar, the Lord of Abarrach, seeks control of the Seventh Gate, located beyond Death itself, which has the power to sunder the world. But Haplo, an adventurer with some magic of his own, may be a threat to Xar's plans. To eliminate him, the Lord sends an assassin (who quickly defects to the other side) and Haplo's former lover, Marit, who is now bound magically to Xar. Haplo and his companion Alfred must enter the ancient punishment caverns of the Labyrinth to defeat Xar's schemes. Burdened by clumsy expository writing and thin, uninteresting characters, the story is further weighted down by frequent footnotes intended to aid those who are not familiar with the series; instead, they make an already confusing plot more difficult to follow. Even Death Gate fans may find this poorly constructed novel disappointing.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Sixth entry in the authors' sprawling, grand-scale Death Gate fantasy series (The Hand of Chaos, p. 30, etc.). This time, protagonists Haplo the Patryn, whose magic derives from his tattoos, and Albert, the bumbling but mysteriously powerful Sartan, enter the Labyrinth--the deadly prison maze whence Haplo escaped in the inaugural volume. Like the previous entries, this one is far from independently intelligible; neither has the authors' technique--ranging from the wretched dialogue through the hopelessly flawed logic of the entire Death Gate notion--shown any sign of improvement. Still, the Weis & Hickman yarns sell exceedingly well. Why? Because they do. Stay tuned for the seventh- -and last--volume. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Haplo and his companions enter the treacherous Labyrinth in search of the Final Gate and a chance to defeat the armies of chaos that threaten the sundered worlds.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The imprisoning labyrinth has loomed like a shadow over the preceding five volumes of Weis and Hickman's Death Gates series. In the sixth, protagonists Alfred and Haplo finally enter it as the next step in their quest. Haplo has two assassins with him, one a ghost and the other a former lover who has sworn to be his nemesis. This situation promises plenty of action and emotional impact, which the authors by and large deliver. Their characterization is not of the highest order, but long familiarity with the people and superior world building restore their advantage and will retain their readers' loyalty. Weis and Hickman rank with such colleagues as the two Davids (Eddings and Duncan) as spinners of tales made up of comparatively conventional elements who keep readers coming back for volume after volume's worth. Roland Green