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Hell's Gate (BOOK 1 in new MULTIVERSE series) (1) (Multiverse Wars) Mass Market Paperback – April 29, 2008

by David Weber (Author), Linda Evans (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 450 ratings
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The Union of Arcana has expanded through the portals linking parallel universes for over a century and a half. In that time, its soldiers and sorcerers have laid claim to one uninhabited planet after another—all of them Earth, and in the process, the Union has become the most powerful, most wealthy civilization in all of human history. But all of that is about to come to a screeching halt, for the Union’s scouts have just discovered a new portal, and on its far side lies a shattering revelation. Arcana is not alone, after all. There is another human society, Sharona, which has also been exploring the Multiverse, and the first contact between them did not go well. Arcana is horrified by the alien weapons of its sudden opponents, weapons its sorcerers cannot explain or duplicate. Weapons based upon something called . . . science. But Sharona is equally horrified by Arcana’s “magical” weapons. Neither side expected the confrontation. Both sides think the other fired first, and no one on either side understands the “technology” of the other. But as the initial disastrous contact snowballs into all-out warfare, both sides can agree on one thing. The portal which brought them together is Hell’s Gate itself!
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Previous page
  1. Book 1 of 3
    Hell's Gate
  2. Print length
    1248 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Baen
  5. Publication date
    April 29, 2008
  6. Dimensions
    4.19 x 2 x 6.75 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    1416555412
  8. ISBN-13
    978-1416555414
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

With more than eight million copies of his books in print and 33 titles on the New York Times bestseller list, David Weber is a science fiction powerhouse. In the vastly popular Honor Harrington series, the spirit of C.S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower and Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander lives on—into the galactic future. Books in the Honor Harrington and Honorverse series have appeared on 21 bestseller lists, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and USA Today. Additional Honorverse collaborations include the spin-off miniseries Manticore Ascendant with New York Times best-selling author, Timothy Zahn; and with Eric Flint, Crown of Slaves and Cauldron of Ghosts contribute to his illustrious list of New York Times and international bestseller lists.

Best known for his spirited, modern-minded space operas, Weber is also the creator of the Oath of Swords fantasy series and the Dahak saga, a science fiction and fantasy hybrid. Weber has also engaged in a steady stream of best-selling collaborations: the Starfire Series with Steve White; The Empire of Man Series with John Ringo; the Multiverse Series with Linda Evans and Joelle Presby; and the Ring of Fire Series with Eric Flint.

David Weber makes his home in South Carolina with his wife and children.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Baen (April 29, 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 1248 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1416555412
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1416555414
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.19 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.19 x 2 x 6.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 450 ratings

About the authors

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  1. David Weber

    David Weber

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    David Mark Weber is an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1952. Weber and his wife Sharon live in Greenville, South Carolina with their three children and "a passel of dogs".

    With a blue-collar, science-fiction loving father, a college English teacher mother (who also owned her own ad agency in the 70s), and a life-long love for history, he was clearly predestined to perpetrate a whole host of military science-fiction (and fantasy) novels and anthologies.

    Previously the owner of the small advertising and public relations agency he took over from his mother, has written science fiction full time for thirty years. He is probably best known for his Honor Harrington series, from Baen Books, and his Safehold series, from Tor.

    See more on the author's page
  2. Linda Evans

    Linda Evans

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    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
450 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

John Patin
5.0 out of 5 stars A Promising Start
Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2007
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To those who are griping about the amount of exposition, don't you think the introduction of not one but TWO entirely new universes might require a little bit of explaining? Actually there are more since it's a multiverse, but the protagonists are from the two main ones. See? It is such a broad new storytelling concept that even in a letter about it some explanation is required. I suspect the same folks would be complaining that there wasn't ENOUGH background if Weber had left it out and simply dropped dragons and spells on a reader who had just gotten used to a bunch of characters (in the OTHER universe) who were telepathic steam engine users. Yes, there are a lot of characters, but again, remember, two universes. Rest assured, these people are being introduced for a reason. Seemingly minor characters now will have vital roles to play later. Trust the author. He knows what he is doing. Has Weber ever disappointed you before?

I found this novel, well, novel. It is a promising and entertaining beginning to a whole new series and I look forward to a long and enjoyable string of books set in this `multiverse' that promise to stand up in quality and pure reading fun to the Honor Harringtons already on my shelves. I read through this book in just a couple of days and immediately ordered the next one. Let me assure you now; It gets even better in "Hell Hath No Fury". I am eagerly awaiting announcement of the third book in this thoroughly enjoyable new series and will buy it without hesitation
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DrPat
4.0 out of 5 stars Wordy As Hell... 's Gate
Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2016
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If multiple universes could exist, they might intersect. If magic was a reality in at least one of them, there might also be another world with people of supernatural ability. And given that magic-practicing humans in each would want to expand into the adjacent worlds of their respective multiverses, eventually they would meet. If they did, a war of magics might erupt.

That's a lot of "ifs," and the authors take an uncomfortably long time setting the scene. It doesn't help that neither human civilization uses names, military ranks, gods, or countries anything like our own common usage.

The reader is left to wallow in that welter of the unfamiliar, trying to set two different imaginary worlds into place mentally, before the story can truly commence. The only help is that one group of humans use "Talents" (ESP-like magical gifts), and supplement them with mechanisms like trains, artillery pieces, and dynamite. The other group uses "Gifts" (spell-magic talents they can use themselves, or code into personal crystals—"PCs"—for use by the non-Gifted), as well as modified organisms like dragons.

Oh, yes, and there are sentient apes and cetaceans in one of the multiverses. Sigh.

Previous writers who took on the multiverse concept left one side to the familiar. Think of H. Beam Piper with "Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen" ( Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen (Kalvan series) ), or Wen Spencer's "Tinker" ( Tinker (Elfhome Book 1) ) in the Elfhome novels. Eric Flint's Ring of Fire novels started with a single town swapped into an unfamiliar alternate time and place in "1632" ( 1632 (Ring of Fire Series) ).

In the Weber/Evans "Hell's Gate" series, we have to stretch to encompass good and bad guys for both sides of the conflict in a totally alien battlefield. Furthermore, the geography of each multiverse is the same as our own mundane Earth. It makes the battleground and home worlds in which these two cultures contend eerily familiar, but just different enough to delay and defeat the reader's attempt to assign places to a familiar globe.

If the novel shares a common failing with other Weber tales, it is the black-and white nature of the various opponents: good guys are not only good, but stellar (even holy!); bad guys are not simply mistaken, but married to evil. Yet as with the "Honor Harrington" and "Safehold" oeuvres, there are enough of each on both sides of the conflict to keep it real.

More real than this is the "fog of war" that develops when these two civilizations meet. Although each had the firm intention to keep any eventual encounter peaceful, that intent does not survive the actual contact. "Guns" begin to blaze, people die on both sides, and it doesn't even need conspiracies of disinformation and propaganda from both civilizations to spin the conflict out of control: "Once hostility begins to grow, simple clarity of communication isn't enough to make it magically disappear. If two nations have a tradition of dislike, if they treat one another to public displays of discourtesy or petulance, if they get into the habit of denigrating one another in efforts to sway international diplomatic opinion to favor their side in some dispute, misunderstandings and flares of temper can occur quickly, particularly during times of increased stress."

This is the opening of a new series, so we should not expect the good guys to tidily win before the end. Even so, there is an appalling number of characters in whom we have invested interest who die in horrific ways—some of them before the tale is really underway.

Yet despite its complexities, clumsy phrasing, and slight stereotyping, despite all the discomforts and delays, the story itself is compelling. We see how the misunderstandings contribute to disaster. We want the Prince to defeat the plans of his evil father-in-law, we want the Talented couple to survive as POWs, we really want the evil general and his sadistic minions to pay for their crimes.

And we're dying to know what the whales plan to do!

Liner Notes:
I found several things helpful in keeping the two civilizations straight in my mind:

*The group with ESP Talents (the "mechanicals" as I call them) give their veterans the right to use the honorific "chan" in their names. The other civilization (or "magics") has a cultural group that includes the honorific "vos" in their surnames, but it isn't a reliable way to spot them in the narrative, especially since these folks may be hiding their Gifts.
*"Dragoons" belong to the mechanicals, "Dragons" to the magics.
*A couple of blank projection-maps helped me keep the geography of the two groups straight. Since the mineral wealth is common from one universe to another, silver and gold lodes and oilfields help site the places discussed. Obvious geographic landmarks like Gibraltar, the Mediterranean and Black Seas, Niagara Falls, gulfs and straits and island continents, all help to position the alien location-names on an understandable map.
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John A Lee III
5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful New Playground
Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2007
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I love David Weber's work but I have put off starting this series for quite a while because I am miffed. I am waiting for the continuation of some of his other works, particularly the Honor Harrington series. I want him to get on with it. Now, having read this one, I have even more reason to be miffed. I have to wait for continuations of this series as well.

The concept is a bold one. "Portals" allow transit from parallel versions of earth that are practically identical except for one thing. There are no humans. This has led to a plethora of resources as the new universes are exploited. Then comes the fateful day when it is learned that "we are not alone". There is another human civilization out there doing the same thing. This could be cause for rejoicing except that first contact does not go the way anyone could hope. There is shooting by two nervous individuals. It gets worse when an incompetent and cowardly officer becomes responsible for a massacre of a civilian survey party.

The two civilizations facing each other have much in common. There are political considerations for just about everything in both home universes. This leads base men to make matters worse on both side.

There is also much different. On one side, technology seems to be fairly primitive. Arbalests and swords are the normal armament. This does not prevent those using this technology in doing so most effectively but it is still primitive when compared to the technology used by the other side which seems to be on a par with the late Victorians. The real difference, though is in their respective gifts and talents. The more archaic civilization does not need the fancy mechanics because they have magic, complete with dragons, unicorns and such. The other side does not know how to fight this. For their part, though, the more advanced civilization makes use of psionic talents. Telepathy, precognition and related skills are a normal part of life for them. In neither case are these gifts and talents universal but they do tend to make the other side even more incomprehensible than they would otherwise seem.

Weber and Evans have crafted a well thought out series of universes in this series. This initial book is basically dealing with the initial contact and the ramification stemming from that contact. The point of contact is a long way from the home of either civilization and the potential for unwanted strife is great. Weber and Evans make the most of that potential.

I still want Weber to get back to work on the Honorverse books but I am going to cut him some slack because I want him to finish more of these as well.
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Top reviews from other countries

Deepak
3.0 out of 5 stars Frustrating read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 20, 2021
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The story plot is good but the writing style I found frustrating. The first third of the book ambles almost pointlessly, but if you persevere past it the story gets going. However in the rest of the book there are long tangents to the main story, things like backstory and people thinking. These were too long for me and I was skip reading quite a bit of the book. I am continuing with the series, I hope book 2 is better.
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Marc
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on April 19, 2016
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Love the series and glad the third installment is out finally.
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Jeff Wiebe
4.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, get the series
Reviewed in Canada on February 8, 2022
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Great Book, get the series
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Wolfgang
1.0 out of 5 stars Would not buy it again
Reviewed in Germany on March 22, 2014
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The problem is not the book itself. The stage and the initial settings of the story are interesting, and it is told - with only a few lengthy passages - well. However, the problem is that this book is part 1 of something which has at least 3 volumes, and Volume 3 has not been released for 4 years. According to other comments I have read it is highly questionable that there will ever be a Volume 3.

This is highly frustrating, and exasctly because the story is good. But I think there is a kind of obligation of an author to end what has been started, and I feel somehow being cheated. In any case - and this is what I would advise to anyone - I will buy books from a multipart series only if the storylines are clearly confined to a single book, or if all book sof the series have already been released.
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John O'sullivan
2.0 out of 5 stars dreary gate, more like
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 17, 2015
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I'm a big fan of David weber, love the way he builds a believable universe in which to place his characters.
Having said that, this book is dire, long, drawn out, protracted, elongated, stretched to say the least.
I bought my used copy from Amazon and it arrived with a hand written note on the inside cover "don't read this book, it's terrible!" But I'm an adventurous sort and so I gave it a try!
Suffice to say that the note wasn't strong enough in its condemnation! Think I'll stick to 'safehold' in the future!
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