It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's a Trope! And it Rocks.

A couple of posts ago, I suggested that you all (yes, all) read Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragon Wing, the first volume of their seven-book Death Gate Cycle, on the basis that it's good light reading as well as a great introduction to fantasy genre tropes. I then both took my own advice, thus beginning to re-read it myself, as well as foisting it on Corey. The good news is, it may be even better than I remembered it.

The first four volumes focus on the main character's quest to, um, commit anarchy. Haplo is a Patryn, an uber-magic-powerful human race whose members were imprisoned in a humongous organic prison known as the Labyrinth by their arch-enemies the Sartan, the other uber-magic-powerful human race, for reasons unclear in the story's early stages. Just before imprisoning the Patryns, the Sartan split the Earth into four smaller, elemental planets, and then vanished altogether soon after. Haplo, powerful magician though he may be, is a grunt with blind allegiance to his liege lord Xar, who was the first to escape the Labyrinth and made it his life's mission to help others escape. Now, feeling that enough of his people are free, Xar's turned his sights to ruling other peoples as well. He desires to bring order to the universe by bringing it wholly under his command, and plans to accomplish that by having Haplo instigate civil unrest or war on each world, so that Xar can come in, bring peace, and take over. Of course, what's the enemy of the forces or Order? That's right, kids, Chaos! Its embodiment(s) are hard at work turning Xar to their sneaky purposes. Adventures of epic proportions - and a continuous theological discussion - ensue.

Also of course, the Sartan haven't all disappeared, and Haplo discovers this early in his travels. Haplo is young, angry, arrogant, and not prone to critical thinking, yet very powerful, and owns a dog who seems to be not your average dog. His Sartan nemesis Alfred, is older, sad, humble, and prone to over-thinking, yet very very powerful. No dog for him. The first four books introduce a cast of recurring secondary characters, as the first half of each are devoted to introducing the world they're set on; these include a human assassin, human rogue, inhuman child, naive dwarf, homicidal angry dwarf, progressive elf, conservative elf, senile elf, and tarty whoring elf with a heart of gold. Oh, and a mysterious sentient dragon and his seemingly senile geezer wizard. Tropes for all!

But - and this is a big but - these aren't mindless tropes. For starters, each world - Air, Fire, Earth, Water - is actually distinct, and the nature of the unrest Haplo must either instigate or improve on is different in each. He doesn't just go to the same world using the same procedure for four books. Heavy use of tropes may sound lazy on the surface, but Weis and Hickman push their story further by thinking things through. For all their quick-to-read qualities, these books aren't so fluffy. The third book, which takes the old story of a grieving man using necromancy to revive his wife or lover so that they'll be together eternally and extends it to the context of a king and his people, is grim to say the least (not to mention a nice exploration of the series-wide theme of the destruction that occurs when people play God - it's a horrific contrast to the good resurrection prophesied in the Bible). And, though they clearly like their Lord of the Rings, they rise above bad fanfic that somehow got published (Terry Brooks, I'm looking at you!) by building off influences instead of merely using them. Basically, Weis and Hickman are to Tolkien what Alastair Reynolds is to Heinlein and Asimov, or what Jim Butcher is to Spenser and the Brothers Grimm (but not quite as talented as Reynolds and Butcher). Corey has also suggested that their blatant LoTR and other pop references are clues to the series overarching themes of wave theory and finding God. Okay, that last sentence may not make sense, but I can't discuss it without going into they story in great depth; suffice it to say, I think he's right, and these themes are approached with thought and little disappointment. Another recurring theme in the series is abandonment by beings thought to be gods - the Sartan abandoning the Patryn, abandoning the four worlds; Haplo abandoning each world after his work is done - coupled with the search for the One God. This, too, is interestingly done.

And the character Zifnab's constant derogatory references to Gandalf the Grey? Corey has postulated a very interesting, reasonable, sort of profound and, I think, entirely correct reason for this other than the cheap comedic nudges I originally thought they were. If you've read it, I'd be happy to present you this theory; otherwise, it will mean little and spoil much.

If you're thinking the names Weis and Hickman are familiar, that's probably because they also created Dragonlance - but don't hold it against them. The first three books of that series are quite enjoyable; however, if you've made the mistake of reading on from there, don't let that prompt a rejection of the Death Gate Cycle. The only reasons I can think of to not enjoy this series are a) you don't enjoy fantasy, b) you don't enjoy adventure books, or c) you're bigoted, and think Christian/monotheistic themes automatically make a story bad, like those incomprehensible folks who say stuff like "the Chronicles of Narnia would be good if it weren't for all the Christian content!" (This is, without a doubt, the strangest literary criticism I've ever heard. You can't make this stuff up, kids. As the dog in Fallout 3 would say: [aroo?] )

Bottom line: for a long-ish series, the Death Gate Cycle is one of the better uses of your library card - though also worth owning; it re-reads well - and not even that big of a time commitment. Bonus fantasy series points: it also has a clear and well-reached conclusion, not to mention my favourite deus ex machina ever, in book seven. Take that, Wheel of Time!