Given to me by my older sister, this three-in-one omnibus was my introduction to C.J. Cherryh way back in 1979; I remember devouring it and loving it. It lead me to read many, many of Cherryh's books over the decades and it only occurred to me now to reread it after so long. I wondered if I would still love it as much.

Well, no. Not really.

I do love the characters; Vanye is flawed and psychologically wounded, Morgaine is somewhere between obsessive and PTSD, and Roh comes to be a fascinating chimera. Changeling is about as cool an artifact as you'll find in SFF, and the meta-narrative of the qhal and the Gates (which seemed pretty cutting-edge for their time) still carries intrigue. It's a good concept and there's a neat story arc, reaching a pretty sweet culmination in the climax and denouement of "Fires of Azeroth." But damn.....it's a hot mess for the first two installments, and the prose only eventually reaches above painful. The forced, affected language is cringeworthy: when writing sword-and-sorcery or the like it is NOT necessary to use fake medieval language ("bestirred," "bespoke"). Then there's the pacing. While the first two books consist almost entirely of helter-skelter, grab-ass running about from one ill-conceived skirmish to the next, with Vanye repeatedly getting separated from Morgaine and beaten senseless by somebody-or-other, 'FoA' at last takes its time and allows for exposition. Even the readers need to catch a breath sometimes. Sloppy, and the editors are as much to blame.

A final note concerns the edition itself. While I know Book Club Editions are no-frills, this omnibus is so replete with typesetting errors as to make passages incoherent. Shoddy, even for SFBC bargains. ( )

I read this Cherryh is one of my favourite authors and I'm sort of working through her back catalogue.

Given the fantasy styling I was expecting this to be a ponderous, overwrought book, and it lived down to my expectations. That is not to say it is a bad book as such, it is just much, much less than it could have been.

The characters of Morgaine and Vanye are complex and interesting, the societies through which they move, for all the cod-mediaeval styling, are well drawn, but nothing can compensate for two fundamental weaknesses:

1) Each book fundamentally the same epic quest story. While the characters develop, the story never does, and one cannot help feeling that the whole thing is ultimately pointless.
2) This is fundamentally a work of fantasy wrapped in a tissue-thin sf shell. All the tropes are there: The qhal are not aliens, they're just elves with a silly name and the usual attendant cloud of half-breeds; there's is an evil magic sword and each world gate is essentially a Mount Doom franchise.

Also, the way the whole story is casually tacked on to the ass-end of Alliance-Union is an insult to that vastly richer and more rewarding universe.

I don't think I'll be re-reading this one. ( )

This is the first three books of one of Cherryh's first series. Strictly, it is science fiction, about the aftermath of the collapse of a time-traveling culture. the quahl (which had a rule to only travel forward in time, to avoid disruptions) when someone went back once and set off a cascading collapse. Now what were apparently humans from a modern Bureau of Science has been given the duty of traveling (also only forward)to seal the "gates" by which the quahl traveled. 100 set out, knowing they could not return. Five reach the world of the gate of Ivrel, which had become the source power of a tyrant. He used that power to destroy four of the five and their local allies. The fifth, the woman Morgaine, is driven into a minor local gate and stays there for about 100 years.When she comes out, she gains a local exile as her liegeman, together they close gates on three worlds in three volumes collected here. A fairly subtly handled sexual tension develops between them, which is only released in Book Four (written later and not included here). Though the background is sf, the "feel" is medieval fantasy as that is the cultural level of the people of these world, and they regard the quahl powers as magic. Some bits are clearly influenced by Tolkien, like the visit to Clan Chiya, green-clad bowmen who live in the woods and fight evil creatures, with strong overtones of Tolkien's woodelves and rangers. ( )

I confess this is the 500,000,000 time I have read this book. Its like catching up with old friends. Last month I was rearranging my book shelf and discovered my copy (like the one pictured) was gone. I immediately called the usual suspect. My mother. She claims she did not take, does not have it etc. Nonetheless it was not there nor did it return. I panicked. I mean, Morgaine and Vanye are very dear to me. When I was 15 I wanted to be her. Tall, wear cool armor, have long silver hair and grey eyes. She also has a really awesome horse. Thank the qual for technology and I was able to procure another copy. I literally lost sleep.

Each time I have read this book, I discover more. The story (for me) becomes deeper. Frankly when I was 15 the whole space/time thing went over my head. I get it now. But this/these books have not lost there affect on me. Here I am 44. I still want to be tall, wear cool armor, have long silver hair and grey eyes. And don't forget the horse.

I will read this again. And again. ( )

My absolutely favorite fiction trilogy.

Mega-role-reversals for the male and female protagonists---remarkably, underscoring their physical attraction---adding romantic and powerfully-sweet tensions to a plot that will take you for a Worlds-spanning series of adventures...

{ be sure to scroll down to Exile's Gate, the fourth book in the series } ( )