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Read Exile's Gate (1988)

Exile's Gate (1988)

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Rating
4.05 of 5 Votes: 1
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ISBN
0886772540 (ISBN13: 9780886772543)
Language
English
Publisher
daw

Exile's Gate (1988) - Plot & Excerpts

Exiles Gate is the fourth and final outing in CJ Cherryh's Morgaine saga; the first three stories having been published under one title, the Chronicles of Morgaine. My copy was a fairly elderly one, tatty, worn out and dogeared, having survived about six house moves, numerous car-boot-sale culls and finally being lost forever having been left on a plane at Amsterdam airport. It was recently replaced (thanks to Amazon Marketplace) with an equally tatty second hand copy. my only consolation is that the passenger that took my seat on the next flight (or the cabin attendant or cleaning staffer) was lucky enough to find him or herself blessed with a right corker of a SF-fantasy story! I really love the story - Chronicles (a collection of three books) and the sequel Exile's Gate. You might be forgiven for thinking this is a bit of a sword & sandal Conan & Sonja saga - nothing like it! It owes far more, I suspect, to Arthurian legend than anything and there isn't a bulging loincloth to be found. What more to be said? the plot is long and linear, based as it is around an ill-fated quest; there are battles and travails aplenty, but none of that really matters. Once you "get it" you realise that the *real* story is about the developing relationship, uneasy at first, between the two protagonists; the fey, unpredictable and beautiful Morgaine and her faithful warrior servant, young, persistent and flawed Vanye. To say much more would spoil it, but the development of these two characters and how they interact is what makes this story what it is. Until you realise that you may find that it drags somewhat because there's a lot more "jaw jaw" than "war war". To say any more about Exile's Gate would spoil it, but if you read Chronicles, you really must read Exile before you die! Nuff said. I only wish Cherryh had written a few more of these.

I love this whole series of books. I read them when I was in Middle School and I still love them today. This is the last book in the series but we never got an ending to these books and after all these years I doubt we'll get another book in the Morgaine Saga. Even though these books were never given an ending, I would still recommend them to anybody to read. I love all her books in this series and I love the two main characters and the building relationship between the two of them. This book is very large, bigger than the others in the series, but Cherryh writes in a way that makes her books very easy to read.

What do You think about Exile's Gate (1988)?

I read the other books of this saga as a young adult. I liked them very much and never forgot Morgaine, Vanye and their endless quest. I discovered Exile's Gate only some time ago - it has never been translated into my language - and I was so happy to find a new piece of the story that I read the book in one shot. Then, for the first time in all my life, I felt the need of translating the first chapter in Italian - for my own pleasure, of course, as I'm certainly not a skilled translator (as you should have yet understood). To make a long story short, I haven't yet been able to stop... I'm now translating chapter 13 and I like this book more and more. The characters are amazing. Vanye is likeable as always, and I like Chei, Bron and the rest of friends and enemies and enemies/friends very much too, but in my opinion is Morgaine whom we learn to knew more than in the previous books. And finally we can truly love her, too. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll say only a thing: I am really enjoying chapter 13, because here there is some Clint-Eastwood-western attitude. I highly recommend this book, so as I have always highly recommend the Morgaine saga. My only regret is having discovered Exile's gate too late, so I can't speak about it with anyone. Sadly, I have no hopes to find someone to speak about it in my own language.
—Bruna

Gate-time works differently than world-time -- for Nhi Vanye and Morgaine, mere moments passed between when they rode into the Fires at Azeroth and when they emerged at Morund, but for the rest of us ten years had passed.This is the final (not concluding, but presumably last) book about Morgaine and Vanye. It's the largest in the series -- in terms of word-count, it's probably double any of the preceding volumes -- and the most complex in terms of the number of POV characters and in terms of the situation on the ground. On the world of Exile's Gate, some qhal still remain and still control the Gates, to a greater or lesser degree, at the behest of a power infinitely older and more dangerous.We still never get inside Morgaine's head -- all of our experience with her is filtered through other characters' observations, most especially Vanye's. The relationship between Morgaine and Vanye is, as always, one of the chief structural members of the story, and we get to see a glimpse of that relationship from outsiders' perspectives; we also, before the end, do learn somewhat about Morgaine herself.Myself, I'd be thrilled to see further adventures of Morgaine and Vanye. But if this is the end, I'm well-content, secure in the knowledge that they still ride the Gates, but at a place too far for tales to filter back.
—Joseph

There is a plot, but it is merely a structure to drape the book over. (Morgaine and Vayne, liege and vassal, ride from world to world to destroy the reality threatening teleportation Gates. They leave behind chaos and suffering from undermining the societies built around the Gates.) The story is all Vayne's struggle between duty, honor, friendship, and love while coping with Morgain whose mission overrides any concerns of mercy or warmth or truth. The effect of telling the story from Vayne's point of view is very appealing since we never get any deeper understanding of Morgaine than he does, just as we never 100% understand another person no matter how close we get to them.
—Mark

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