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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9781416555414
ISBN number: 1416555412
Label: Baen
Manufacturer: Baen
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 1248
Printing Date: April 29, 2008
Publishing house: Baen
Sale Popularity Level: 32538
Studio: Baen
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
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 very 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!
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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Found most of the book incredibly boring. Lacked a good editor. By the end I was hoping for a nuclear winter to put everyone out of their misery.
Rated by buyers -
Late 19th century technology and psychic abilities versus magic and dragons. That's what this book is about. Two separate civilizations, Sharona and Arcana, have been exploring empty parallel worlds until they very violently bump into each other.
Now the very first thing you'll notice about this book is that it is pretty long. Unfortunately two thirds of that length is little more that explaining, re-explaining, and re-re-explaining the various worlds, governments, etc. in the book. It starts off fairly slow, but picks up towards the middle, but then slows down again until the very end with a fullscale war we've been waiting for finally starting just as the novel ends.
In general this book has a good idea for a story and what story is there is pretty good, unfortunately it gets bogged down in endless explanations and instances in which the viewpoint switches between three different characters to give three different viewpoints on the same experience or event. It's interesting, but we really don't need it to enjoy the novel.
Rated by buyers 
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This book was a bit confusing at first, trying to keep the two cultures seperated (and telling the names apart), but it was really very good. So is Hell Hath No Fury.
Rated by buyers -
I am sorry for those of you who did not like the rather complicated but very interesting new world Mr. Weber has created. I rather enjoyed it and thought the subsequent book even better. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to be immersed in a good yarn.
Rated by buyers -
This book does seem to drag along for quite a while. It never quite gets "boring" but then, it's never quite edge of your seat exciting either. This book is cramed with world building which is some times tedious, but things REALLY pick up in book to. I reccomend you get this, even if only to understand the later books in the series.
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