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The World Gates #3
Gods Old and Dark
The spellbinding conclusion to the magnificent epicof fantastic adventure and worlds within worlds. Live magic has returned to the Earth -- as the demons of every universe gather to destroy it ... The World Gates offer passage into countless realms, dimensions, and nightmares, changingforever those few with the courage to cross over.Lauren Dane and Molly McColl, two sisterstransformed, now hold the future of all living things in their hands -- for Lauren's mission to bringlife-giving magic back to Earth and other dying worlds has not gone unnoticed. And Molly's powerto protect her will not hold against the countless ancient evils that are closing in. For the maelstromis coming to drag down gods and humans alike.And darkness will surely prevail unless a last,desperate stand is made against the dreadedNight Watch, eater of worlds.
336 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 1, 2004
About the author
Holly Lisle
109 books453 followersHolly Lisle has been writing fiction professionally since 1991, when she sold FIRE IN THE MIST, the novel that won her the Compton Crook Award for best first novel. She has to date published more than thirty novels and several comprehensive writing courses. She has just published WARPAINT, the second stand-alone novel in her Cadence Drake series.
Holly had an ideal childhood for a writer…which is to say, it was filled with foreign countries and exotic terrains, alien cultures, new languages, the occasional earthquake, flood, or civil war, and one story about a bear, which follows:
“So. Back when I was ten years old, my father and I had finished hunting ducks for our dinner and were walking across the tundra in Alaska toward the spot on the river where we’d tied our boat. We had a couple miles to go by boat to get back to the Moravian Children’s Home, where we lived.
“My father was carrying the big bag of decoys and the shotgun; I was carrying the small bag of ducks.
“It was getting dark, we could hear the thud, thud, thud of the generator across the tundra, and suddenly he stopped, pointed down to a pie-pan sized indentation in the tundra that was rapidly filling with water, and said, in a calm and steady voice, “That’s a bear footprint. From the size of it, it’s a grizzly. The fact that the track is filling with water right now means the bear’s still around.”
“Which got my attention, but not as much as what he said next.
” ‘I don’t have the gun with me that will kill a bear,’ he told me. ‘I just have the one that will make him angry. So if we see the bear, I’m going to shoot him so he’ll attack me. I want you to run to the river, follow it to the boat, get the boat back home, and tell everyone what happened.’
“The rest of our walk was very quiet. He was, I’m sure, listening for the bear. I was doing my damnedest to make sure that I remembered where the boat was, how to get to it, how to start the pull-cord engine, and how to drive it back home, because I did not want to let him down.
“We were not eaten by a bear that night…but neither is that walk back from our hunt for supper a part of my life I’ll ever forget.
“I keep that story in mind as I write. If what I’m putting on paper isn’t at least as memorable as having a grizzly stalking my father and me across the tundra while I was carrying a bag of delicious-smelling ducks, it doesn’t make my cut.”
You can find Holly on her personal site:
Hollylisle.com
You can find Cadence Drake, Holly's currently in-progress series, on her site:
CadenceDrake.com
You can find Holly's books, courses, writing workshops, and so on here:
The HowToThinkSideways.com Shop, as well as on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and in a number of bookstores in the US and around the world.
Holly had an ideal childhood for a writer…which is to say, it was filled with foreign countries and exotic terrains, alien cultures, new languages, the occasional earthquake, flood, or civil war, and one story about a bear, which follows:
“So. Back when I was ten years old, my father and I had finished hunting ducks for our dinner and were walking across the tundra in Alaska toward the spot on the river where we’d tied our boat. We had a couple miles to go by boat to get back to the Moravian Children’s Home, where we lived.
“My father was carrying the big bag of decoys and the shotgun; I was carrying the small bag of ducks.
“It was getting dark, we could hear the thud, thud, thud of the generator across the tundra, and suddenly he stopped, pointed down to a pie-pan sized indentation in the tundra that was rapidly filling with water, and said, in a calm and steady voice, “That’s a bear footprint. From the size of it, it’s a grizzly. The fact that the track is filling with water right now means the bear’s still around.”
“Which got my attention, but not as much as what he said next.
” ‘I don’t have the gun with me that will kill a bear,’ he told me. ‘I just have the one that will make him angry. So if we see the bear, I’m going to shoot him so he’ll attack me. I want you to run to the river, follow it to the boat, get the boat back home, and tell everyone what happened.’
“The rest of our walk was very quiet. He was, I’m sure, listening for the bear. I was doing my damnedest to make sure that I remembered where the boat was, how to get to it, how to start the pull-cord engine, and how to drive it back home, because I did not want to let him down.
“We were not eaten by a bear that night…but neither is that walk back from our hunt for supper a part of my life I’ll ever forget.
“I keep that story in mind as I write. If what I’m putting on paper isn’t at least as memorable as having a grizzly stalking my father and me across the tundra while I was carrying a bag of delicious-smelling ducks, it doesn’t make my cut.”
You can find Holly on her personal site:
Hollylisle.com
You can find Cadence Drake, Holly's currently in-progress series, on her site:
CadenceDrake.com
You can find Holly's books, courses, writing workshops, and so on here:
The HowToThinkSideways.com Shop, as well as on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and in a number of bookstores in the US and around the world.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 22, 2013
This is one of the best fantasy trilogies I have read. Why? Because of the characters. So rarely do you see protagonists like Lauren: a 30-something adult, with a child and a history. I loved it; so refreshing and different. The story was great as well, and I loved the way magic in this world is used.
October 8, 2022
This was really frustrating. On whole, I found the book to be rather slow. There was a lot of introspection and angst, without a lot of plot right up until the last 60 pages or so, when the book finally sped up. And then, it all wrapped up like it's ready to go into the big last battle of the final book in the series and I find out there is no book #4. I don't know if that was supposed to be the end or she just never wrote #4, but it was a very unsatisfying ending. And without a book 4 to make this feel like the filler book you have to get through to get to the big battle, this is just not worth the read.
January 21, 2023
The best of the trilogy. Still, some big inconsistencies (same as the previous ones plus another one or two). Not all the POVs or characters work, but most do. Baanraak is my favorite. It's a fun read.
August 7, 2019
A good end to the trilogy. Pleasant read for kids or adults who love fantasy.
January 20, 2024
ew no. oopsy poopsy!
September 17, 2010
This book concludes the world gates series. I loved that it returned to themes of good and bad and the blending of the two within individuals. Additionally, the characters felt better drawn by this book than they had in either of the previous two.
My main criticism is that Lisle created only a partial conclusion to the story. The end leaves many questions unanswered, particularly the outcome of the main conflict. I would be fine with this if Lisle had shown an indication that she was going to continue the series, but given that this book was published six years ago, I don't have a lot of hope of that.
My main criticism is that Lisle created only a partial conclusion to the story. The end leaves many questions unanswered, particularly the outcome of the main conflict. I would be fine with this if Lisle had shown an indication that she was going to continue the series, but given that this book was published six years ago, I don't have a lot of hope of that.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 5, 2015
I loved the moral ambiguity of the characters. It wasn't a clear "good vs evil" trilogy. I also liked it that I couldn't predict how it would end. Unlike some of the reviewers below, I wasn't disappointed that not all the plot threads were resolved. I remember thinking halfway through this concluding book that if everything were resolved and everything on Earth was just hunky-dory from then on, it would feel really unrealistic and I would be disappointed. I loved how many strong female characters there were, and I liked the world-building. In all, I highly recommend this trilogy.
May 6, 2011
This was a disappointing conclusion to the trilogy. It felt rushed, like Holly wasn't sure where to stop her story, so she just picked a point at random and did her best to get the characters there. The character development was spotty; there were a number of threads left dangling and plots never fully explored. A fourth book would have allowed her to tie up the ends and bring the stories to a more satisfying conclusion, I think.
January 8, 2011
What can be said of Ms. Lisle's story? They are wonderful. This was a great conclusion to this trilogy. Yet I still felt that there could be more. The multiple worlds is great. I love the struggle between evil and good.
May 16, 2009
This is probably my favourite Holly Lisle series.
January 28, 2011
Review to be added later.
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February 1, 2011I have to admit I would read another book in this series
August 14, 2011
At this point, Lisle has just completely lost any sense of coherence.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews