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The World Gates #2
The Wreck of Heaven
There are doors into other worlds -- and those who cross over are changed forever ... Two women have discovered the way into a new reality -- one so close to Earth that events there have shattering repercussions here. On Oria -- a wondrous paradise and nightmare both -- Molly McColl has powers she never imagined ... and a destiny that threatens her life, her love, and her soul. While Lauren Dane must use an extraordinary, newfound magic to protect her young son -- and to join with her sister on a quest that will shake the foundations of Heaven itself. For a serpentine evil now threatens the worldchain -- a soulless, immortal enemy who feeds on the death of worlds, and who is now turning its hungry, malevolent gaze on Oria ... and Earth.
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 25, 2003
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.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 9, 2025
Cannot finish this, the writing is terrible. Plot holes galore, the writer just kept adding or changing things to suit the direction of the story as desired. I will say seemed to influence Rebecca Yarros' Fourth Wing series, but those were better written even with the newest one being on par.
February 8, 2012
After reading the first one I was anxious to see what happens next. Holly Lisle did not disappoint! The more I read, the more complex the story gets and the richer the world she’s created. I am absolutely fascinated by her vision of the afterlife, and by the world upon world structure. The idea that this is where the mythology for the Gods came from is so cool. Underlying it is the thought that anyone can be a god. And that the word god does not imply good. There are dark ones, and light ones. Because after all, people come in those flavors too. And gods are people. Ties up neatly, doesn’t it?
First line: “Molly McColl tightened the laces on the heavy silk bodice and shrugged into the brocade overgown. Alive, she thought. I’m alive. I’m alive! I was dead, and now I’m alive, and I’m back in Copper House. She tried on a smile, but it didn’t seem to fit.” Now there’s a hook! Even if you haven’t read the first one, aren’t you filled with curiosity as to why she is alive when she thought she was dead? Love the description of her smile. I didn’t put the book down after this opening.
I’m really enjoying this series, and I’m grateful to find out that the teacher I’ve been learning from can actually walk the walk. Lead on, Holly, lead on! 1 star each for complex, interesting main characters; fantastic world building; interesting take on magic; an antagonist who is complex with an agenda of his own (more than just to get the protagonist); solid plot with layer upon layer of sub-plot. If you like fantasy, mixed with our modern world, check out this series.
First line: “Molly McColl tightened the laces on the heavy silk bodice and shrugged into the brocade overgown. Alive, she thought. I’m alive. I’m alive! I was dead, and now I’m alive, and I’m back in Copper House. She tried on a smile, but it didn’t seem to fit.” Now there’s a hook! Even if you haven’t read the first one, aren’t you filled with curiosity as to why she is alive when she thought she was dead? Love the description of her smile. I didn’t put the book down after this opening.
I’m really enjoying this series, and I’m grateful to find out that the teacher I’ve been learning from can actually walk the walk. Lead on, Holly, lead on! 1 star each for complex, interesting main characters; fantastic world building; interesting take on magic; an antagonist who is complex with an agenda of his own (more than just to get the protagonist); solid plot with layer upon layer of sub-plot. If you like fantasy, mixed with our modern world, check out this series.
January 21, 2023
I actually wrote about this book in my application for an honors program in college. Specifically, about the ideas of destiny, the afterlife, etc. that this book proposes. It's decently thought-out, I think (probably not that original, but it really affected the teen I had been when I first read it. It gave me hope that i was not suffering for nothing.)
Anyways, the inconsistencies continue. And man, Lauren and her kid are especially annoying. Maybe Jake has an excuse because he is three and toddlers are largely annoying anyway (so at least it's accurate, though the author cheats and makes him more capable than a toddler, perhaps because it would be too hard to write an accurate toddler without making the story too difficult). But Mary Sue, oh i mean Lauren, is just tiresome. I wonder if Lisle was a new mother when she was writing this. It's good the POVs expand so we don't have to hear from her as much.
Anyways, the inconsistencies continue. And man, Lauren and her kid are especially annoying. Maybe Jake has an excuse because he is three and toddlers are largely annoying anyway (so at least it's accurate, though the author cheats and makes him more capable than a toddler, perhaps because it would be too hard to write an accurate toddler without making the story too difficult). But Mary Sue, oh i mean Lauren, is just tiresome. I wonder if Lisle was a new mother when she was writing this. It's good the POVs expand so we don't have to hear from her as much.
July 3, 2019
A good trilogy for many ages. Two sisters, many worlds, "immortal" enemies. Can they save not only Earth, but all the worlds in its world-chain? They will most certainly try.
November 20, 2025
re-read
July 23, 2010
Perhaps I should have taken a break after reading the first one, but I was disappointed by this novel. I felt like the themes that Lisle had started in the first novel were not carried through into this one.
First the complexity of the bad guys was taken away. Lisle set up the Rron as her big baddies who seem to have no redeaming qualities.
Additionally, the two heroines also lost some of their appeal. While they remain strong female characters, they did a lot more emotional flailing in this novel, and there were a number of overwrought emotional scenes that made me just put the book down and roll my eyes.
I will read the third in the series, but I am going to take a break for a little while.
First the complexity of the bad guys was taken away. Lisle set up the Rron as her big baddies who seem to have no redeaming qualities.
Additionally, the two heroines also lost some of their appeal. While they remain strong female characters, they did a lot more emotional flailing in this novel, and there were a number of overwrought emotional scenes that made me just put the book down and roll my eyes.
I will read the third in the series, but I am going to take a break for a little while.
April 7, 2011
When I was in the throes of out-of-reading-material desperation, I requested this from the library, even knowing it was the second book in the series. (They didn't have the first.)
This book also has a convoluted backstory, presumably covered in book 1, but overall seemed somewhat easier to follow than Sins & Shadows. Which... is semi-silly. Like the other Holly Lisle book, there is a mother protagonist, which I found mildly novel.
Pleasant enough that I will probably check out book 3.
This book also has a convoluted backstory, presumably covered in book 1, but overall seemed somewhat easier to follow than Sins & Shadows. Which... is semi-silly. Like the other Holly Lisle book, there is a mother protagonist, which I found mildly novel.
Pleasant enough that I will probably check out book 3.
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.
January 8, 2011
It must be interesting in the mind of Ms. Lisle. Her fantasy books are wild and wickedly different than anything else I've read. The two sisters split with inter-dimensional travel is appealing. Oddly enough, after reading this book, my dreams of inter-dimensional traveling increased again.
January 28, 2011
Review to be added later.
August 14, 2011
Better than the first in the series.
May 1, 2012
Keep readimg.. this is good.... but book three is yet to come...
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews