SOLVED. Fantasy book. Dwarves live on islands floating in the sky working on a mystery machine. One guy's entire job is to watch a gauge but he doesn't actually know what it does. [s]

[Donnelle]

I read this about 15 years ago so it's an old book, perhaps written in the 80s or 90s. I got an error when trying to read the group rulea so sorry if I created this wrong

[Pam]

This sounds like the Death Gate Cycle books by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Here's bit about the dwarf world from Wikipedia: "Arianus, the world of air. On Arianus, intended as an industrial and manufacturing world of floating continents, the Sartan had other problems. Cut off from communication with the other worlds (Chelestra specifically and the Council), the Sartan were slowly dying of some unknown cause, quickly becoming vastly outnumbered by the mensch. These Sartan also settled into hibernation, hoping for help from the other worlds. The Kicksey-winsey, a grand machine intended to align the floating continents and provide them with water (water being a direct byproduct of its production cycle), as well as manufacture all the processed goods desired by the other worlds, never became properly active. The dwarves, known on this world as Gegs, not truly understanding its purpose, effectively became slaves to the machine, worshiping it after a fashion as an artifact of their gods, the Mangers, (known to others as the Sartans) who had placed them there as its caretakers. The elves became tyrannical lords of much of the mid-realm through manipulation of the dwarves to obtain a monopoly on water, whilst constantly waging war with the humans.

[SamSpayedPI]

For Pam's link, the first book in the Death Gate Cycle is Dragon Wing.

[Donnelle]

That's it Pam! I had a look a the synopsis, and as soon as they mention the Kicksey Winsey I knew it was the right book. Bless x