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The Forever Gate - Part One (2000)

by Isaac Hooke(Favorite Author)

3.37 of 5 Votes: 3

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

series

The Forever Gate

review 1: I'm a reader who likes my serial fiction the way I like my single-malt scotch--complex, unpredictable, and which leaves a long, lingering hint of things to come on the palate. With this in mind, the Forever Gate Part One is easily comparable to an Aberlour 12 year old, Double Cask. In other words, one of the finest drams of serial fiction you'll ever stick your nose in. As I mentioned to author Isaac Hooke, few things are more gripping as a story opener than a good [SPOILER ALERT] beheading, and the story doesn't slow down from there. With a well-developed mix of fantasy and far-future inferences, Hooke drops readers into a world that is deeply foreign, gritty, and chilling and sets up such arresting nuances of conflict between his group of Users and Gols that we instantly... more have a side to route for. But, much like Hooke's leading protagonist's name, Hoodwink, there is much more going on than readers will grok at first. With the dystopian backdrop and quirky characters that never come close to having a wooden "finish," the Forever Gate will grab ahold of you and not let go. The question readers are left with is not will they read Forever Gate Part Two, but how soon can they get a copy.
review 2: I picked this up as a free Kindle download on the advice of some friends, and was not disappointed. I assumed it was one full story, but was delighted to find that this is the first - in what I hope are many - stories about "Hoodwink", who I imagine as sort of a knight-errant of a cold, dystopian future where the ruling class are imposters known as "Gols" and humans are imprisoned in collars of bronze, which hold back a type of magic/power that has developed in the human race over time. There is permanent winter (any mention of a "wall" and I think of Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series....a favorite), there is magic (a twin set of bewitched diaries....which reminded me of Rowling's Harry Potter series, another favorite) and a quest "over the wall"- and really, who doesn't love a good quest? Though short, it was fast paced and kept me entertained. And frankly, as your average, every day, "constant reader", that is all I truly want from a story - to be entertained. The author makes you sympathetic toward the main character, and root for his success, while mourning his losses and betrayals. It also elicited such reactions from me as a good old fashioned, "what the ****?!", a couple of wrinkled noses with accompanying "eeew" noises, and to top it off, I had to turn up the heat in my house, as reading about the permanent winter in the story made me cold. I say, if a book can garner those types of reactions from me, it's worth reading more of. So, now I anxiously await the second in this series (my download had a snippet of the next story at the end......hello, cliffhanger!), and hope that others will enjoy this story as well. less

Download links for: The Forever Gate - Part One

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