THE HAND OF CHAOS

Volume five of the apparently interminable Death Gate Cycle (Serpent Mage, 1992, etc.). Now that the evil-magic serpents of the water-world Chelestra have escaped through the Death Gate, new power alliances are possible—such as that between the serpents and Xar, Haplo's powerful Patryn boss. Despite Haplo's feeble warnings about the serpents' malevolent intentions (they can assume any shape, retaining only tell-tale red eyes), Xar dispatches Haplo and his yappy-dog sidekick to the air-world Arianus, with orders to set species against species and generally create chaos among the lower- order ``mensch.'' And this time Haplo's old rival/accomplice, Albert the Sartan, languishes trapped inside the Labyrinth. So, by himself Haplo must somehow stop the elf-dwarf war by helping the human and elf magicians while placating Xar and devising a means to repel the serpents—oh, yes, and preventing various assassinations, including his own. A hypercomplicated plot whose increasingly improbable convolutions seem designed only to distract attention from the ludicrously implausible scenario, plodding narrative, and irritatingly obtuse characters. Which, being translated into Fannish, means: another smash hit. (First printing of 60,000)