The Gate of Gods

Fall of Ile-Rien, Book 3

By: Martha Wells

Narrated by: Talmadge Ragan

Length: 19 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Tremaine Valiarde and a small, brave band of heroes ventured into a wondrous new realm on their desperate mission to save Ile-Rien from the conquering Gardier. Now, as a relentless enemy creates chaos and destruction - with the fate of the magical city of Lodun hanging in the balance - the last hope of a land besieged may rest on the far side of a secret portal.

But the doorway leads to a mysterious ruin hidden behind the awesome Gate of Gods - and to perils that dwarf anything Tremaine and her allies could have possibly imagined...

©2005 Martha Wells (P)2013 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Wells shows us some very convincing characters in a desperate situation: attacked without warning, their usual weapons made ineffective, and with allies sometimes as strange as their enemies." ( Booklist)

Ignore the reader, the story is worth it!

I absolutely love this series as it has all the fun aspects of a good story: adventure, realistic characters that you can become invested in, a believable enemy, and well thought out world's. The reader's insistence on over pronunciation is irksome and gets annoying at times, but it doesn't detract from the story enough that I can't enjoy it (but I'd be really happy if they'd let someone less irritating record a read through). All in all, worth the credits!

Well left out characters

it is a wonderfully told tale of magic and fantasy with overtones of survivors guilt and finding one's place.

Satisfying listen

Murderbot was so good, I have listened to or read Martha Wells for two months now. I wasn't expecting much from this fantasy story, but it combined fantasy elements with lots of world building and wartime atmosphere to make a good setting for some great characters.

I made my peace with the narrator.

I love the book but had to make my peace with the narration. I had really hoped at some point they would change the narrator in the series.

good easy listen

Smooth prose, a decent ending and likable characters makes this wrap up of the series a good one. However, I found some of the characters' reactions were lacking realism and some repetitive phrases.

Great Story

Wonderful depth of characters brought to life through a great performance. The story has numerous plot twists to keep you guessing.

Great story, disappointing narration

If you’re considering reading Book 3 of this series, you already know that the world is complex and interesting, the plot is gripping, and the characters are engaging.
You’ve probably also made your peace with the sub-par narration. The narrator has very strange cadence & phrasing, typically adding many more pauses in a sentence than a normal reader would add, and (probably relatedly) often putting emphasis on words in a way that makes a sentence harder to follow, rather than easier. The overall effect is to reduce the enjoyment of the book.

It comes together.

A wonderful adventure. I was disappointed in the lack of growth by Tremaine and Florian. I keep wondering about Tremaine’s personal journey through the previous 2 books and how in the third book I felt like a completion, but not a forward step for Tremaine. Maybe it’s because it was the end.
Unfortunately it’s hard to be sure about any of the story feelings because the performance altered my interpretation of everything. Sloppy work in character switching leave us with moments where tremaine’s voice starts a sentence and Gerard’s voice ends it, after Talmadge realized which character was speaking. The narration tone is slightly monotonous, which isn’t bad, but the words that are made important in sentences don’t help you understand what’s being conveyed. The words are said clearly and understandably, so if you listen carefully you can rework the sentences in your mind as the story goes. Solid pacing and tempo.

Great world and story, reader is much improved.

I guess I'm now a confirmed Martha Wells fan. I started with the Murderbot Diaries and I'm working my way backwards. Wells' world building and character development are excellent and her underlying world view is unique and interesting....so 'Yay!' Martha Wells.

l reviewed the first of The Fall of Ile-Rien books and dissed the narrator, Talmadge Ragan..I want to revisit that. I complained that her reading was awkward and to my ear it was. The pauses for emphasis always seemed to happen at some random point in the sentence as if she hadn't read ahead. Perhape she hadn't had time to prepare. The narration improved greatly and is quite good for this book.

The story kept me going

By the time I reached this last book in the series I’d become used to the annoying aspects of the narration much as one learns to ignore a bad smell to enjoy nice scenery. I made a game of noting the most amusing mispronunciations ( my favourite was in book two - ‘childishly pronounceded’)

Martha Wells is often brilliant, but always reliably solid. With good characters and dialogue that flows well with a rollicking story. Never dull, though sometime slow to start, they always reward the dedicated reader/ listener. This series would have soared with a narrator who hadn’t draggeded the reader back to the reality of listening to someone at every other sentence.