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A review by qalminator
The Door Into Fire by Diane Duane
3.0
Certain cultural details made me think this must have been first published post "free love" and pre AIDS. I was right: 1979. Sex seems to be viewed as just a natural extension to any close relationship, but only a special few partners will become "loved"s. No explicit details, thankfully.
As for the story, it takes the form of one of those quests where the thing the protagonist is looking for turns out to have been inside them all along (but they couldn't have figured this out without undertaking the quest, so...). Decently executed version of this trope.
I would have liked it better if the plot had felt more integrated. There is a definite through-line, but most of the side adventures just feel like unconnected episodes that happen to come up along the way. There's no sense of them building up to the main climax, at least until they get to the Strange Building in Area Forbidden to Outsiders (which makes me wonder: the Waste is supposed to be guarded by Dragons and a group of humans. Did none of them notice a group of 10 or so people traipsing back and forth?)
It will be interesting to read the sequel (eventually; taking a break from the series first), which was published post-AIDS. The theme of death is prevalent as well, as the Goddess's Error, and that seems like the natural place for such concerns to come out.
As for the story, it takes the form of one of those quests where the thing the protagonist is looking for turns out to have been inside them all along (but they couldn't have figured this out without undertaking the quest, so...). Decently executed version of this trope.
I would have liked it better if the plot had felt more integrated. There is a definite through-line, but most of the side adventures just feel like unconnected episodes that happen to come up along the way. There's no sense of them building up to the main climax, at least until they get to the Strange Building in Area Forbidden to Outsiders (which makes me wonder: the Waste is supposed to be guarded by Dragons and a group of humans. Did none of them notice a group of 10 or so people traipsing back and forth?)
It will be interesting to read the sequel (eventually; taking a break from the series first), which was published post-AIDS. The theme of death is prevalent as well, as the Goddess's Error, and that seems like the natural place for such concerns to come out.