What do you think?
Rate this book
Seven Citadels #4
The Seventh Gate
Having acquired six of the seven keys necessary to free the imprisoned Savior of Galkis, Kerish-lo-Taan faces danger and death alone in the Desolation of Zarn with only his memories and determination to sustain him
243 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
2 people are currently reading
62 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 11, 2018
This book—this whole series—destroyed me.
Last night at one in the morning, I read the last page of The Seventh Gate. Then I turned off the light, snuggled into bed next to my husband, and as the sleepy sounds of our dogs filled the small room, I quietly sobbed.
And I’m not a crier.
Why, you might ask? That’s a good question that’s a bit hard to answer. I think the best I can articulate it is that the whole series, from beginning to end, was just so damn real. Universal truths shone through the fantastical world with such intensity that I cried for the beauty and the horror of life.
I feel like that alone sets the stage for what to expect from this series, but, well, you might not agree. So I’ll try to write a real review.
Though the writing is meticulous, The Seventh Gate isn’t neat and tidy. Characters aren’t reduced to solitary arcs—change isn’t guaranteed. More than this, there are no true villains. Every ‘bad guy’ has a sympathetic reason for his actions. Each antagonist is clearly just trying to do the best they can with their lot in life.
That hurts. I regularly found myself wanting Kerish to succeed, but not at the expense of those that opposed him. I fantasized about a sudden twist in the story that would put everyone on the same side. I wanted things to be happy and easy.
But that’s not how things work with people or with the world at large. Questions—lots of questions—go unanswered. And while I desperately want to know the answers, I don’t feel cheated. Every day of my life I encounter questions that I can’t answer. All it does is make me want more. Cod, I would love a second series in the same universe!
I’ve read reviews that claimed that The Seventh Gate went off the rails and lost its direction. I couldn’t disagree more vehemently. The Seven Citadels series feels a bit like take a raft downstream. It starts off slow enough for you to pick up every detail along the way. As the river gains momentum, you have to focus on the task at hand—rafting—and let what’s happening on the banks whip past.
In this analogy, Kerish is the rafter. We’re merely watching through his eyes.
And then, suddenly, the trip is over.
Others have complained about the ending of the novel, but I think what they’re really complaining about is the fact that it didn’t end the way they wanted it to. Hell, The Seventh Gate isn’t how I wanted the series to end, but by all the writing gods, it’s the appropriate ending to the series. And frankly, if it had ended in a conventional, predictable way, it would have cheapened everything leading up to it.
More than that, it’s meaty. I chewed on the ending for a solid hour after closing the book. Occasionally, the … reality of it made me tear up again and I’d reflect back on the series, wondering how a certain character handled things after our heroes left them.
There is so much to love about The Seventh Gate and The Seven Citadels series in general. It’s the sort of book I would have adored as a child. I feel like its blunt portrayal of the world would have been a balm to my soul as a I aged into the realization that life isn’t a fairy tale or a nightmare. It’s both, with a lot of average days in between.
As an adult, there are a few themes in this book that seem especially poignant, especially to an its intended YA audience.
The first theme is that of physical beauty.
Gidjabolgo, the cynical side-kick, is described by pretty much every character in the book as repugnantly ugly. Though it takes a while before it’s clearly stated in the book, this deeply affects Gidjabolgo. His dis-ease with his appearance comes to a head in The Seventh Gate when he meets the final sorcerer on their quest: a woman so ugly that as a child she willingly scarred herself to make her ugliness seem less natural and, in doing so, less mockable.
After she became a sorcerer, she had enough power to change her appearance. And so she did. But as sorcerers in this world are immortal, she also had generations to come to terms with her natural-born appearance. And, as perhaps you’d expect from an author as real as Geraldine Harris, the conversation between Gidjabolgo and the sorceress about beauty isn’t full of empty platitudes about loving yourself and the insubstantiality of appearance. The sorcerer clearly knows just how much appearances matter—and that’s how she can help Gidjabolgo find peace.
The second theme is that of friendship.
I know friendship is a common theme, but I also think most fictionalized friendships are simplistic. Fun, but simplistic. Think Harry Potter. Ron, Hermoine, and Harry are clearly meant to be friends. They’re different, but they’ve got chemistry and the second they meet something seems to happen. Sure, there will be disagreements and trials, but you know they're friends and that's it.
Conversely, Gidjabolgo joins Kerish on his quest late in the first book, Prince of the Godborn. As Gidjabolgo is a hedonistic, cynical atheist, and Kerish is on a religious quest to save his people, they have no common ground. They don’t even stand on opposite sides of a divide, where they are two sides of the same coin and their relationship rests on that scant space between them.
Gidjabolgo is caustic, cynical, cutting. He loves to knock people down simple because it makes him feel better, and he’s not shy about saying exactly that. Kerish is well-intentioned but naïve and spoiled. He wants to be the sort of person to turn the other cheek, yet he’s not. When Gidjabolgo lashes out at him, it’s not a pithy showdown between equals. It’s awkward and often one-sided and leaves the reader unsure of whether or not either of them was in the right.
Which means that their progression to friendship doesn’t follow the traditional trajectory of slowly, almost unwittingly covering the divide between them until one shocking day they struggle to remember how they ever didn't get along.
No, with a scant quarter of the book left, Gidjabolgo viciously pokes holes in Kerish’s consolatory self-deception. And Kerish sobs and takes Gidjabolgo’s comments with no less pain than he did in the first book. But as Kerish cries, Gidjabolgo wraps an arm around him and holds him until he falls asleep.
Their friendship is far from easy, but how could it be anything else? Under any other circumstances they simply wouldn’t be friends, and yet here they are, at the end of a seemingly hopeless quest, bitterly devoted to each other. It breaks your heart. Especially at one in the morning on a Tuesday when you really should be sleeping.
The third thing that felt significant to me isn’t a theme like friendship or beauty. It’s an act.
Gidjabolgo—a grown man—rolls over and holds Kerish—another grown man—as Kerish sobs. Gidjabolgo provides physical comfort to a man who is struggling emotionally. Just let that sink in. Those handful of lines feel revolutionary. Kerish is allowed to sob, no one thinks less of him for it, and Gidjabolgo provides the only sort of comfort he can: he makes sure Kerish knows he isn’t alone by holding him.
This might be the pinnacle of emotional physical contact, but it’s far from the only one. Kerish regularly touches or hugs his brother. The three of them—Gidjabolgo, Kerish, and Forollkin—interact like three people inexorably linked and emotionally close, not like three bros out on an adventure.
I could go on—I’d love to, in fact—but I feel like any more words might bore you out of reading this remarkable series. When I set out to find forgotten gems, The Seven Citadels was exactly the sort of story I hoped to find. I sincerely hope you give it a chance.
[I read old fantasy and sci-fi novels written by women authors in search of forgotten gems. See more at forfemfan.com]
Last night at one in the morning, I read the last page of The Seventh Gate. Then I turned off the light, snuggled into bed next to my husband, and as the sleepy sounds of our dogs filled the small room, I quietly sobbed.
And I’m not a crier.
Why, you might ask? That’s a good question that’s a bit hard to answer. I think the best I can articulate it is that the whole series, from beginning to end, was just so damn real. Universal truths shone through the fantastical world with such intensity that I cried for the beauty and the horror of life.
I feel like that alone sets the stage for what to expect from this series, but, well, you might not agree. So I’ll try to write a real review.
Though the writing is meticulous, The Seventh Gate isn’t neat and tidy. Characters aren’t reduced to solitary arcs—change isn’t guaranteed. More than this, there are no true villains. Every ‘bad guy’ has a sympathetic reason for his actions. Each antagonist is clearly just trying to do the best they can with their lot in life.
That hurts. I regularly found myself wanting Kerish to succeed, but not at the expense of those that opposed him. I fantasized about a sudden twist in the story that would put everyone on the same side. I wanted things to be happy and easy.
But that’s not how things work with people or with the world at large. Questions—lots of questions—go unanswered. And while I desperately want to know the answers, I don’t feel cheated. Every day of my life I encounter questions that I can’t answer. All it does is make me want more. Cod, I would love a second series in the same universe!
I’ve read reviews that claimed that The Seventh Gate went off the rails and lost its direction. I couldn’t disagree more vehemently. The Seven Citadels series feels a bit like take a raft downstream. It starts off slow enough for you to pick up every detail along the way. As the river gains momentum, you have to focus on the task at hand—rafting—and let what’s happening on the banks whip past.
In this analogy, Kerish is the rafter. We’re merely watching through his eyes.
And then, suddenly, the trip is over.
Others have complained about the ending of the novel, but I think what they’re really complaining about is the fact that it didn’t end the way they wanted it to. Hell, The Seventh Gate isn’t how I wanted the series to end, but by all the writing gods, it’s the appropriate ending to the series. And frankly, if it had ended in a conventional, predictable way, it would have cheapened everything leading up to it.
More than that, it’s meaty. I chewed on the ending for a solid hour after closing the book. Occasionally, the … reality of it made me tear up again and I’d reflect back on the series, wondering how a certain character handled things after our heroes left them.
There is so much to love about The Seventh Gate and The Seven Citadels series in general. It’s the sort of book I would have adored as a child. I feel like its blunt portrayal of the world would have been a balm to my soul as a I aged into the realization that life isn’t a fairy tale or a nightmare. It’s both, with a lot of average days in between.
As an adult, there are a few themes in this book that seem especially poignant, especially to an its intended YA audience.
The first theme is that of physical beauty.
Gidjabolgo, the cynical side-kick, is described by pretty much every character in the book as repugnantly ugly. Though it takes a while before it’s clearly stated in the book, this deeply affects Gidjabolgo. His dis-ease with his appearance comes to a head in The Seventh Gate when he meets the final sorcerer on their quest: a woman so ugly that as a child she willingly scarred herself to make her ugliness seem less natural and, in doing so, less mockable.
After she became a sorcerer, she had enough power to change her appearance. And so she did. But as sorcerers in this world are immortal, she also had generations to come to terms with her natural-born appearance. And, as perhaps you’d expect from an author as real as Geraldine Harris, the conversation between Gidjabolgo and the sorceress about beauty isn’t full of empty platitudes about loving yourself and the insubstantiality of appearance. The sorcerer clearly knows just how much appearances matter—and that’s how she can help Gidjabolgo find peace.
The second theme is that of friendship.
I know friendship is a common theme, but I also think most fictionalized friendships are simplistic. Fun, but simplistic. Think Harry Potter. Ron, Hermoine, and Harry are clearly meant to be friends. They’re different, but they’ve got chemistry and the second they meet something seems to happen. Sure, there will be disagreements and trials, but you know they're friends and that's it.
Conversely, Gidjabolgo joins Kerish on his quest late in the first book, Prince of the Godborn. As Gidjabolgo is a hedonistic, cynical atheist, and Kerish is on a religious quest to save his people, they have no common ground. They don’t even stand on opposite sides of a divide, where they are two sides of the same coin and their relationship rests on that scant space between them.
Gidjabolgo is caustic, cynical, cutting. He loves to knock people down simple because it makes him feel better, and he’s not shy about saying exactly that. Kerish is well-intentioned but naïve and spoiled. He wants to be the sort of person to turn the other cheek, yet he’s not. When Gidjabolgo lashes out at him, it’s not a pithy showdown between equals. It’s awkward and often one-sided and leaves the reader unsure of whether or not either of them was in the right.
Which means that their progression to friendship doesn’t follow the traditional trajectory of slowly, almost unwittingly covering the divide between them until one shocking day they struggle to remember how they ever didn't get along.
No, with a scant quarter of the book left, Gidjabolgo viciously pokes holes in Kerish’s consolatory self-deception. And Kerish sobs and takes Gidjabolgo’s comments with no less pain than he did in the first book. But as Kerish cries, Gidjabolgo wraps an arm around him and holds him until he falls asleep.
Their friendship is far from easy, but how could it be anything else? Under any other circumstances they simply wouldn’t be friends, and yet here they are, at the end of a seemingly hopeless quest, bitterly devoted to each other. It breaks your heart. Especially at one in the morning on a Tuesday when you really should be sleeping.
The third thing that felt significant to me isn’t a theme like friendship or beauty. It’s an act.
Gidjabolgo—a grown man—rolls over and holds Kerish—another grown man—as Kerish sobs. Gidjabolgo provides physical comfort to a man who is struggling emotionally. Just let that sink in. Those handful of lines feel revolutionary. Kerish is allowed to sob, no one thinks less of him for it, and Gidjabolgo provides the only sort of comfort he can: he makes sure Kerish knows he isn’t alone by holding him.
This might be the pinnacle of emotional physical contact, but it’s far from the only one. Kerish regularly touches or hugs his brother. The three of them—Gidjabolgo, Kerish, and Forollkin—interact like three people inexorably linked and emotionally close, not like three bros out on an adventure.
I could go on—I’d love to, in fact—but I feel like any more words might bore you out of reading this remarkable series. When I set out to find forgotten gems, The Seven Citadels was exactly the sort of story I hoped to find. I sincerely hope you give it a chance.
[I read old fantasy and sci-fi novels written by women authors in search of forgotten gems. See more at forfemfan.com]
February 17, 2020
The seventh gate was about the ending I was expecting. I wanted so much more. We finally get some good development with Kerish, which makes me happy. We had some new interesting characters in the sorcerer and the Kahn. Lastly had some good interaction between Kerish and Gidj. The build up to the end was pretty good, even though it was little confusing on the choice Kerish made. Overall it wasn’t terrible, just was expecting more. But for the price and the length it was about what I expected. Here are some negatives.
The author does this thing where she has major things happen off screen and then has them explained in one sentence of dialogue. Like “this person died.” “They lost a battle”. Really wish she would have had more pages to write and maybe show thinks from multiple angles and characters. Instead we only follow the one. Makes the world feel like it is never still, but makes so little a deal out of the events that it doesn’t seem important. Another is how our side characters are handled. Gweraths death was kinda anti climatic and not that great, Forollkin who has been my favorite gets left behind and not really shown much love other than Kerish thinking about him. Gidj wish was so obvious that I didn’t want it to be the case because it was lame. And when it was revealed to be his wish I was disappointed, but his ending and choices he made in the end were pretty great. I just think if she could have had double the pages she could have shown it from other characters after the split and that would have been fantastic. Most of these negatives are about this book in particular but some can be applied to the other books. Especially the glossing over events.
Overall read this if you are really into fantasy and looking for a shorter and cheap read. I picked up all 4 books for under 10$ at a used book store.
The author does this thing where she has major things happen off screen and then has them explained in one sentence of dialogue. Like “this person died.” “They lost a battle”. Really wish she would have had more pages to write and maybe show thinks from multiple angles and characters. Instead we only follow the one. Makes the world feel like it is never still, but makes so little a deal out of the events that it doesn’t seem important. Another is how our side characters are handled. Gweraths death was kinda anti climatic and not that great, Forollkin who has been my favorite gets left behind and not really shown much love other than Kerish thinking about him. Gidj wish was so obvious that I didn’t want it to be the case because it was lame. And when it was revealed to be his wish I was disappointed, but his ending and choices he made in the end were pretty great. I just think if she could have had double the pages she could have shown it from other characters after the split and that would have been fantastic. Most of these negatives are about this book in particular but some can be applied to the other books. Especially the glossing over events.
Overall read this if you are really into fantasy and looking for a shorter and cheap read. I picked up all 4 books for under 10$ at a used book store.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 3, 2022
Wow! Älskade verkligen slutet på denna, som är ett sådant som när jag tittar tillbaka får mig att uppskatta hela serien mer. Det här är verkligen en fantasyserie som bekymrar sig om sina karaktärer, om det djupt mänskliga i både deras brister och deras ömhet, och har medlidande även med sina skurkar (som inte alltid är så lätta att fastslå som just det). Det här är en färgrik och intressant värld, med många filosofiska resonemang och märkliga varelser. Jag ogillade slutet på den här boken när jag var liten, mycket för att det kollektiva i det gick mig förbi. Jag förstod inte heller varken skönheten eller sorgen i valet i att välja en fridfull död eller ett ofta plågsamt liv, som dock ger hopp eftersom det, till skillnad från döden, kan innebära förändring.
Also, jag bara älskar Gidjabolgo.
Also, jag bara älskar Gidjabolgo.
July 2, 2013
Its a shame that this series which started so promisingly ended so abruptly and without any resolution. you cant help buy feel cheated by the ending. I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a deep fascination with fantasy novels. This series reads more like Moorcock than most others, but it fails to deliver the goods at the end.
A pity as the premise is enjoyable up until the last half of this book where the author seems to lose the plot and gives up.
A pity as the premise is enjoyable up until the last half of this book where the author seems to lose the plot and gives up.
February 17, 2025
I read this when I was young (9-10) and mostly remembered scenes from the 2nd book, but I also remember it having an unexpected and much darker ending that differed from the typical YA fantasy that I was used to. The feeling, though not the exact story stayed with me, and 30+ years later I searched for and reread it. The ending of the series was still quite unexpected and moving.
As a fantasy adventure it's a bit simplistic, and the 7 citadels are somewhat repetitive. But it's the interludes where the characters evolve, build their relationships, and slowly reveal the mythology of the world that seems to be the real focus of the author. She has something to tell us about the human experience, human worth, resilience, and personal growth.
As fantasy adventure novels I would not rank the 1st and 3rd books highly , but I did enjoy book 2 and book 4 is quite good.
As a fantasy adventure it's a bit simplistic, and the 7 citadels are somewhat repetitive. But it's the interludes where the characters evolve, build their relationships, and slowly reveal the mythology of the world that seems to be the real focus of the author. She has something to tell us about the human experience, human worth, resilience, and personal growth.
As fantasy adventure novels I would not rank the 1st and 3rd books highly , but I did enjoy book 2 and book 4 is quite good.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 13, 2017
I happened across this series by accident, but am so glad that I did! This was the final chapter in a wonderful series that I will read over and over again. The characters are so real, and the story spectacular. You will be amazed at how vivid the author makes the landscapes. This is a real treat.
August 13, 2021
Högläsning för den yngste som satt betyget. Vilken resa dessa böcker inneburit!
December 1, 2024
I love this series very much. The characters are very dynamic and the story is very creative.
August 13, 2007
That following a mystical plan to the letter can lead to many bad outcomes
June 23, 2011
These books are so fantastic that a cried when I finished them for the first time because I was afraid I would never read a book as wonderful as that.
Read
December 8, 2018#89 1987
July 17, 2008
the end of the 4 book series
February 9, 2013
Oh. This breaks my heart. Just as I thought it must.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews