Thoughts and questions on Gap as I read it the first time

[The Dreaming]

Hmm, I read Mordant's need a long time ago, and recently also. I just read the Chronicles, and The Real Story is on my nightstand right now. I thought it would be kind of cool to make a thread to describe my thoughts and ask questions as I read. Suffice to say, spoil and die. Anyway, if its a lame idea I will just not do it, but I will go ahead and start with what I read today, which is just a little into chapter six.

Man, isn't that a strange way to start a book? Each version of the same story zooming in closer to reality. I wonder if he zooms in one story further? Or am I dreaming.

Godd****t Angus makes Covenant in Lord Foul's Bane look like a saint. What’s strange is that I have read about evil on his level before, and his is my most personally detestable kind of evil (petty spite and malice), bit still, he seems more real to me than I feel comfortable with. He is inside of me, and what makes it so uncomfortable is how easy he is sitting right now.

Now THAT'S cool! A heroine who has a temporary murderous insanity every time she is exposed to high Gee?! God, Donaldson is going to have a LOT of fun with that!

Hmm, I guess now is the part of the story where SRD makes us realize that Morn isn't the angel we thought she was (insanity aside). Just a little guess.

[Revan]

Oh, I know... Angus is so foul... He's the vilest human character SRD has written to date... it gets better than the real Story though... The last three books are the ones worth reading...

[duchess of malfi]

Oh, yes -- keep reading!!!!!!!

Spoiler

In the end, you might even be rooting for Angus from time to time!!

[The Dreaming]

Oh, I know... Angus is so foul... He's the vilest human character SRD has written to date... it gets better than the real Story though... The last three books are the ones worth reading...

Don't worry, there is no way I am quitting. This isn't my first Donaldson by a long shot, so I know his style. Secondly I am more than enthralled enough to keep going. The only problem is getting the new books. My dad has them all, but home is 4 hours away...

[Nav]

I've been itching to re-read the Gap for a while now, but I can't bring myself to transport my lovingly tended, signed first editions to the student house I'm living in at the moment.

It'll definitely be interesting to see what someone experiences whilst reading the series for the first time. For my money, I'd say that Angus is the most Donaldsonian (isn't that a great word?) of all Donaldson's characters. That he can make the reader feel anything other than revulsion for the character is an achievment in itself.

[Myste]

That's a great observation, Nav--Donaldson does that to his readers all the time: gives you the most loathsome characters and turns them inside out and makes you identify with them (to one extent or another).

[matrixman]

This is a neat idea of yours, Dreaming--kind of like a blog for the Gap.

I will be interested in following your progress, as the Gap books are a new experience for me, too. I'm only on the second book, but just haven't been in the mood to commit myself to reading the entire saga.

[The Dreaming]

Sorry, I went home this weekend only to find my dad's merchant copy of Runes on my bed... I am sure it won't take me more than a few days to read it, but that will put a moritorium on GAP... I'll be back.

[tallan]

Ack. I finished the last book last night, and finding this forum and reading this thread makes me feel like WEEPING cause they're OVER. I want to read them AGAIN. NOW. *heavy sigh* Okay, so, I guess I should focus on trying to breathe normally..
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[Alynna Lis Eachann]

SRD does reveal something about Angus, and the way he writes, at the end of The Real Story, if I'm not mistaken. Let us know when you read that, and what you think of it. Certainly caused me to speculate a great deal...

Personally, I wish the series had gone on... where it could have gone, I don't know, but I had that same weepy "It's over!!??" feeling at the end.

[I'm Murrin]

I thought the ending wrapped things up quite well, but I certainly wouldn't complain if more was written. Didn't SRD say that their story isn't over?

[duchess of malfi]

I thought the ending wrapped things up quite well, but I certainly wouldn't complain if more was written. Didn't SRD say that their story isn't over?

Yes, I believe in the Gradual Interview he said that he might write another Gap book after the Last Chrons are finished.

[Dragonlily]

When he spoke in Portland, he said GAP has a lot of usable loose ends, but he doesn't have ideas for using any of them.

He is obviously very proud of GAP. One thing he is especially of is

Spoiler

having Angus meet Norna. "I mean, how contrived is that?!" he said. Two people who have been tortured in similar ways but so far apart. He was proud of having bent the story around so that meeting could happen naturally and satisfyingly, with Angus saving Norna.

He also said he doesn't think about what he is going to write next until he is done with what he is currently writing (Last Chrons as a whole), so he has no idea what story might happen next.

[theDespiser]

I thought the ending wrapped things up quite well, but I certainly wouldn't complain if more was written. Didn't SRD say that their story isn't over?

as long as its not plural, i wouldnt mind one either...i liked the whole series, but i think it was wrapped up nicely as well...but i wouldnt mind seeing what came of Wardens/Morns/everybody elses sacrifices...i dont think we need to see Angus anymore though...they way....the story ended with him...was good enough

[tallan]

Ahhg. I don't know, I feel terrified of the thought of more Gap books... Terrified that they wouldn't be as good. For some reason I didn't/don't feel the same way about TCTC.. Since the Land's always there and Foul cannot be killed, there's always room for new stories. But with the Gap Cycle...? The entire reason for everything that happened in the books (Warden nailing Holt's a**) is done, over, finito, and they're both dead and everything.
Of course, the Amnion could come up with new ways of taking over.. but aaahhh, I don't know.

[Alynna Lis Eachann]

Have mixed feelings about another Gap book myself. As much as I'd like to know the fallout, I don't see how it could be done. The only viable plot line, for me, would involve Angus... and nothing involving Angus could be wrapped up in one book. Not as I see it, at any rate.

[Dragonlily]

It does seem to me there is lots of room for a plot, as we track Angus's attempts to reconcile his old, unfettered self and the new self that has had a taste of Morn and ethics.

Speculations?

[Nav]

I actually had an idea for a continuation to the Gap the other day. Remember Vehemence, Nathan Alt's old ship? I thought that their gallant efforts, charging around Valdor smiting whatever evil was available, would make a good setting for more books. From their perspective, away from Earth's immediate vicinity, we could observe the fallout from the collapse of the UMC as well as whatever response the amnion would have to all this.

Admittedly, it could be prone to a number of sci-fi cliches but if anyone can do it, SRD can.

[tallan]

Sounds interesting.

I think, for me it wouldn't be enough to just follow the characters and see what happens to them later on... I need this big OMG THE END OF HUMANKIND IS APPROACHING thing. In TRL we didn't know that things were going to get so serious, but once they did... geez. The intensity of it. And blah, how I'd miss Warden.

[Dragonlily]

Who could take Warden's place, in a confrontation with the Amnion?? Neither Min nor Hashi have the combination of wisdom and cleverness.

Make it a triumviate of Sixten Vertigus, Min and Hashi? Sixten adds the wisdom to the ideas of the other two.

Mind you, Min presented a plan for dealing with the Amnion in GAP. Give them an order to stay out, and go in with guns blazing if they don't stay out. And keep our promises. That's a bit too simplistic for a universe of Donaldson fans, wouldn't you say? We need some maneuvering, angst, and technological confrontations.

Working in SRD's way, starting with the ending first, there is a glimmer of hope in an Amnion war. The thing about humans that the Amnion find most repugnant is falsehood. It's possible that the new GAP series could find a resolution after the Amnion have spent some time dealing with honorable human beings, instead of pirates and the outlaws of Billingate. They could realize that most humans are different, and become a shaky partner against human pirates.

I see a deciding moment when humanity's leaders, one or more of them, sacrifice their lives in order to keep their promises -- and the Amnion see they mean what they say.

I realize that a lot of people want to see the Amnion as an impossibly inimical enemy, with no option but total destruction of one side or the other, but personally I prefer to avoid xenocide, even in plots.

SRD said starting at the end sometimes makes plotting seem like logic to him, rather than creativity. "If this is going to happen, then this has to happen first. In order to make that happen, then the other thing will have to happen to cause it." Etc.

So my triumvirate of Sixten, Min, and Hashi will first have to get predominance over humans who would deal with the Amnion by falsehood. What kind of battle would that be? Politics, kazes and subterfuge.