Malik23 wrote:Man, I wish they'd do something to market this well. The Gap series could have been one of the most successful s.f. series of all time (it was certainly one of the best). Personally, I think it was that lackluster cover of The Real Story which hurt sales right from the beginning. I remember looking at it and thinking that if I weren't already a big Donaldson fan, there's no way I would have bought it. Boor--ring. Put a hot chick on there! Put Angus on there! Hell, put the entire triangle of victim/victimizer/rescuer on there! You could even have some artistic rendition of how they all three trade places.
Also, it didn't help that The Real Story itself wasn't the best intro to this masterpiece. Perhaps they should publish the first two volumes as one, and forget that it was a standalone book.
I wonder if this ties in at all with the Gap being optioned for a movie... there could be some synchronicity here. Though obviously not much has happened on the movie front yet, and I doubt a publisher would be moved to spend their money at this point based on that.
It's funny, I had a roommate who came home w/ TRS when it was published and my first reaction was "SRD doing sci-fi? Eh." But he told me it was short and I should read it anyway, being a fan (although at that time I wasn't into SRD anymore <ducks head>). I'm glad he persisted
I like TRS as an intro, but I also like the idea of publishing the first 2 together too, if only because, as SRD put it "at the end of TRS you really have no idea of the larger world and conflicts..." Non-SRD fans might not care enough to stick around.