joques, quite right. It can't be emphasized enough: the other books are orders of magnitude better than the first, which really should be viewed as a kind of "prelude." SRD himself hadn't intended on continuing the story beyond that book when he first wrote it. When he realized a way to combine it with a much larger vision for the next four books, the quality goes up exponentially. The scope of the actual story is just staggering. Ironically, you only see the tiniest surface level by the end of the Real Story.
Come to think of it, that probably explains the poor sales. This story is epic, but there's no hint of that for a while.
Magnum Opus
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Zarathustra
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Mighara Sovmadhi
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If we look at the "problem" in terms of scale, well, although the Gap story compasses multiple star systems, the Covenant series involves layers of reality under attack as well as the devastation of stars themselves. Devastation at the hands of entities (the Worm and the Despiser) with transcendent powers. For this reason alone, perhaps, the Gap and Covenant series are equally, in some sense, SRD's "magnum opus." Or better, maybe, he's not the kind of author to have a "magnum opus." (Think, vaguely, Stephen King and the Dark Tower works: not his best work.)