Kevin's Watch

CovenantJr wrote:Not remotely. Book one covers a series of events in a very small area, that occur chronologically before the rest of the series. Though the plot of book one has relatively little to do with the later books, familiarity with it is essential for understanding several key events.

Well, yes I see what your talking about. I guess synopsis is the wrong word to use... It just was more to me than a "what came before" book. Perhaps framework would be a better word for it. For me it was easier to read than three chapters in particular from The One Tree. *cough-Elohim- cough*

A lot of the way book 1 fits into the series is explained by the fact that it was originally written as a stand-alone novel.

I can't recall a more compelling series than the GAP


Those last 2 books were "cannot put down" territory for me (not often that happens).

I still can't decide if I like morn's character...

I am midway through book #2. Man it is great stuff. The death of Orv is a great touch! And the intro of Min Donner is one for the ages.

She is the Gap cycle's Mhoram in many ways.

I am now to the point at which the crew of Captain's Fancy is reaching Enablement Station.

I keep picturing Nick as Sawyer from "Lost".

Nick IS Sawyer. Or is it the other way around?

A Gunslinger wrote:I keep picturing Nick as Sawyer from "Lost".

Not you too!

Yeah...it can't be helped I think. I am 100+ pages into C & O. The tension on Trumpet is unbearable. That ship is wayyyy to small to house them all.

It has been 8-9 years since I read the cycle. It rocks like none other.

My favorite character is Min Donner.

Phantasm wrote:Sci - fi comes a poor second for me in the reading stakes, BUT, I've finally given in and got the first 2 Gap series books.

Will start reading them this weekend, and see how it goes. If it's anything like my first go at Mordants Need, I'll read the first 100 pages, then give up for two years, then go back to it and love it.

Ha! That's pretty much my take on sci-fi vs. fantasy, too. I have trouble getting into sci-fi a lot of times. I bought Real Story/Forbidden Knowledge when they first came out as a set of hardback books 15 years or so ago. Those were the pre-internet days when you found out what your favorite author was up to by walking into Waldenbooks once or twice a month, and praying something would show up in the new releases section. I remember being shocked and a bit dismayed that SRD was writing a 5 book sci-fi series. But if you bought FK, you got RS for free. I figured, what-the-hell, it seems like a no-lose proposition, so I bought them. And man, did I ever hate the Real Story. I just found Angus disgusting, and wondered what kind of perverted crap SRD was into. I thought that I finished it and also read FK, but now I'm not so sure. A few months ago, I decided to give the series another shot, so I went out and bought all five books (everyone here seems to like them, so I figured I might as well just dive in). It's funny, but the Real Story wasn't as shocking the second time around. For some reason, I remembered page after page after page of graphic rape scenes. I was really surprised that there were only a couple of sentences here and there that were sick. I don't remember Nick at all, and certainly not the aliens, so I'm pretty sure I must've just quit in the middle of the RS, something I almost never do. I guess I was in college then, and didn't have a whole lot of time to read anyway.

To make a long story short, I'm just about done FK, and I really like the books. And it's really sweet that I don't have to wait 3 years for the next one to come out. I feel bad for the fans that had to wait for each new one to arrive.

Haha, yeah, I gotta say that this seriesis a great one. Seriously some of the best sci-fi, and hard sci-fi at that, that I've read.

--A

All Gapers,
I just purchased all 5 books of this series based on Donaldson's comments on the GI that this is his best stuff. He seemed miffed that those of us who liked TC would not give him a chance. So I am, as you say finally giving in.
But I am nervous, I am poking around this forum trying to find something to give me hope and the best I can find is people saying you may hate it to start with but give it a chance and you will love it in the end. Still nervous.
I am a science fiction fan but mostly I just like a well told story. For the TC books, I didn't want to try to figure out everything but just to be entertained by a storyteller. And I was. There were some rough parts for me, like Linden, most of the One Tree, and Linden. And if this is going to be like 5 books of all Sunbane all the time, then I am doubly and trebly nervous.
Any thoughts or comments??
Thanks,
Stephen

Hi Stephen,

I wouldn't call it "all Sunbane all the time". It is pretty much all dark material, but unlike Chronicles, you get inside a lot of characters' heads, so it is many different shades of dark, if you will...

IrrationalSanity wrote:you get inside a lot of characters' heads, so it is many different shades of dark, if you will...

It's on my list of books that induce mindfucks.

Trust me, RB. You'll love it.

Geez, I'd love 5 books of all-Sunbane-all-the-time. I definitely agree with the sentiment that the Gap books are SRD's best. Books 3 and 4 are especially good (and 5's no slouch).

It's dark, brutal, exhausting, and worth every second.

Well I finished the real story in a couple days, and I really enjoyed it. Seems like a different writer entirely, Donaldson made a great transition to Science Fiction with this.
The build up to Angus and Bright Beauty getting blown away was vivid, I didnt't see that coming with Starmaster at all. And then the reason why it happened. And then Angus, as brutal as he could be, but each step closer to his doom. This was quite entertaining.
So why don't people like this?
- stephen

Raman Bannor wrote:Well I finished the real story in a couple days, and I really enjoyed it. Seems like a different writer entirely, Donaldson made a great transition to Science Fiction with this.
The build up to Angus and Bright Beauty getting blown away was vivid, I didnt't see that coming with Starmaster at all. And then the reason why it happened. And then Angus, as brutal as he could be, but each step closer to his doom. This was quite entertaining.
So why don't people like this?
- stephen

Well, what a lot of people like about the Covenant books is the beauty - Andelain, Giants, Mhoram, etc. The Gap has very little beauty; it's brutal and unrelenting, and that won't necessarily sit well with people who are expecting more of the shininess and nobility that pervades the Chronicles.

CovenantJr wrote:

Raman Bannor wrote:Well I finished the real story in a couple days, and I really enjoyed it. Seems like a different writer entirely, Donaldson made a great transition to Science Fiction with this.
The build up to Angus and Bright Beauty getting blown away was vivid, I didnt't see that coming with Starmaster at all. And then the reason why it happened. And then Angus, as brutal as he could be, but each step closer to his doom. This was quite entertaining.
So why don't people like this?
- stephen

Well, what a lot of people like about the Covenant books is the beauty - Andelain, Giants, Mhoram, etc. The Gap has very little beauty; it's brutal and unrelenting, and that won't necessarily sit well with people who are expecting more of the shininess and nobility that pervades the Chronicles.

I'll agree with that. It's not that it's brutal and unrelenting as much that it just has no real beauty at all. I can handle all kinds of unlikable, despicable characters, I prefer them. But there needs to be something to fight for - hope. As a reader, I have no positive associations to this era of earth and space. Hard to really care about the good, in order to appreciate the complexity of the bad.

It's the same problem I had with Oz. Oz was so full of despair, without a single moment of any goodness, that it was pointless to watch. I still don't understand why I was supposed to watch it.

I like reality, in all of its brutality, and part of reality is goodness.

Raman Bannor wrote:Well I finished the real story in a couple days, and I really enjoyed it. Seems like a different writer entirely, Donaldson made a great transition to Science Fiction with this.
The build up to Angus and Bright Beauty getting blown away was vivid, I didnt't see that coming with Starmaster at all. And then the reason why it happened. And then Angus, as brutal as he could be, but each step closer to his doom. This was quite entertaining.
So why don't people like this?
- stephen

Welcome aboard Stephen.

In my opinion, "The Real Story." It was orginally written as a novella, and it was only on further reflection that SRD decided to write the real thing (encompassed in the coming tomes of goodness already sitting in your hands.)

I hate tRS (although admittedly, I've only read it once.) There's just no depth to the plot. At best it is an interesting experiment in storytelling. First the onion, then a layer deeper, then a layer deeper...

Maybe that means you will now become the most rabid Gap fan out there, but you'll have to be pretty hydrophobic to top most of us in this crowd.

Stutt