Kevin's Watch

I believe it would have been because he had a contract for the whole series. I remember he said something about having trouble meeting the contracted schedule.

Good thing, too. The series needed time for word of mouth to spread. A masterpiece can't stay ignored forever.

I don't know. But I distictly remember SRD being unhappy with the reception The Gap got.

Dragonlily wrote:A masterpiece can't stay ignored forever.

A masterpiece, it is. I have to agree with Revan and others; it's now my favourite. Nothing has gripped me as much.

I agree. Once people get past The Real Story, they're hooked.

Up until RUNES, he thought GAP was the best work he had done. Naturally he thought it should have been better received -- and it should.

I have to say The Gap is better than Runes.

That's a crappy comparison--I too find that reading Runes faster makes it better--I vehemently disagree with Jay who reads it way too slow-crap if I read A Game of Thrones or Neverness that slow I'd find them boring too. Runes, like The Real Story is a set up book--it does it's job.

I'll say it again--The Gap Sequnce like the Neverness series are not only some of the best Sci-Fis ever written they were also some of the worst promoted--blame Bantam/Spectra for both **refrains from cursing**

Arrgh! I could gripe all night about people not liking Runes **reaches for his Rostrum Red instead** Returning to the Land after 20 years! I'd like to see you do better! Besides, anyone knows Fatal Revenant starts the real trilogy--and SRD's built (fantasy-wise) for trilogy. Maybe Lord Foul does sound a tad goofy-but if it wasn't for the title, I'd never have known Donaldson.

danlo wrote:That's a crappy comparison--I too find that reading Runes faster makes it better--I vehemently disagree with Jay who reads it way too slow-crap if I read A Game of Thrones or Neverness that slow I'd find them boring too. Runes, like The Real Story is a set up book--it does it's job.

A comparison nonetheless.

But maybe Jay reads it slow because he finds it boring. Not the other war around.

You're not being fair LM! You have the entire Sequence to judge--the Final Chronicles hasn't even been written yet (trilogy-wise) besides fantasy is different than Sci-Fi (and here I am defending fantasy when I've read 6 Sci-Fis for every fantasy ).

I guess I have a different perspective on Runes hearing two chapters being read aloud by the man himself--I was immersed in the story before it was published. I respect Jay for his honesty on Runes-it's just that if I ran an SRD board I'd read it a bit more intensely and faster. Believe me I'd tell people if I found Zindell's (author of Neverness, my board's theme) writting boring--and I did have some problems with his first fantasy--but the second book kicked some ass.

Yes I am being fair. I said it was better than Runes. I'm not judging the Last Chronicles. As it stands, I enjoyed reading the Gap more than Runes. I may enjoy the following books more, but that does not mean Runes will improve.

I don't know why we compare! Can we, at least, agree that SRD is an excellent writer? Besides my forum is better than your forum --challenges LM to a boxing match!

Agreed to that SRD is an excellent writer!
My forum is better!
I am prepared to have a boxing match, but beware! I fight dirty!

I'll be wearing a cup! My Ravers will kick your Amnionis' collective butts!

Hey, hey now, woah. Heh. Danlo, I hope you know that I was mostly just joking around. I do that a lot, heh. It's just my way of sort of teasing Runes. Plus, I find a lot of irony in the fact that an admin of the SRD message board is taking so long to read it, heh.

To be completely honest, I wouldn't say Runes is boring. I find the story (from what I've read so far) to be interesting. But lets just say that for some reason the pacing of the book has not caused me to really get into it. At least not the way the Gap series just pulled me into it. Runes is a bit slow.

But I really can't blame Runes entirely for why it's taking me so long to read the book. As I've said before, I'm simply a slow reader. Plus, I think I've been getting worse over the last couple of years, possibly as a result of my increasing obsessive compulsive tendencies. I mean, I literally can't seem to read more than a couple pages a night. And when I try to read more, it takes me all day. When I read, I tend to reread sentences over and over, which slows me down.

So yeah, give me a break I'm reading as fast as I can. I'm not reading Runes slowly on purpose.-jay

P.S. All of this Gap stuff has gotten me thinking...maybe I should include more Gap related content on the Kevin's Watch main page? Along with SRD's other books perhaps? Since right now there really are not any Gap related sites on the internet. Maybe I should start putting up more stuff from the Gap, like the book covers and such, on Kevin's Watch.-jay

kevinswatch wrote:Maybe I should start putting up more stuff from the Gap, like the book covers and such, on Kevin's Watch.-jay

That would be great, Jay. The Gap's fervent fans would be happy to see it.

Great idea! Include a little Mordant while you're at it please.

kevinswatch wrote:..maybe I should include more Gap related content on the Kevin's Watch main page?

That would be great!

That would be great! Especially if something for Mordant (another under-appreciated classic, possibly due to its subtlety) could also be put on the main page.

I honestly think the biggest part of the reason that more people do not read The Gap is the sheer brutality of The Real Story. I read the Gap books as they were published, but couldn't bring myself to read them again until shortly before I attended Elohimfest.

And that was even knowing how good the later books are, and how they are impossible to put down.

The reason I just couldn't bring myself to read it again over the course of all of those years was The Real Story. It is well written, don't get me wrong -- but I find it incredibly disturbing.

It truly wouldn't surpise me to find out that some people just can't either get all the way through that book, or don't choose to go on with the series after reading it. That little book can rip your guts out...

Heh, well, it may be hard for me to do stuff on Mordant's Need, since I've never read it, heh. I could put together a book gallery, though. Heh.

I would also need to figure out how to incorporate the new series into the current Kevin's Watch layout. Maybe have a different color scheme and side bar links for each series... Hm...

If anyone wants to help with anything, or has any ideas, feel free to let me know. I always accept help for the site, because I can't do it all, heh.-jay