Kevin's Watch

Joy wrote:Give Liete Corregio a break, ok? She inspired SRD to some of my all-time favorite writing.

Agreed. I love the first chapter from her point of view. The whole wind metaphor is cool.

The thing that I sometimes found odd is not that there are silly little characters, because every book has and needs them. It's more the way SRD names some and not others. For some amazingly odd reason, Alba Parmute (Data third then Data second, Captain's Fancy) has a first and last name, but Captain's Fancy's Helm first doesn't get either. Why does Malda Verone (Targ first, Captain's Fancy) get a last name when Carmel and Lind (Scan first and Communications first repsectively, Captain's Fancy) don't? Alesha Hardaway (Targ first, Free Lunch even gets a last name, but UMCPHQ Chief of Security Manditch doesn't. It's just quite odd sometimes.

Sum sui generis
Vs

I think Sunja Pilat was a useless character. No point in having that one around IMHO.



-B

Nuh-uh, without Alba's incompetence Morn would not have been able to free Davies and without Liete Captain's Fancy probably wouldn't have been destroyed and Nick might not have gone crazy.

My vote would be for Glessen. All he contributed to the books was a swear word leading to a mental note from Min Donner that never actually led to anything.

Glessen?! His heroic efforts as Punisher's targ officer (gunner) kept both Punisher and Trumpet alive. Without Glessen, Calm Horizons would have killed Trumpet before they could either broadcast the the formula or get home.

Punisher would have had three other targ officers, are we sure it was always Glessen? I can't remember offhand.

To be honest though, I don't think SRD is in the habit of writing in unnecessary characters.

It was always Glessen when a name was mentioned.

Sum sui generis
Vs

variol son wrote:

Joy wrote:Give Liete Corregio a break, ok? She inspired SRD to some of my all-time favorite writing.

Agreed. I love the first chapter from her point of view. The whole wind metaphor is cool.

The thing that I sometimes found odd is not that there are silly little characters, because every book has and needs them. It's more the way SRD names some and not others. For some amazingly odd reason, Alba Parmute (Data third then Data second, Captain's Fancy) has a first and last name, but Captain's Fancy's Helm first doesn't get either. Why does Malda Verone (Targ first, Captain's Fancy) get a last name when Carmel and Lind (Scan first and Communications first repsectively, Captain's Fancy) don't? Alesha Hardaway (Targ first, Free Lunch even gets a last name, but UMCPHQ Chief of Security Manditch doesn't. It's just quite odd sometimes.

Sum sui generis
Vs

I thought she was an idiot... just went killed herself for Nick... Not very realistic if you ask me.

No, I think it was pretty realistic. Remember that Nick had a hell of a reputation as a swashbuckling pirate captain and Liete obviously felt very strongly for him. By the time CF reached Billingate the only people who had started to see through Nick's facade were the people he effectively kicked off the ship; Mikka, Vector, Sib and Ciro. Therefore, when the time came, the only people left aboard were either devout Nick-followers (Liete, Lind, Malda Verone), people who probably wpuldn't have sacrificed themselves for Nick, but weren't in a position to do anything about it (Alba, Ransum etc) and Pastille (and Liete was awake to the threat he posed).

I thought it was really quite poignant that twenty-something people died (most of them unwillingly) to save Nick, who was by now proving to be something of a dirtbag. I think that, given the choice, Nick would have let Tranquil Hegemony blow him and the others away rather than have Captain's Fancy destroyed. He cared about little else beyond his own reputation, which would probably endure if he were mown down whilst attempting a daring rescue from the amnion sector and his crew lived to tell the tale.

I think it would have been interesting to have seen Pastille's reaction when he realised what Liete was about to do, and if the others were as loyal as Liete believed.

The amount of character development on Free Lunch and crew always struck me as disproportionate to her fate. I have wondered if SRD at one time intended to do more with the characters.

variol son wrote: The thing that I sometimes found odd is not that there are silly little characters, because every book has and needs them. It's more the way SRD names some and not others. For some amazingly odd reason, Alba Parmute (Data third then Data second, Captain's Fancy) has a first and last name, but Captain's Fancy's Helm first doesn't get either. Why does Malda Verone (Targ first, Captain's Fancy) get a last name when Carmel and Lind (Scan first and Communications first repsectively, Captain's Fancy) don't? Alesha Hardaway (Targ first, Free Lunch even gets a last name, but UMCPHQ Chief of Security Manditch doesn't. It's just quite odd sometimes.

Sum sui generis
Vs

And no one on Soar is ever mentioned by name. Most annoying.

having seen this topic prior to reading Gap and now, having nearly finished, i had to come back here and comment.

i didn't find ANY superfluous characters in this series. everyone served a purpose no matter how fractional. as a matter of fact, i think that the Gap Cycle is some of Donaldson's best writing!!!

Yay, Lucimay! My pick for all-time best sci fi series.

Lucimay wrote: as a matter of fact, i think that the Gap Cycle is some of Donaldson's best writing!!!

I think it is his best.

I'll second that.

Wait..do you mean it's his second best, or are you seconding that it's his best?

I've only read TCOTC and the GAP (well DOR too)-and only read the GAP once (so far) so it's hard to judge.

drew wrote:Wait..do you mean it's his second best, or are you seconding that it's his best?

The second.

ARRRRGH!

What?

I'll let you know in a second, or two.

drew having a blond moment

Sorus wrote:I'll second that.

I'll third it. The Gap owns TC.