Wow, wow, wow!!

[Captain Sheep-Flicker]

After reading the entire Gap series in a very short space of time several years ago, the one word that I've used repeatedly to describe it's emotional impact is quite simply....Intense

[bruce3371]

I love the Gap Cycle because of the way the roles of the main characters change;

Victimiser to Victim
Victim to Saviour
Saviour to Victimiser

Plus I just can't resist a good multiple double-cross!!

[StevieG]

That's a general thing I love about SRD's characters, that they do actually grow and change - it's never black and white. But you're right, the Gap is the most prominent of this example.

[Dolfineer]

Haha love the sentiment!!! When I read the first book I was really turned off by the violence--it also felt kinda one-dimensional. I had enjoyed the Covenant series and LOVED Mordant's Need, but the Real Story left me cold. But Donaldson's afterward intrigued me enough to read the next book when it came out--and I was of course blown away.

I usually do a re-read of it once a year or every other year...or if I am especially depressed. It brings me back...

[Cord Hurn]

I had enjoyed the Covenant series and LOVED Mordant's Need, but the Real Story left me cold. But Donaldson's afterward intrigued me enough to read the next book when it came out--and I was of course blown away.

My experience exactly, Dolfineer. TRS turned me off. save for the encouraging Afterword. But encouragement from KW members got me to finish the series up just recently for the first time, and I'm glad I did! Everything is tied together in a fascinating way. Mordants Need is still my favorite SRD, but the final three Gap books are great, no doubt about it!

[Sorus]

I appreciate TRS more now than I did in the beginning, but I am still glad it wasn't the first one I read.

[Cambo]

I thought TRS was a nasty little story with an intriguing concept- that being the role shifts of the main characters that people mention above. I enjoyed it, but there was really no hint of how, sprawling, complex and epic the story would become from there.

Funny story- I lent this series to a flatmate who only dabbles in sci fi. She was knocking at my door after finishing TRS and FK over two days, demanding the next book, and after she'd finished all she'd say was: "holy s**t"

[Sorus]

"holy s**t" sums it up quite well.

[Savor Dam]

Agreed. TCTC may be the most well-known works, but the Gap is truly the best end-to-end story SRD has written.

[Avatar]

Definitely his best. Dunno what people's problem is with TRS...even the first time I read it, I thought it was a brilliant story.

--A

[Zarathustra]

I've said many times that I think the Gap is SRD's best, but I don't think I've appreciated TRS fully until we did our dissection a few years ago. It's a really tight, concise, and yet deeply interconnected story. It's deceptively simple in its structure, so that I missed the complexity of its characterization (esp. Angus). I think the violence is so brutal, that it steals the show, distracting from some of the more subtle elements.

[Avatar]

Violence in a book is well...just fictional. People getting upset by or about it never really made sense to me.

Same as the Lena rape scene in LFB...it's barely even there, but there are people who apparently can't get past it, or who got past it, but really struggled to do so.

--A

[MsMary]

Much as I enjoyed The Gap, the violence was disturbing. It being fictional doesn't make it less disturbing.

[Cambo]

Violence in a book is well...just fictional. People getting upset by or about it never really made sense to me.

Same as the Lena rape scene in LFB...it's barely even there, but there are people who apparently can't get past it, or who got past it, but really struggled to do so.

--A

There have been many events in fictional stories that upset me more than, say, the Titanic disaster. Hell, there are historical atrocities that have only really hit home emotionally when presented to me in narrative form- the Holocaust, for example, never packed so much punch as when I watched Schindler's List for the first time. Saving Private Ryan communicated to me the horror of the Normandy beach front better than any history book I've read.

Fictional violence is upsetting to me, and I think Donaldson intends it to be. I'm not saying I had some kind of trauma trigger, or that I was sobbing as I read, the way I would if I witnesses a similar scene in real life. But those scenes sure as hell have an impact. I think the series would mean less to me without that. A lot less, in fact.

[Avatar]

It's possible that living in a relatively violent society, I'm somewhat desensitised even to real violence as long as it is occurring at some remove.

There's more than enough disturbing things happening every day to spare too much concern on something imaginary, is how I mostly view it though.

--A

[Cambo]

I'm not concerned by disturbing content in books or movies so much as I am engaged by it. Part of why I consume media- be it books, movies, music- is to feel. To explore a wide range of emotional experiences, bright and dark, at a safe remove.

[Sorus]

I'm not concerned by disturbing content in books or movies so much as I am engaged by it. Part of why I consume media- be it books, movies, music- is to feel. To explore a wide range of emotional experiences, bright and dark, at a safe remove.

That's well said. I would rather be disturbed by a book than bored.

I was looking for a quote the other day, which I failed to find - I thought it was Vonnegut, but maybe I was wrong. Something to do with the way a good author puts their characters through hell.

[Avatar]

Hell, SRD must be bloody brilliant then.

--A

[Sorus]

Hell, SRD must be bloody brilliant then.

--A

Well, we knew that.

[Ryzel]

A few years ago I sat down and read the entire Gap Cycle for the first time since I had read the books individually when they were first released in mmpb. The entire cycle was a lot better than I remembered.