Wow, wow, wow!!
Moderators: Cord Hurn, Cagliostro
Wow, wow, wow!!
I came to Covenant at the beginning, in the seventies, when I was just a youngster, and have read the Chronicles a hundred times - like everyone else, but could never get on with the Gap series. I think the first book put me off so I left the first three Gap paperbacks lurking in a dark corner for the last twenty years. Anyway, I found them recently, and looking for a diversion from the long wait for Last Dark I thought I would give them another go. Being in my dotage now, I have lots of time and I couldn't put them down. I managed to find copies of the final two books and have just finished The Gap into Ruin - This Day All Gods Die. I think it might be the best book I have ever read. Love it, love it, maybe even more than Covenant. Never though I would say that.
Sorry to rabbit on but I am still a bit in shock.
Blossom
Sorry to rabbit on but I am still a bit in shock.
Blossom
- Vraith
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Well, welcome to the big show, Blossom.
you will find a fair number here who agree completely with your assessment.
I still prefer [slightly] TC, but Gap is also awesome, and the last two books are pure killers without doubt.
you will find a fair number here who agree completely with your assessment.
I still prefer [slightly] TC, but Gap is also awesome, and the last two books are pure killers without doubt.
[spoiler]Sig-man, Libtard, Stupid piece of shit. change your text color to brown. Mr. Reliable, bullshit-slinging liarFucker-user.[/spoiler]
the difference between evidence and sources: whether they come from the horse's mouth or a horse's ass.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
the hyperbole is a beauty...for we are then allowed to say a little more than the truth...and language is more efficient when it goes beyond reality than when it stops short of it.
the difference between evidence and sources: whether they come from the horse's mouth or a horse's ass.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
the hyperbole is a beauty...for we are then allowed to say a little more than the truth...and language is more efficient when it goes beyond reality than when it stops short of it.
yep. /nod nod
i hadn't even actually heard of the gap cycle until i joined the watch, blossom, if you can believe that! amazing since i am an avid sci fi fan. the gap fans here totally convinced me to read the books.
i outspokenly think the gap cycle is donaldson's finest writing.
i am, at some point, also going to read the detective books too. i'd read the first one when it came out and thought it was ok but wasn't knocked out. (i'm also a big detective fiction fan) but that was, as you said, when i was a youngster (23) and now that i'm also in my dotage and having read a TON more detective fiction than i had at that point, i think i want to read them.
anyways, just concurring with your wow!
i hadn't even actually heard of the gap cycle until i joined the watch, blossom, if you can believe that! amazing since i am an avid sci fi fan. the gap fans here totally convinced me to read the books.
i outspokenly think the gap cycle is donaldson's finest writing.
i am, at some point, also going to read the detective books too. i'd read the first one when it came out and thought it was ok but wasn't knocked out. (i'm also a big detective fiction fan) but that was, as you said, when i was a youngster (23) and now that i'm also in my dotage and having read a TON more detective fiction than i had at that point, i think i want to read them.
anyways, just concurring with your wow!
you're more advanced than a cockroach,
have you ever tried explaining yourself
to one of them?
~ alan bates, the mothman prophecies
i've had this with actors before, on the set,
where they get upset about the [size of my]
trailer, and i'm always like...take my trailer,
cause... i'm from Kentucky
and that's not what we brag about.
~ george clooney, inside the actor's studio
a straight edge for legends at
the fold - searching for our
lost cities of gold. burnt tar,
gravel pits. sixteen gears switch.
Haphazard Lucy strolls by.
~ dennis r wood ~
have you ever tried explaining yourself
to one of them?
~ alan bates, the mothman prophecies
i've had this with actors before, on the set,
where they get upset about the [size of my]
trailer, and i'm always like...take my trailer,
cause... i'm from Kentucky
and that's not what we brag about.
~ george clooney, inside the actor's studio
a straight edge for legends at
the fold - searching for our
lost cities of gold. burnt tar,
gravel pits. sixteen gears switch.
Haphazard Lucy strolls by.
~ dennis r wood ~
- Vraith
- The Gap Into Spam
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I accidentally read the last one a few years back, wasn't paying attention that it was part of a series. I thought it was above average but not stellar. I know there's a compilation out that has all 4 in it, but I am absolutely not going to start yet another series where the last book won't be out for years and years...last I heard he intends a 5th/final book, but doesn't have any idea for it yet.lucimay wrote: i am, at some point, also going to read the detective books too.
[spoiler]Sig-man, Libtard, Stupid piece of shit. change your text color to brown. Mr. Reliable, bullshit-slinging liarFucker-user.[/spoiler]
the difference between evidence and sources: whether they come from the horse's mouth or a horse's ass.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
the hyperbole is a beauty...for we are then allowed to say a little more than the truth...and language is more efficient when it goes beyond reality than when it stops short of it.
the difference between evidence and sources: whether they come from the horse's mouth or a horse's ass.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
the hyperbole is a beauty...for we are then allowed to say a little more than the truth...and language is more efficient when it goes beyond reality than when it stops short of it.
- MsMary
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The Gap is amazing, but I found it tough reading. The violence kind of got to me. And the aliens are the creepiest ever.
"The Cheat is GROUNDED! We had that lightswitch installed for you so you could turn the lights on and off, not so you could throw lightswitch raves!"
***************************************
- I'm always all right.
- Is all right special Time Lord code for really not all right at all?
- You're all irresponsible fools!
- The Doctor: But we're very experienced irresponsible fools.
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- I'm always all right.
- Is all right special Time Lord code for really not all right at all?
- You're all irresponsible fools!
- The Doctor: But we're very experienced irresponsible fools.
__________________________
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EZBoard Survivor
- wayfriend
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The detective books aren't a series, in the way the GAP is, or the first Chronicles. They are all self-contained novels. It's just that the same two characters are the protagonists in each one. Sort of like any other book in the detective genre. Like Jack Reacher. or Agatha Christie. Etc.
Having read them, I will say that they are good. The problem with them is that their main value isn't as detective novels, which gives them a genre problem. But as good stories, they serve very well.
Having read them, I will say that they are good. The problem with them is that their main value isn't as detective novels, which gives them a genre problem. But as good stories, they serve very well.
.
- Orlion
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Yep. I haven't read The Man Who Fought Alone yet.... that's my emergency Donaldson for when withdrawal gets real bad. As Wayfriend said, though, it is more of a series like the Tony Hillerman Navajo policemen novels. Sure, you can get a 'bigger story' out of the entire series, but you can also be easily satisfied with just starting anywhere.wayfriend wrote:The detective books aren't a series, in the way the GAP is, or the first Chronicles. They are all self-contained novels. It's just that the same two characters are the protagonists in each one. Sort of like any other book in the detective genre. Like Jack Reacher. or Agatha Christie. Etc.
Having read them, I will say that they are good. The problem with them is that their main value isn't as detective novels, which gives them a genre problem. But as good stories, they serve very well.
And they get better at around halfway through the second book. The Man Who Tried to Get Away was simply awesome, in my opining.
'Tis dream to think that Reason can
Govern the reasoning creature, man.
- Herman Melville
I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all!
"All creation is a huge, ornate, imaginary, and unintended fiction; if it could be deciphered it would yield a single shocking word."
-John Crowley
Govern the reasoning creature, man.
- Herman Melville
I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all!
"All creation is a huge, ornate, imaginary, and unintended fiction; if it could be deciphered it would yield a single shocking word."
-John Crowley
Agreed! To me, the Gap is SRD's all time high (thus far). It gave me a total paradigm shift in more ways than one. And, oddly enough, that's probably why I have never reread it. Gonna try to dare myself to do it, possibly after my first full Malazan reread - have gotten up to Kruppe at his finest in TtH now.
- Vraith
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True, but it's a peccadillo of mine. Even when I read the Christie ones [I had to when I first met my wife, a fan who owned all of them in paperback...it's a lot of books] I hated reading them out of order, it just bugs me. I don't like prequels either.wayfriend wrote:The detective books aren't a series, in the way the GAP is, or the first Chronicles.
And blossom, don't worry about senile ravings...we're not prejudiced or bigoted, we accept ravings of all kinds. Hell, some of my best friends are ravers.
[spoiler]Sig-man, Libtard, Stupid piece of shit. change your text color to brown. Mr. Reliable, bullshit-slinging liarFucker-user.[/spoiler]
the difference between evidence and sources: whether they come from the horse's mouth or a horse's ass.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
the hyperbole is a beauty...for we are then allowed to say a little more than the truth...and language is more efficient when it goes beyond reality than when it stops short of it.
the difference between evidence and sources: whether they come from the horse's mouth or a horse's ass.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
the hyperbole is a beauty...for we are then allowed to say a little more than the truth...and language is more efficient when it goes beyond reality than when it stops short of it.
- singingstone
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I too, could not get through the first Gap book the first time I tried. That was probably 10 years ago and I admit that I didn't see the virtue in it then. Last year I read it again with new insight into how Donaldson writes, and I am so glad I did! Wow! The story is so much richer then I thought possible. By the time I was introduced to Min Donner, Hashi Lebwol, and Warden Dios I was totally turned around, on the edge of my seat.
What is amazing to me is how the characters change right before your eyes, in a way that is so organic that you can hardly believe they are the same people you started with. Yet it makes perfect sense!
It also amazes me how Donaldson was able to weave all the characters and all the plot points to form such a spectacular ending. How unlikely was that!
What is amazing to me is how the characters change right before your eyes, in a way that is so organic that you can hardly believe they are the same people you started with. Yet it makes perfect sense!
It also amazes me how Donaldson was able to weave all the characters and all the plot points to form such a spectacular ending. How unlikely was that!
"try to believe that you are pure" -fael jheherrin Befylam
"People die, but death is not defeat."Otacon quoting Hemingway
"People die, but death is not defeat."Otacon quoting Hemingway
Welcome singingstone!
Chalk me up as another Gap enthusiast. Recently re-read them and found them just as excellent.
Also:
Chalk me up as another Gap enthusiast. Recently re-read them and found them just as excellent.
Also:
Vraith wrote:Hell, some of my best friends are ravers.
^"Amusing, worth talking to, completely insane...pick your favourite." - Avatar
https://variousglimpses.wordpress.com
https://variousglimpses.wordpress.com
- The Perfect One
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- singingstone
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I've only read The Gap novels once, and I'd like to read them again, but I'm in the middle of The One Tree and it will take a wile before I get all the way through AATE.
Mordant's Need is also on my list of re-reads, as well as A Requiem For Homo Sapiens.
I have a lot of work to do!
Mordant's Need is also on my list of re-reads, as well as A Requiem For Homo Sapiens.
I have a lot of work to do!
"try to believe that you are pure" -fael jheherrin Befylam
"People die, but death is not defeat."Otacon quoting Hemingway
"People die, but death is not defeat."Otacon quoting Hemingway
- singingstone
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I'm actually re-reading the GAP right now, and I'm struck by two things about The Real Story:
1) How utterly brutal Angus is to Morn,
2) How utterly overcome Angus is by his own weakness.
1) How utterly brutal Angus is to Morn,
2) How utterly overcome Angus is by his own weakness.
Spoiler
The second is rather premoniscient of Nick and Morn, as well.
"You make me think Hell is run like a corporation."
"It's the other way around, but yes."
Obaki, Too Much Information
"It's the other way around, but yes."
Obaki, Too Much Information
- CovenantJr
- Lord
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That actually made me laugh. While I don't agree, I can see how you would feel that way, and it struck me as being so distinct from my impression that I couldn't help myselfCovenantJr wrote:Spoiler
I think that's probably one of the reasons that I never liked Morn very much. She's a disaster. She ruins everyone she meets, and she never even notices.
"You make me think Hell is run like a corporation."
"It's the other way around, but yes."
Obaki, Too Much Information
"It's the other way around, but yes."
Obaki, Too Much Information