Kevin's Watch

With this last book in TCTC about to come out, despite the fact that I have not yet read it, I have begun to think about what SRD may have in store for us on down the road. The Gap Cycle stands pretty close in quality to the TCTC when compared to the rest of his work. But, TCTC remains his signature achievement, in my opinion. So, this makes me wonder if this is SRD's Magnum Opus.

By comparison and opinion, Tolkein's greatest work was the set of myths and 'legends' that became the Silmarillion.

What do you all think?

I was hoping it would be so, but I am disappointed. Still, it has inspired me to re-read Mordant's Need after a decade, and that can only be a good thing.

SkurjMaster wrote:By comparison and opinion, Tolkein's greatest work was the set of myths and 'legends' that became the Silmarillion.

I strongly agree with this!

For myself, as much as I love the 10 Covenant/Land books, I think Mordant's Need is his greatest accomplishment...I can wholeheartedly recommend them to anybody, and think SRD's characterizations are thoroughly outstanding in those two books. Just my .

I have to go with the Gap. I literally didn't put the books down from Chaos and Order until the end of TDAGD. Mesmerizing, compelling, have to turn the page reading that controlled me like no other experience.

That gives me something to look forward to, rdhopeca! I just recently obtained all five Gap books, and plan on reading them for the first time this year. I may end up agreeing wholeheartedly with you by the time I am done with them!

(I haven't read the Man Who books yet, either, and so far have been only able to acquire two of the four. They'll be next after the Gap books. But I definitely like Mordant's Need above the Covenant books and the short story collections--and I love them all as well.)

That gives me something to look forward to, rdhopeca! I just recently obtained all five Gap books, and plan on reading them for the first time this year. I may end up agreeing wholeheartedly with you by the time I am done with them!

The first two can at times be difficult, but once you clear them...

The Gap is his best work, hands down. And that includes the first 2 Chronicles. I think now that he's not tied down to writing in a particular style or structure, he's free to top himself. He still has it within him.

I just hope that the poor sales of the Gap doesn't make him shy away from doing something that good again.

SRD has made enough comments recently that lead me to suspect that he's ready to retire at 67, and dissatisfied with the logistics of being an author. If he has a story burning a hole in his pocket, then maybe it will lure him back, because he serves his muse. (And, if that happens, it will likely be Axbrewder and Ginny who bring him back for one more.) But I think the odds are, he saved the Last Chronicles for his last chronicle.

wayfriend wrote:SRD has made enough comments recently that lead me to suspect that he's ready to retire at 67, and dissatisfied with the logistics of being an author. If he has a story burning a hole in his pocket, then maybe it will lure him back, because he serves his muse. (And, if that happens, it will likely be Axbrewder and Ginny who bring him back for one more.) But I think the odds are, he saved the Last Chronicles for his last chronicle.

I don't know...he may WANT to retire from it, but from all he's said about writing and his identity/personality, I don't think he'd be CAPABLE of retiring from it.
Taking on an epic, though...I doubt we'll see another of those.
[[Especially taking into account things he's said about his health every so often...I don't know if those are chronic and/or serious but the topic seemed to pop up in the GI in little asides/details/off-hand remarks fairly often]].

I'm with Z, too...though I wasn't always...the GAP is the best of all, as a whole.

I'd kinda like to see him jump into horror. I think he said somewhere that he's wanted to write one in the past, but didn't have a good idea or the right mindset to do that kind of work?? But I bet he could do it.
Then he'd be like Dan Simmons, another guy who not only writes across, but writes well across.

The Gap series, no question.

Now that I think of it from the perspective of memory, the scenes where Angus is trying to rescue Morn (or Davies?) reminds me of the scenes involving Hile Troy in TIW.

I, too, think that the Gap series is his best work overall, though it has been some years since I read it (and even more since I read Mordant's Need). I've always been something of a cheerleader for SRD with my friends, urging them to read TC...and warning them that they might not much like TC. Some immediately put down LFB because of it right after the rape.

I tell those same friends, well, you might not like the Gap series. The Chronicles just have one despicable character...he's got a trifecta in the Gap! (at least!)

PastorChris wrote: I tell those same friends, well, you might not like the Gap series. The Chronicles just have one despicable character...he's got a trifecta in the Gap! (at least!)

Oh yea, on the first...if they can't go on after Lena, they'd almost surely suffer Gap-sickness.

....heh...I'd replace your [at least] with AND THEN SOME! Almost every character is despicable at least sometimes. It's just that some of them "get better."

OFF_TOPIC--[by which I specifically do NOT mean they "make up for" the past. Only that they are not currently despicable. Human deeds aren't mathematical, summing up a life, where an evil [-1] is added to say 2 goods, equaling +1 good when you die. If a lifetime is mathematical in any way, it is only as a set, not a process. You die, in that case, as the set with the members [evil1, good1, good2].

Of the Gap books, I've only read The Real Story. It didn't give me much desire to read further. Morn is just a complete, two-dimensional, cardboard cookie-cutter cutout caricature of a victim, and everyone else is a psychopath.

I read one of the Mick Axbruder books; one of the more recent ones. I thought it was OK, but not great. The end of it, where Mick gets a crash lesson in martial arts and manages to defeat a black belt (basically by defenestrating him), seemed a bit too much to swallow.

I loved Mordant's Need, but haven't looked at those books in quite a while. I think they're the only non-Covenant books I've read by Donaldson that stand up with the Chronicles. So yes, I do think TCTC is Donaldson's Magnum Opus; in fact, to me, SRD as a writer is almost synonymous with the Chronicles.

I've enjoyed SRD's short stories as well, but again, one of the more memorable is the Illearth War outtake. I did like the one where a guy has to make his way through a forest past "animals" that are all trying to kill him in technological ways (a squirrel planting a grenade in front of him).

I hope he goes back and rewrites virtually all of the Last Chronicles! LOL not being entirely serious here but upon further review this series was a terrible disappointment. had tons of potential but did not even remotely live up to my expectations.

hurtloam wrote:Morn is just a complete, two-dimensional, cardboard cookie-cutter cutout caricature of a victim, and everyone else is a psychopath.

Well, she's a victim who ends up rescuing her victimizer. And Angus is a victimizer who ends up allowing himself to become a victim. And Nick, the "hero/rescuer" ends up becoming the victimizer. Aren't you curious to know why? That's the Real Story, the reasons why these "cariciatures" end up defying their own roles, and switch places.

There is nothing cookie-cutter about this series, accept for the surface level which we're told from the first page isn't the real story.

Zarathustra wrote:

hurtloam wrote:Morn is just a complete, two-dimensional, cardboard cookie-cutter cutout caricature of a victim, and everyone else is a psychopath.

Well, she's a victim who ends up rescuing her victimizer. And Angus is a victimizer who ends up allowing himself to become a victim. And Nick, the "hero/rescuer" ends up becoming the victimizer. Aren't you curious to know why? That's the Real Story, the reasons why these "cariciatures" end up defying their own roles, and switch places.

There is nothing cookie-cutter about this series, accept for the surface level which we're told from the first page isn't the real story.

Yeah the first book can be tough, FK starts to ramp it up. Once you hit the third book it's "can't put down" incredibleness.

rdhopeca wrote:
Yeah the first book can be tough, FK starts to ramp it up. Once you hit the third book it's "can't put down" incredibleness.

^ This!

I'd say from about midway through the second book. That's when Morn starts taking charge of her situation, and from that point she never lets go, and neither do the books.

Morn is SUCH a better character than Linden. Sigh.

Hurtloam, it is meaningless to judge the Gap series by the first book. The evolution in character and narrative within that series is just staggering.