Wow, wow, wow!!

blossom · Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 4:13 pm Post subject: 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. Shocked

Blossom

Vraith · Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 4:19 pm Post subject:

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.
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lucimay · Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 5:21 pm Post subject:

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! Very Happy

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Vraith · Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 7:41 pm Post subject:

MsMary · Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 8:42 pm Post subject:

The Gap is amazing, but I found it tough reading. The violence kind of got to me. And the aliens are the creepiest ever. Evil or Very Mad

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wayfriend · Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 9:59 pm Post subject:

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.
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Orlion · Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 4:05 am Post subject:

Avatar · Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 5:49 am Post subject:

Welcome to the Watch Blossom. Very Happy

Like LuciMay, I think the Gap is SRD's best.

Look around, join in. Always good to get new people participating.

--A
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Khazduk · Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 1:17 pm Post subject:

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. Smile

blossom · Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 6:52 pm Post subject:

Hi, everyone. Thanks for welcoming me and for listening to my senile ravings Laughing

Trouble is, after The Gap, what can I read now? I can't find anything that measures up. Exclamation

Vraith · Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 7:04 pm Post subject:

singingstone · Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 4:24 am Post subject:

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!
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Cambo · Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 11:19 am Post subject:

Welcome singingstone!

Chalk me up as another Gap enthusiast. Recently re-read them and found them just as excellent.

Also:

The Perfect One · Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 11:37 am Post subject:

The Ravers are my friends, well, something like friends, all three. Do you know more? I'm interested.
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singingstone · Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 1:31 pm Post subject:

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!
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singingstone · Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 5:25 am Post subject:

By the way, thanks for the welcome, Cambo. It's great to e a part of Kevin's Watch!
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"People die, but death is not defeat."Otacon quoting Hemingway

Rigel · Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 3:21 am Post subject:

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.

Spoiler:

The second is rather premoniscient of Nick and Morn, as well.

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CovenantJr · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 3:49 am Post subject:

Rigel · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 4:17 am Post subject:

Avatar · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 5:56 am Post subject:

CJ! There you are. Very Happy

Yeah, Morn sorta grated on me quite a lot too. Maybe SRD overdid her "fragility" just a touch.

--A
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