Gap newbie - reassurance required!

[variol son]

Second to what? Please say This Day All Gods Die. It's my favourite, although I think Chaos and Order has some amazingly strong writing. The scene where Davies confronts Morn still plays in my mind regularly.

[Loremaster]

[stonemaybe]

I've seen this TDAGD written around here and it really was starting to confuse me, and I have twice gone and checked the exact wording of 'A Dark and Hungry God Arises' on my book!

Confusion now resolved!
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Aglithophile and conniptionist and spectacular moonbow beholder 16Jul11

(:/>

[Cagliostro]

Up to that point in my life, I had never read a book on the edge of my seat. This Day All Gods Die was the first and just about the only book ever to do that for me. The beginning of the book just brings it all together. Powerful powerful stuff.
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Life is a waste of time
Time is a waste of life
So get wasted all of the time
And you'll have the time of your life

[CovenantJr]

[Farm Ur-Ted]

[Relayer]

She liked to talk a lot?


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"History is a myth men have agreed upon." - Napoleon

[Peven]

she spit a lot?
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[danlo]

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"The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all previous centuries of it's existence."~Nikola Tesla

[Ghostrider]

Smokers hack and cough. I'm not sure the oral fixation is worth the reward in this case.

Being hacked on seems unpleasant.

[Farm Ur-Ted]

What's so bad about coughing? It helps lubricate the throat..... and other things.
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Roach trotted over to sniff at the gleaming phlegm, then licked it up.

The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson

[Rocksister]

I'm reading the Gap series again after letting it gather dust on my shelves for years. I had read it before, it didn't light my fire, and have re-read the TC books several times in between. But having finished the Chrons again just last week, I had to do something to fill the next 2+ years, so I picked up Gap. I'm still in the first book, not loving it so far. At this point, I want to castrate Angus Thermopyle, but I can see where SRD is developing his character and exploiting AT's weaknesses where Morn is concerned. Right now he's a deviant, but he's starting to have these "feelings" and he gets mad when he has them. I don't remember much about the rest of the books, but I am hoping I'll like them better the second time around. I am a fantasy lover, not much into sci-fi unless I can SEE it on the screen. It's hard to picture technological stuff, but pretty easy to picture a 12 foot tall man. I'm still trying, but it's a struggle for me. Just venting. Thanks everyone.
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Heard my ears aright? Did not the gaddhi grant me this glaive?


One must have strength to judge the weakness of others. I am not so mighty. Lord Mhoram in TIW

[Roynish]

[Loremaster]

[Zarathustra]

As I've said here many times, I think the Gap is Donaldson at his best. Now I'm going to contradict myself and assert that the Chronicles is my favorite Donaldson story (well, at least until the LC started coming out . . . we'll see how that goes). So let me clarify.

The Gap is Donaldson's best writing. Yes, it is difficult and painful. It's not as beautiful, uplifting, and inspiring as the Land. However, as a story (rather than a world) it is simply better crafted, better written. The sheer complexity of all these interacting POVs is astounding. It's not just the number of characters and perspectives, but how these perspectives intersect and interact. Writers like G.R.R.Martin have plenty of characters (sometimes too many). But Martin doesn't utilize the form of multiple POVs to its full potential like Donaldson does here. Donaldson uses the fact that all these people have different versions of "the truth," different perspectives on reality, and they are all misleading and manipulating each other. Martin just uses it to show a larger view of the world. Much of the time, his characters aren't interacting at all. They're on different sides of the continent living out separate lives. They might as well not even be in the same story. But with Donaldson, every character has a direct part to play in the actual main story. Each character is moving it towards one specific end. That's an amazing achievement.

And there's also the level of tension. I've never read such an intense story in my life. The fact that he can maintain this intensity throughout 5 books is almost unbelievable. It's certainly exhausting. There's only one point where I felt it starting to lag: Chaos and Order. But he ended that book with a bang, and then gave us the most satisfying single-volume conclusion any story has ever had. I've said it before, I'll say it again: the final book is one long 500 page climax. It's an astonishing display of writing. I'm truly in awe.

Is that enough reassurance? How's it going Stonemaybe?

My wife is stuck in Chaos and Order right now. Donaldson has broken her heart by Spoiler:

giving Nick Angus's codes,

and she hasn't gotten back into it in a few weeks. That's the low point I was talking about. It got me, too. Very depressing.
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Meaning is created internally by each individual in each specific life: any attempt at *meaning* which relies on some kind of external superstructure (God, Satan, the Creator, the Worm, whatever) for its substance misses the point (I mean the point of my story). -SRD

Remain faithful to the earth, my brothers, with the power of your virtue. Let your gift-giving love and your knowledge serve the meaning of the earth ... Do not let them fly away from earthly things and beat with their wings against eternal walls. Alas, there has always been so much virtue that has flown away. Lead back to the earth the virtue that flew away, as I do–back to the body, back to life, that it may give the earth a meaning, a human meaning. -Nietzsche

[Loremaster]

An excellent post, Malik.
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Books read 2011: Ender's Game, the Fabric of the Cosmos, False Gods, Storm of Steel, Gardens of the Moon, Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Sun, Fall of Damnos, Regeneration, Redemption Ark, A Tale of Two Cities.

[Orlion]

These are books that you have to read all the way through to the end. The reason? For me, I found the entire series engaging throughout the series, but didn't have a very high opinion about it until I finished TDAGD. I can now state that the GAP series is (censored for your virgin eyes) incredible! Though it may not be entirely my favorite sci-fi piece, it ranks up their with Asimov's Foundation trilogy and Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
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'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

[Cleburne]

I have finally purchased the first book in the Gap series and read the first few chapters and now know where Mallory came from. Anyway Ill see how I get on as this is my first sci-fi book. Ill keep you posted
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A lie well told and told often enough,I'm damned if the truth will ever catch up with it!

[Loremaster]

[MsMary]

The Gap series is well worth the read.

There are some characters with some redeeming traits and some who are out and out bastards.

But I have to say I found reading the Gap series akin to torture, and I haven't been able to bring myself to re-read it, yet.
I am sure I will eventually.
I guess that's not too reassuring.

It's a great story, though. Definitely worth your while.
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- I'm always all right.
- Is all right special Time Lord code for really not all right at all?




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