Having read (recently) the Gap Series (back-to-back) and the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (in school, about 100 years ago), I was looking forward to diving into this series, “The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant”.
Mr. Donaldson’s world building is complex. And though he includes what I wish every author would include (a “What Has Come Before” section before each of his books) it was difficult to pick up the story, even though this is the first book in a new series. Thus, this post will be longer than usual, notes for when I read the next three books in this (planned) four book series.
In this book, Dr. Linden Avery is the main character. She is running a mental institute which was started via funding from locals who recognized the tragedy from the earlier books (people sticking their hands into fire to summon Lord Foul the Despiser) and the lack of a facility in the area to treat such folks. Joan, Thomas Covenant’s estranged wife, is a patient in the facility. Linden has also adopted Jeremiah, one of the children from the tragedy who cannot communicate, and has one hand maimed from the fire similar to Covenant’s ‘half-hand’. (more…)
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Reading a complete series from cover to cover in consecutive sittings (i.e., without many books in between) is a rarity for me…either the series doesn’t hold my attention, the series is incomplete (i.e., I’d read George R. R. Martin’s Ice and Fire series straight through if they were all written and published) or something else gets in the way.
I read the five book Gap Cycle by Stephen R. Donaldson almost straight through, and truly enjoyed the series. The five books are:
- The Real Story
- Forbidden Knowledge
- A Dark and Hungry God Arises
- Chaos and Order
- This Day All Gods Die
(more…)
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Fifth and final book in the Gap Series
This concluding book brings all the players in the saga together on or around Earth, where the political and personal manipulations conclude in individual and mass space battles. The ending (spoilers below) is satisfying without being Disney-esque.
At the end of book 4, Morn and company aboard Trumpet had escaped the Amnion defensive battle cruiser Calm Horizons, the mercenary Free Lunch and Sorus by launching a singularity grenade (re: black hole in a box) that Angus detonated while attached to the outside of Trumpet. The black hole sucked Free Lunch into it. Soar (captained by Sorus) turned against the Amnion and Calm Horizons destroyed them (after Sorus had already shot and killed Nick, one of our main three players on Trumpet). The UMCP cruiser Punisher was also fighting Calm Horizons (whose incursion into human space was an act of war), but broke off to chase the fleeing Trumpet.
On Earth, Warden Dios was continuing his subversion of Holt Fasner, CEO of the UMC (and basically ruler of the world) through the GCES (Governing Council of Earth and Space). (more…)
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Book 4 of The Gap Cycle
In every space opera series, there must be action;
there must be space battles; there must be high drama and adventure.
As far as Stephen R. Donaldson’s Gap Series goes, this, the fourth book in the series, is the one that gets the space warfare cranked up. He levels up the weapons, the obstacles, the treachery and the number of opponents deftly and with great reading pace.
The ship Trumpet has come to an illegal lab, set to make the anti-mutagen that the galactic police (UMCP) have had but have suppressed from the rest of humanity for so long, keeping the alien threat of the Amnion alive for profit. But Morn Hyland, Angus Thermopyle and Nick Succorso, and the others on board are stalked by many ships and factions: (more…)
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Book 3 of The Gap Cycle
The classification of “space opera”can be interpreted in many ways:
- a soap opera in space;
- large-scale adventures in space whose outcome is global (or space wide) in affect;
- from Wiki, “a subgenre of speculative fiction or science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing powerful (and sometimes quite fanciful) technologies and abilities.”
The Gap Cycle fits all of these definitions, with book three, A Dark and Hungry God Arises, expanding the players, the scope and the level of impact of the possible outcomes. (more…)
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Book 2 of The Gap Cycle
Forbidden Knowledge is the second book in Stephen R. Donaldson’s The Gap Cycle (the 
Gap referring to faster-than-light drives jumping the gap). As promised in Donaldson’s author’s note in the first volume (The Real Story) it is radically different than the first novel, and an excellent read (as the first one was as well).
The first novel was little to no science fiction, almost completely interaction between three flawed humans who just happen to be in space, from the point of view of one of them, space pirate and all-around nasty man Angus Thermopyle.
This second novel still revolves around the same trio, but displays how they are flawed personality-wise and modified by technology. An alien species not discussed in the first novel plays a large role, as do several pieces of tech documented in the book by “Ancillary Documentation” interlude chapters. (more…)
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Book 1 of The Gap Cycle
I thoroughly enjoyed The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (and the Second Chronicles as 
well) by Mr. Donaldson, about Thomas Covenant, leper and unbeliever. I’d pick up this book, the first book in a new series about a decade ago, and made a couple of attempts to read it. But it didn’t strike me much as science fiction or fantasy, or much of anything.
I happened to read my friend JP from SF Signal’s article on Space Opera series that he enjoyed, and The Gap series was on the list, with the suggestion that “If you thought the first book was too cliched and simple to read, then you probably missed out on one of the most challenging rewarding space operas out there.”
The first book is indeed cliched and simple, but it sets up a triangle of characters that the reader wants to know more about. And Mr. Donaldson’s “Afterword”, where he talks about his motivations for the book and compares it to Wagner’s “Ring” opera classic is in and of itself worth the time reading the book. (more…)
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