Customer Reviews

This Day All Gods Die (The Gap Into Ruin)

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I feel this series is truly one of the best I have ever read, and the most overlooked by serious science fiction readers. Those who were looking for the Thomas Covenant series would not find it here. I admit, I thought The Real Story was not as strong of a start as it could have been, but in my opinion each book was better than the last, and this climax is truly one of the most incredible books I have read. The characters have depth and expression provided by the contrasts between their flaws and their strengths -- and the complexity of the tale weaving through the books pulls together well. The beauty of the tale is summed up by Warden Dios -- he did not choose Morn because of who she was, but merely because she was conveniently at hand -- but she and the rest of everyone he put his trust in transcended him.

I have read this series many, many times over and am always awed when I come to this last book.

This volume caps Donaldson's amazing Gap series. Those familiar with my reviews know that I don't lightly describe something as amazing. This is easily the most captivating SF series I have read in years, and unlike many series, it does not peter out or become predictable in later volumes.

As you would expect of Donaldson's work, the real story is about the characters and their flaws and struggles -- he takes us deep into the well developed personalities of each major character, and how they persevere, or fail, despite their weaknesses.

The series is pretty cleanly wrapped up in this volume, with few unanswered questions left at the end. If you've come this far in the series, of course you want to read this one too!

When I started reading the series, I was wary. Various people warned me of the brutality I would encounter. Thus, I read out of curiosity. After finishing book one, I decided that I had encountered neither the brutality nor the intricate characters or plot I had expected.

However, I plowed forward. As the books went on, the characters gained depth, the plot twisted and grew more precarious, and I started taking sides.

By the time I reached this final book of the saga, I was fully hooked, and rightly so. Donaldson ties it all together in the final volume. The intrigue unwinds with a domino effect and plays itself out quite nicely. Further, although many plots and subplots reach fruition, he does not insult the reader by leaving us with a happy world with carefree characters. This is as it should be - a series about a period in time, not a novel claiming to encompass all relavant times.

I would recommend that readers not stop with the first book of the series, or even the second. Keep reading and you will understand the politics at work, which makes this final book all the more satisfying.

Donaldson certainly set a challenge for himself. The Gap series is one of the major achievements of speculative fiction, and the second, third and fourth books would easily make any list of the ten best science fiction novels of all time. In the fifth book, then, Donaldson somehow had to top the intensity of excitement of the previous volumes, while keeping everything coherent and logically consistent.

The first big plot twist is that the Amnion defensive Calm Horzions takes a turn for Earth. Armed with super-light proton cannon, it could easily blast most of the planet. Having the bulk of the human race as hostages, the Amnion are in a strong position to negotiate, but their first demand takes everybody completely by surprise. Meanwhile the other event that readers have been waiting for, the showdown between Holt Fasner and the civil government, unfolds slowly but surely at Suka Bator. The tension surrounding both plotlines rises steadily throughout the book, reaching a spectacular dual climax at the end. The conclusion will satisfy any fan of the series, in addition to retroactively explaining the mysterious events from earlier in the series.

The problem, as you might guess just by looking at the book, is wordiness. There are some points where we seem to be getting two paragraphs of psychological analysis for every one paragraph of action. This makes the book thick, nearly seven hundred pages, but it's only a minor distraction from the good stuff at the end.

You won't be buying this book, most likely, unless you've read the previous books in the series. If you haven't read the first books, read them! This is a great sci-fi series, featuring Donaldson's unique writing style and many strong characters. Anyone who enjoys fiction will enjoy this series.

Stephen Donaldson infuses his fiction with the ideas and import of great art and philosophy of the past. The Thomas Covenant Chronicles is largely a Biblical allegory. The Mordant's Need series has its roots in King Lear. The Gap series, as Donaldson points out in the afterword to the first of five volumes, is a functional allegory to Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (the Ring of the Nibelungen), a cycle of four operas based in the Norse and Teutonic mythologies that also gave considerable inspiration to Tolkien. Though the novels function more than adequately without a working knowledge of the Ring, the power and intricacy of Donaldson's plotting and structure is all the more powerful when the allegory is understood. Some of the reviews below confuse me in the points they find to be unpleasant -- predictability, etc. There seems to be a general consternation in the fact that "the good guys win." Yet, as far as I can remember, they do so in Tolkien, earlier Donaldson, Brooks, Eddings, and every other fantasy series, science fiction movie and "genre" entertainment that I've ever run across. What needs to be remembered here is Donaldson's ability to structure and create is absolutely virtuosic. The first novel was originally conceived as a stand-alone short story and it remains the weakest of the five. It is unbearably brutal, harsh, and a character study, as his afterwords points out, in changing the roles of victim, persecutor and rescuer among the three characters. In its closed goal, it's still hard to read, but nonetheless succeeds in changing Morn Hyland from victim to rescuer, Angus Thermopylae from persecutor to victim, and Nick Succorso from rescuer to persecutor within a particualr context. Donaldson's idea of expansion into the Ring allegory took the story on different dimensions, and it is fascinating to see his science-fiction translations of the mythical story of the Ring. Granted, sometimes Donaldson became a little playful with what he was doing. In Wagner, the two giants Fasolt and Fafner fight over the ability to control the Ring; Fafner kills Fasolt, flees to the woods with the treasure and turns into a dragon. Donaldson's representative character is known as the Dragon and named Holt Fasner -- Fasner beign a combination of Fasolt and Fafner. It's not so much an in-joke as it is a "bonus" to the reader who knows the source material. However, the series as a whole is a brilliant, brilliant story. It serves the Ring by reiterating that its themes really are universal, and have meaning well beyond any Wagner intended. It serves science fiction by being an intense character drama, wedged in among political and xenophobic tensions. Too much science fiction is motivated off laser battles and implausible technologies. Donaldson's writing in the same manner that Wagner did. The reality of the presentation is separate from the message and the drama. Gods and myths were no more real to Wagner's audience than spaceships and Gap drives are to us. But the drama that unfolds around them has had relevance and resonance to millions of hearers, and Donaldson's story (of course the good guys win! It's a story about the recreation of humanity in a better image -- it would be *much* too dark for them to fail)no less so to its attentive readers.

There is no doubt that the Gap Series it the best stuff that Donaldson has ever wrote. The characters are complex, the plot is even more so; little things that seem to be only meticulous details at first become important and the story unfolds. Though one has to admit: the ending is not really satisfying...the Dragon gets obliterated, and the good guys win. But the best part of the series is also embedded in this somewhat unsatisfying ending. The central characters, Morn, Angus and Warden Dios, are neither good nor bad guys. Is Warden Dios' compromising just so he could bring the Dragon down good? Could he have done something else that would have had the same effect without all the bloodshed? Is Angus worth pitying for the crimes commited against his soul, given all the things he as done? Therein lies the best part of the series: the ambiguity of Donaldson's characters. Warden Dios reminds me somewhat of King Joyse in Mordant's Need. When a book continues to make you think long after the book itself has been put to collect dust on your bookshelf, then that is truly a good book.

A superb ending to an excellent series. The Gap Cycle has "super-light proton cannon"-ed its way into the class of the greatest science-fiction works of all time. Of special satisfaction is that Holt's fate is left to the imagination of the reader and not spelled out. So is Angus'. Some thing are better left unsaid. I can truly say that saving the world was never quite so difficult, though. Like Morn, we can now all heal, but watch out--the Amnion are *still* out there. Did you notice how sympathetic you were to Angus in this novel, in spite of his crimes? If Hashi though Warden was a genius, he should meet Mr. Donaldson.

Good series. I only give it 4 stars because it was "un-putdownable", as Stephen King would have said. Only series 1 of Thomas Covenant deserves 5. Character development is extensive if not overdone. Would have traded Davies, Hashi, and Ciro for more Min Donner and Vector Shaheed. Donaldson could have told this story well in 2-3 installments if he didn't spend so much time rehashing and ruminating his characters. Donaldson's stories have a way of sticking with you for a long time and this one will most likely do that also.

I cannot believe anyone gave this series a bad review... it is not hack, slash, bang 'em up... this series has depth and plot... It is seldom a good writer will make such a maggot of a character the unfortunate hero (Angus Thermopyle) while actually being played as a pawn, by the big guys... Honestly, this is a good series... Read it and judge for yourself.