Lee Hunts

I just finished reading A Dark and Hungry God Arises, by Stephen R. Donaldson. This is the third book in the Gap Cycle, a dark SciFi series set in the wake of humanity spreading out into the void beyond. The series started out small, and is progressively scaling up the complexity. The second book took that first step, keeping the focus tight, while introducing some of the players pulling strings in the background. This third entry has taken yet another step, introducing yet more players and more plot from this higher end of the story. Even still, the focus of the main story line with all the main characters from the original entries has not been lost. Donaldson has proved his ability to balance the higher level complexity with a smaller scale story that keeps the reader focused on a personal level. Overall (No Spoilers) The book opens in the perfect way. The master string puller, the Dragon, the man who basically controls the whole of space, is introduced for the first time—and in the ...

I just finished reading The Real Story by Stephen R. Donaldson. This is the first entry in The Gap Cycle, which is a five book science fiction series that apparently expands massively in the next volume. As I implied, this story is smaller and rather simple. It involves three main characters: Angus Thermopyle, Morn Hyland, and Nick Succorso. Most of the focus is on Angus, however, as this nasty and even monstrous man shows up at a bar with Morn at his side. This draws attention from almost everyone, but especially Nick Succorso. And theories naturally come along, with events seeming to unfold in a particular way. But that is apparently not the real story. What follows is quite literally the real story, outlining the events as they actually occurred. No Spoilers The Prose The first thing that stood out to me in this story was the prose. In particular, the perspective that Donaldson used was fascinating and worth mentioning. The beginning of the book opens with what I ended up calling ...