Lee Hunts

I just finished reading Chaos and Order, which is the fourth entry in the Gap Cycle by Stephen R. Donaldson. From the outset, I can say that this is probably my favorite book in the series so far, which is what I thought about each of the last entries. In other words, this is exactly what you want from a series. There might be some problems, but they aren't too crazy. Overall (No Spoilers) Much of what I enjoyed in this entry was much in line with what I talked about in the last review. The picture of the political landscape was made clearer in that last entry after the incremental buildup of the first two, and the story in this one is more or less a continuation of the third entry. As such, much of what I said in the last entries non-spoiler section could be placed here. This story more or less carries the story along in an immensely competent manner. The characters are also fascinating, as ever. As we saw Holt's character up close last time in the very beginning of the entry,...

Lee Hunts DESTROYS Carroll Wainwright! WRECKED!!! The Unbearable Heaviness of Being: or, Life Reviled is a self-published book that was released in the last few months. While it is a narrative, the story is moreso a frame for talking about anti-natalism, which is the philosophical position supposed by the author. I have a smaller review of the book itself posted on Goodreads; I will link to the review in the description. In this post, I plan on actually addressing the philosophy itself, as I found the discussion to be rather fascinating. While I am arguing against a very pessimistic philosophy, this should not imply that I am an optimist in my own philosophy. I am an optimist in my personal life, which is what matters, haha—but I am pessimistic about reality and human nature and morality in my own ways. Carrol Wainwright seems to recognize a contradiction between life itself and morality. He has chosen morality and thus rejected life. I technically took the precise opposite approach. I...

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 Forbidden Knowledge by Stephen R. Donaldson. This is the second entry in The Gap Cycle, which is a five book science fiction series that was written back in the nineties. With this book, the series is starting to inflate into something expansive and engrossing on an epic scale. I really enjoyed the first entry of this series, The Real Story; particularly the horrifying elements and the deeper questions about the nature of control and the human capacity for depravity. This entry continues those questions, carrying trains of thought along related tracks. But alongside this, the story expands to bring in the political intrigue and the worldbuilding elements that weren't mentioned but hinted at in the first entry. Apparently, the epic aspect of the story only grows further from here. While that is amazing and has me excited for the rest of the story, I also found myself rather captured by the subtleties that were evident in this story. Every action seems to matt...