Quote:
Originally Posted by ZodWallop
The first book is really just a novella. It's just that it is brutal and dark. I had the same issue with the first book in Piers Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant. In that case, I never did finish the series. Maybe I should?
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Anthony's Tyrant series continues to be quite explicit, but does get better (less pounding the reader over the head with points they've already worked out). It actually gets reasonably clever in some parts, but it never achieves the power of Donaldson's work.
There is a purpose to the first book in Donaldson's Gap series, it sets up the relationships of the various appallingly flawed characters in a way that drives the rest of the story (I tend to think of this series as a single book, and the first book as just the prelude). I agree with DiapDealer, that The Gap series is probably Donaldson's best work.