This final volume in the The Gap Quintet finally draws this extended series to a close. I'd summarize the quality of the series by saying it has a very weak start in The Real Story, manages to get on its feet in Forbidden Knowledge, provides some exciting rides in A Dark and Hungry God Arises and Chaos and Order, before coming to a very predictable ending in this volume.

The series was too long by about 40% of its text. Most of that extra text was constant re-summarization of what had happened before, repeats of character analyses, and what one friend described as scenery-bashing. Characters have just a touch of the cardboard in their makeup, substituting emoting, angst and a good wallow in self-loathing for depth of character. A character like Nick just doesn't convey a sense of reality to me. The only exception was Angus...easily the most enjoyable (though not likable!) person in all five books.

Donaldson does manage to convey the grand scale of events in this story. There is something that feels a bit epic about the whole thing. The writing is readable—consistent with what I’ve found in his other works. The only exception I can think of are the horribly trite and overblown speeches made by the government at the end; even politicians don’t speak like that.

I would have liked to have seen (along with a page reduction) just a little bit of tension, just a dash of something not turning out in the predictable way. Along the way of this story we have clashes of civilizations, war, political machinations, betrayals, piracy and a lot of action—unfortunately, you realize after a while that you can call the results without a crystal ball.

If you enjoy galactic-scale science fiction and read a lot of it, you might want to try this series. If you pick and choose, I don't think this is a first-class example. ( )

Non-stopable action all the way. Violent in part, brilliant as it was compelling from the very first novel. ( )

Solid wrap-up to the series, although it peaked in the middle. ( )

Warden's machinations really need to work.

On board ship, Angus is injured, Morn has to try and hold things together, complete with another couple of characters to add to the mix, and being this series, it is guaranteed some of them can't be trusted.

Throw in some more space police to help out, and a confrontion with the aliens that now cannot be avoided as Dios has manoeuvred all his pieces as best he can.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/12... ( )

Link to a review on my personal website (might be in Swedish). ( )