The Gap into Madness: Chaos and Order

Ah, Captain Sheepfucker, goodbye. Not sorry to see you go. I don't think I've ever been so happy to see a character croak.

The space battles in this book were some of the best I've ever read - And that includes Martin's SOIAF fantasy battles. The back and forth between Punisher and Calm Horizons, bringing in Soar and Free Lunch, then the freaking Singularity event.

I was having a mini-heart event reading it.

I'm going to go through withdrawal when I finish reading the next book.

Probably the weakest book of the series, the motivations are slightly spurious and the science decidedly so. However the drama is perhaps all the more intense to counteract that. It's proper spaceship battle time.

Morn and crew have fled to an illegal lab deep within an asteroid belt in order to release the formula for the anti-mutagen that's been denied to the rest of humanity. From the wreckage of Thanotos Minor they're trailed a few ships after them: the police are there, with Min Donner in person, and also covertly in an unknown secret operative, in addition the Amnion have sent two ships: their largest warship and a human vassal, coincidentally a long time enemy for different reasons of both Nick, and, Morn and Davis. Their desires show more remain unfulfilled (as urgent a drive as they possess) because Angus' enhanced abilities (and diminished volition) have denied them yet again. They are prepared to gamble valuable material in order to seek restitution. Meanwhile the humans are profligate with material, but equally frugal with lives (and an individual's volition) that they can control, and so another theme is revealed.

By the dramatic conclusion you as a reader realise this was a far more complex and convoluted story, planned way in advance than you'd been expecting, strands coalesce, motivations become revealed and the intensity of personal actions triumph over some unlikely adversities. Nothing remains but to dive into the last volume and find out how it all plays out. Ensure you've got several free days to enjoy and marvel in the final volume. show less

I had not read the previous installments, so this was a bit of a struggle to get into at first- a lot of characters and threads. But finally I started to grasp it all and what a ride! Full of treachery, betrayal, plot twists, good guy bad guy and everything in between. Great action novel.

Here we go. With the fourth book in the Gap series Donaldson seems to have finally gotten whatever it was that was bothering him off his chest. This book is classic space opera through and through. He complicates some of the characters that seemed overly simple in previous books, and begins to give a more satisfying background to the aliens. I'm glad he was able to salvage this series.

This was disturbingly graphic in it's violence. Even so, I could not put the book or the others in the series down. I had to finish, I had to know...
...I will read it again too.

Murder, mystery, metaphysics, psychology. A sci-fi re-take on Wagner's Ring Cycle. This series is long, dark, absorbing read. Better read together and in order than as individual books, as the many-threaded plot winds through the whole series.