Subject: A DARK AND HUNGRY GOD ARISES by Stephen Donaldson

From: [email-masked] (Peter Hunt)
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1993 15:11:07 GMT

A Review of Stephen Donaldson's
		The Gap Into Power: A Dark and Hungry God Arises
			(c) 1993	Peter Hunt

	This book is the third and most recent volume in Donaldson's new
Gap series. I found the book to be every bit as good as its predecessors; for
myself, this means I thought it was excellent. For others who have not liked
the Gap series so far, this episode will most likely not change your minds.

	This series is Donaldson's first in an SF setting, rather than
the fantasy setting of the Covenant trilogies and the Mordant's Need series.
It's also a departure from Donaldson's traditional style; the prose is more
abrupt and immediate. The long, flowing descriptions have been replaced with
short, punchy, matter-of-fact statements. The characters themselves are
unlikable for the most part, and have psychological aberrations which are
extreme, even by Donaldson's standards.

	Many of the events of A Dark and Hungry God Arises take place on
Thanatos Minor, where Angus Thermopyle, Morn Hyland, her son Davies, and
Nick Succurso converge to settle scores and carry out plans. There they
have to deal with the Amnion, who will threaten their humanity, and the
Bill, who controls the bootleg shipyard of Billingate. Deals are struck
and alliances made, but the story is really about the characters and their
changing relationships. The characters' actions are nothing unless you
understand their motives, and to understand THOSE you have to understand
what they believe to be their enemies' motives.

	This leads to a book full of characters trying to figure out
each others' intentions, and trying to manipulate each other with what
power they have. It's definitely more a book of intrigue than of action,
but the intrigue is so, well, intriguing, that you hardly notice the pages
turning.

	Having said that, I should add that this IS a book of revelations.
The previous book, Forbidden Knowledge, tended to raise two questions for
every one it answered. A Dark and Hungry God Arises does reveal a lot
about the major characters, and I felt I knew more about what was really going
on than I did while reading Forbidden Knowledge.

	I do have two criticisms of the book, and they both have to do with
plot. Firstly, there are discrepancies between how A Dark and Hungry God Arises
refers to past events, and how previous books have described them. Some are
discrepancies in the ordering of events, and some are discrepancies in their
detail. Unfortunately, a couple of these were blindingly apparent.
Secondly, the pacing of events was too sporadic. For four-fifths of the
book, Donaldson concentrated on the characters motives and perceptions of
each other, and events moved slowly. The final fifth of the book was a
rollercoaster ride of action. It made for an exciting finish, but the change
was too sudden, and the events' effects on the characters weren't explored
in any detail. I knew that Donaldson had picked up the pace for the sake of
a big finish, and it worked, but it left me feeling he'd neglected his
characters.

	But these are nit-picks. The latest volume of the Gap series
is no let-down. It develops the story and the characters nicely, and while
Donaldson's style has changed, his standard of writing has not. There are
some threads left hanging, but enough is resolved for the reader to turn
the final page feeling satisfaction rather than regret or frustration.

	The next book in the series is entitled The Gap Into Madness:
Chaos and Order.

%T The Gap Into Power: A Dark and Hungry God Arises
%A Stephen R. Donaldson
%D 1992
%I HarperCollins Publishers, Hardback
%O $A25.00
%P 477pp

--
+---------------------------+------------------------------------------------+
| Peter Hunt                | I'm digging in the dirt,                       |
| Networks and Comms (Aust) | to find the places I got hurt,                 |
| Digital Equipment Corp.   | to open up the places I got hurt.              |
+---------------------------+--------- Peter Gabriel, "Digging in the Dirt" -+