Rating: 
Summary: Questionable start to a fantastic sci-fi series.
Review: There isn't so much to tell about this first book of Donaldon's Gap series. It's neither bad, nor spectacular, and I wouldnt be suprised if quite some readers would be deterred by 'The Real Story' from reading more novels of this series. But, dont be too badly surprised, and just consider this book as an extended prologue to the great sci-fi epic coming up in the next four books.'The Real Story' itself is about Ensign Morn Hyland, who is captured by the pirate space captain Angus Thermopyle after her space ship got destroyed by the raider. Angus not only forces Morn to crew for him, he also succeeds in putting some kind of mind control on her, which he exploits at a very disturing rate. At this point, readers who are more familiar with Donaldson's works might see parallels to other heroines of Donaldson (i.e. Lena in Lord Foul's bane), and is it just me, or does he have a warped approach to female willingness for sacrifice, or what? Anyhow, when Morn finally sees a chance to get herself rid of Angus, she teams up with swashbuckling space captain Nick Succorso and together they plot to bring Angus down. Basically, 'The Real Story' just serves as introduction of these three leading characters and to link them together. As the series progresses and the stories behind the curtains unfold, much more details about the main characters on one side, and the forces behind the scene on the other side are revealed. With each book, Donaldson's plot becomes more spectacular and complicated, and his style of narration is grim and pretty much in your face, but whatever you say of Donaldson, geeze, he knows how to bring his books (and his series) to some breathtaking culmination. 'The Real Story' just isnt one of those books - rather some prelude to some epic of a much wider scale.
Rating: 
Summary: Start of a Good series
Review: One way to distinguish between good and bad authors is to examine the breadth of their career. Lesser authors often do one thing and then repeat themselves endlessly. Truly great authors take on a variety of projects, challenging themselves by seeking out new stories. Like most people, I was first introduced to Stephen R. Donaldson by the first Thomas Covenant trilogy, and I sort of expected "The Real Story" to be something similar only this time in a science fiction setting. Was I ever proven wrong. This little novel is a completely different animal, one that tackles different issues than the Thomas Covenant books and uses different strategies. The story takes place at some point in the future in DelSec, a region of space where police hired by the United Mining Company exercise only limited control. The events described on the jacket cover all take place within the first few pages; the majority of the book is spent returning and going over those events once again from the perspective of one character, thus letting us actually understand motivations and details. One notable aspect of the story is the incredibly fast pacing, with at least one new twist arriving every ten pages. In contrast to the Covenant series, "The Real Story" uses direct and unsophisticated language, quite appropriate for the direct and intense emotions that dominate the story. Character, of course, is at the heart of any great novel. Friends have complained that they can't understand the behavior of Donaldson's characters, and the above Publisher's Weekly review insists that they act irrationally. They're right. Real human beings, needless to say, are irrational and frequently difficult to understand. Donaldson has obviously studied our species carefully, and noted the ways in which guilt and fear play out inside people's heads. There are occasions in "The Real Story" where characters act counterintuitively, just as in real life, but there's always an explanation for it if you look carefully enough. I cannot crown "The Real Story" as the greatest science fiction novel of all time. It has some odd lapses in common sense. For instance, one character sneaks into an enemy spaceship from the outside. Has this futuristic society somehow forgotten the concept of locked doors? More significantly, it fails to build up that amazing force that you find at the endings of each book in the Covenant trilogy, and it isn't as compulsively readable. However, I can still recommend this book highly, and praise the authors for trying his hardest to break free from conventions in a world where cliché and formula often rule the day.
Rating: 
Summary: S&M Fantasy as Space Opera
Review: This series is a straightforward space opera (interplanetary traders, pirates, space police, icky aliens) with a nod to high opera--Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen cycle, to be precise. Unfortunately, Donaldson, whose writing sparkles here as it has in his other books (particularly the first Thomas Covenant series) has latched on to a genre that is stale and leavens it with touches that are creepy at best and at work downright unpleasant.
This volume (which is the best in the series) follows the misadventures of a young space cadet named Morn Hyland. She's a junior pilot on a huge family-owned freighter. When her ship comes out of 'the Gap' (read warp/lightspeed/whatever), everyone on the ship but her is killed. A pirate/scavenger named Angus Thermopyle, a sleeze-ball of the first order, take her aboard, has his way with her, and is eventually arrested when he pulls in to a space station for repairs. That's the "Real Story".... or is it? Donaldson plays a Rashomon-like game, going back and retelling the story in greater depth, more close to the character's point of view, revealing that what really happened may have been something quite different. We get to watch Morn raped and degraded. And Morn raped and degraded. And Morn raped and degraded. Angus displays all sorts of neurotic soul, so we're supposed to come to sympathise with him--that we almost do is a tribute to Donaldson's writing skills, which is why I even give The Real Story 2 stars--but the fact of the matter is that this is a book about abusing a woman who never appears as more than a victim or a cypher. I read, somewhere, that Donaldson wrote this series during and immediately following his divorce. If so, I feel his pain, but I really would rather that I hadn't read the book. I went on to read the rest of the series, waiting for some kind of redemption, but aside from the fun of identifying characters from the Ring cycle in various spacers and magnates, it's more scenes of Morn being raped and degraded, literally or figuratively.
As science fiction, it's stale; as softcore S&M porn (a genre I must admit to being much less well read in) it's flat. For either, go elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Listen to the good reviews...
Review: most of them admit that this is a slow, but necessary, start to a brilliant series. Yes, the book is harsh. Yes, it includes abominable rape scenes, low cruelty and brutality. It also sets up the principle players for one of the greatest science fiction series of all time. Most of the people who can't get past the brutality or relative simplicity of this book freely admit that they have not gone on to read the rest of the series. It is the rest of the series that redeems the necessary evils of this book. The last 4 books in this series weave a startling tapestry of human struggle and grim determination in the face of staggering odds. Nobody in this series can afford to cast stones at any other, and all of the hands have blood on them. Again, if you are looking for an idyllic future or a perfect white Knight to save the day, this series is not for you. If you want a hard, cold beautiful story about and an ugly world with flawed human characters, then you've come to the right place. I also agree with on of the other reviewers here, if you've read the whole series and read the Real Story again, you'll be surprised at how different it looks.
Rating: 
Summary: Donaldson does what he does best
Review: This is the beginning of a new series by Donaldson, and without the draggy feel of Thomas Covenant. It has a good, solid science fiction feel to it (not fantasy passing itself off as SF as is so common these days). Donaldson focuses on the dark characters and inner turmoils of (mentally) damaged people (and they're all damaged in some way). Well done, this feels like the beginning of a great new series.
Rating:
Summary: Buy, and read the whole series
Review: I have never encountered a more repulsive set of characters than those within the pages of this series, but the books are impossible to put down. The "Gap" series and the "Mirror" dualogy are some of my favorites, ever! It has been a few years since I read them but I don't recall being put off by the first book at all. I bought them all as soon as they were published. A great read - twisted (what else would you expect), surprising and original. Donaldson is tops!
Rating:
Summary: For God's sake don't be put off by the first one!
Review: Consider "The Real Story" rather like Tolkien's "The Hobbit", in that it acts as a prequel and a scene-setting for one of the most spectacular tales ever told, but isn't half as good as that other tale. It is a not-very-good prequel, a poor synopsis to what ends up as a series which, I profoundly hope, has as intense an impact on you as it has on me. As a tale "The Real Story" is - by its author's implied admission - rather [bad.] It is a (failed) attempt at a classic three-sided story in which a pirate, a victim and a rescuer (Morn Hyland, Nick Succorso and Angus Thermopyle) all change roles, in a sci-fi setting. The "real story" is the process of their changing roles. The frequenters at a bar in a spaceport are rather disturbed - not to say intrigued - when the most disreputable and ugly man in Delta Sector comes in with a beautiful woman on his arm. A beautiful woman whose obvious repulsion to his touch and loathing of his person makes her attachment to him even more incomprehensible. Nick Succorso is the diametric opposite of Angus - a swashbuckler with a beautiful ship and a large crew, who doesn't have to steal women from the wreckage of starships because they throw themselves at him from every direction anyway. He apparently steals the woman, Morn, from Angus. To those in Mallorys in Delta Sector the story is simple enough. But from a plot perspective the *real* story is about how Morn kills her family and destroys her ship thanks to "gap sickness", is taken from the wreckage of her ship by Angus, who implants a electrode in her brain to make her do what she wants, sexually abusing her in every horrible way he can think up. Morn is the victim, but rapidly she turns into Angus' rescuer as the cops close in and he is framed for a crime he didn't commit. You may - indeed probably will - find this book distasteful, unpleasant, and poorly structured. Even the author will, I think, admit this is the case. My pleading advice is to buy the second book in the story - Forbidden Knowledge. As stated, the first book is a poor prequel, a brief synopsis, to four books which amount to the most intense and - to my mind - *best* space epic ever told. The Pre- and Afterwords by the author act as apologies for the fact that the first story is so poor, and a heavy hint that the next four are far, far better. They are rather necessary, for the reasons given. Start on the second book in this series. Read it, then the third, fourth and fifth. Be blown away by those four books. *Then* read the first one to supplement your understanding of the rest of the series. It is a rather convoluted way to read a series, but if you start at the first book you will be unimpressed, maybe even offended, and miss out on four books that will significantly alter your life with their quality. I'm certainly glad I began at the second and did it in the order I did, otherwise boy would I have missed out. I'm on my third read of the series now.
Rating:
Summary: For God's sake don't be put off by the first one!
Review: Consider "The Real Story" rather like Tolkien's "The Hobbit", in the respect that it acts as a prequel and a scene-setting for one of the most spectacular tales ever told, but isn't half as good as that other, Fantasy tale. It is a not-very-good prequel, a poor synopsis to what ends up as a series which, I profoundly hope, has as intense an impact on you as it has on me. As a tale "The Real Story" is - by its author's implied admission - rather [junk]. It is an (failed) attempt at a classic three-sided story in which a pirate, a victim and a rescuer (Morn Hyland, Nick Succorso and Angus Thermopyle) all change roles, in a sci-fi setting. The "real story" is the process of their changing roles. The frequenters of a bar in a spaceport are rather disturbed - not to say intrigued - when the most disreputable and ugly man in Delta Sector comes in with a beautiful woman on his arm. A beautiful woman whose obvious repulsion to his touch and loathing of his person makes her attachment to him even more incomprehensible. Nick Succorso is the diametric opposite of Angus - a swashbuckler with a beautiful ship and a large crew, who doesn't have to steal women from the wreckage of starships because they throw themselves at him from every direction anyway. He apparently steals the woman, Morn, from the pirate, Angus. To those in Mallorys in Delta Sector the story is simple enough. But from a plot perspective the *real* story is about how Morn kills her family and destroys her ship thanks to "gap sickness", is taken from the wreckage of her ship by Angus, who implants a electrode in her brain to make her do what she wants, sexually abusing her in every disgusting way imaginable. Morn is the victim, but rapidly she turns into Angus' rescuer as the cops close in and he is framed for a crime he didn't commit. You may - indeed probably will - find this book distasteful, unpleasant, and poorly structured. Even the author will, I think, admit this is the case. My pleading advice is to buy the second book in the story - Forbidden Knowledge. As stated, the first book is a poor prequel, a brief synopsis, to four books which amount to the most intense and - to my mind - *best* space epic ever told. The Pre- and Afterwords by the author act as apologies for the fact that the first story is so poor, and a heavy hint that the next four are far, far better. They are rather necessary, for the reasons given. Start on the second book in this series. Read it, then the third, fourth and fifth. Be blown away by those four books. *Then* read the first one to supplement your understanding of the rest of the series. It is a rather convoluted way to read a series, but if you start at the first book you will be unimpressed, maybe even offended, and miss out on four books that will significantly alter your life with their quality. I'm certainly glad I began at the second and did it in the order I did, otherwise boy would I have missed out. I'm on my third read of the series now.
Rating: 
Summary: Awful
Review: Having a great deal of respect for the craft I do not say the following lightly: This was perhaps the worst book I have ever read. The story was done at page 42. Ah, but we had to get the 'real story' right? So Mr. Donaldson decides to expand the story another 200 pages with details of rape and anger. There is no hero in this story, no one to root for. The story is told almost entirely in exposition, the few attempts at internalization were laughable. So Angus is angry, so what? The action sequences are ludicrous. I found myself hoping the characters would blow each other up so I wouldn't have to hear about them anymore. The story as a whole reads like a synopsis that had never gotten around to be written properly. I read this book hoping to find something that would pull me into the sci-fi genre. It failed. If you want to see how brilliant the written word can be check out George R.R. Martin's "A Game of Thrones".
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Series following a Real BAD Story!
Review: The first time that I read 'The Real Story' was the last time I
would ever read it. It disgusted me so much that I almost never
picked up the second book in the 'Gap Series'. What a great
mistake that would have been. Anyone who loves the
'ThomasCovenant' series will love this epic as well. I am presently reading the series now for a third time. I just
start with book # 2 'Forbidden Knowledge'. The four other
novels in this series are 'CLASSIC' Donaldson! For the
NOT faint of heart, I would advise a single reading of this
book. It sets the story line so that you can effectively
follow the remainder of the story. It is possible to
enjoy this series without ever reading this one book.
Just don't miss the last four books! You
will miss reading a Donaldson epic that will make you late for
work because you couldn't put it down.
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