Rating: 
Summary: Worth overcoming reluctance to read
Review: As a fan of Donaldson's fantasy novels I was disappointed when he turned to science fiction, a genre I've not often liked as much. I finally began to miss the guy after almost ten years. This first book was a rough ride considering all the ugliness, but I fell in love with his writing style all over again and persevered to find all the wonders held in the sequels.'The Real Story' is exactly that, stark realism, gritty and in your face. The advantage for the reader is the pleasure of seeing characters who, rising from their latest beating to perform a feat of determination to survive, extraordinary under normal circumstances, are made all the more admirable given these - I hope you follow that! Donaldson absolutely shines at writing himself into and back out of corners when you'd think there's no way out for him, and it is all totally believable. I'd rank this series on par with his other work and won't be nearly so reluctant to follow him into whatever genre he chooses to pursue next.
Rating: 
Summary: Ultimately fails at what it sets out to achieve.
Review: In the Gap series, Donaldson sets out to write an epic space opera. Whether he succeeds is an interesting question. In the edition I own, he even explains that his aim was to transfer Wagner's Ring Cycle to a space setting. Hence titles such as "A Dark and Hungry God Arises" and "The Day All Gods Dies" = Gotterdammerung, despite the total absence of supernatural beings in the plot. The plot owes more to Star Wars than to hard SF. The setting is a future in which humanity has colonized part of the galaxy. Human space is run by a mining corporation and the intersellar police/navy is its subsidiary. A strange alien race, the Amnion, are the enemy. They are viral-based and can transform humans into their species using viruses. There is a stand-off but no peace between them and humanity. The main protagonists are Angus, a space pirate, and Morn, a space cop. However they are really being constantly manipulated by political figures. Much of the books are really spent with the reader trying to figure out what is actually going on with the truth only revealed at the very end. The first book, "The Real Story" is rather short and makes little sense on its own. However, it does set the scene for the later books and should be viewed solely in that context. There is a lot of degradation in the series though most of it occurs offstage and we are told it has happened rather than having it described it to us. There is one quite unbelievable scene where an exotic dancer entertains in a bar by cutting off her own breasts which I found gratuitous and silly. The novels are quite psychological in that there is much crossing and double crossing but I found a lot of the motivations and dialogue unreal. A typical dialogue runs along the lines of "I'm going to do such and such" , "No you can't because that wouldn't fit your personality", "Oh ok then I won't." The physics is frankly dubious. Apparently, spaceships have a top speed at which applying acceleration has no effect and so they just coast along until they choose to decelerate. The Gap drive around which the series is based is a form of hyperdrive which of course has no physical basis but is an accepted convention of the space opera genre. The plot in places is a bit contrived. The Gap drive works point to point so there's no such thing as a frontier, yet we are told the human headquarters were only lightly defended, because it had always been assumed that any enemy ship could only get that far, if the war had already been lost. An alien ship then does the first act of a war by attacking headquarters. There is some explanation in the text along the lines of humanity being ostrich-like. Donaldson has a tendency to interrupt the narrative at points with a little philosophical musing on the nature of chaos and order, or some technological point which will arise later in the book, or sometimes some scene setting he hasn't found a way to merge seamlessly into the ordinary text. A lot of these excerpts struck me as an author's desire to pontificate and they should have been culled by a good editor. The best parts of the novels are the space battles. There the text comes alive and one feels some real tension. There is some arbitrariness here too though with a ship conveniently carrying some new weapon called 'singularity grenades' that create black-holes which supposedly aren't very useful but turn out to be extremely handy. Later on, one feels a well-placed singularity grenade would solve all their problems but it does not even occur to the protagonists to use one. One disturbing aspect of the novels, in common with both Star Wars and Goodkind's Sword of Truth series is the author's contempt for democracy. The democratic assembly which oversees human space is seen to be ineffectual, useless and purely there to be manipulated. The good aspects of a democratic society are not celebrated, nor are the self-defeating aspects of an unfree society really examined. In conclusion, the novels are not bad but ultimately do not achieve the epic quality to which the author aspires.
Rating:
Summary: A slow start to one of the best series ever
Review: Those readers who gave up after the first book gave up too quickly -- or were looking for the wrong kind of book. "A Mirror of Her Dreams" has very little in common with the depth, darkness and intense character exploration present in The Gap series. I admit, it starts off slowly, and there is a lot of misogyny in the novel -- rape, mental abuse, physical torture. But the brilliance of the writing is in revealing multiple sides to one personality as the series continues, weaving through plotlines to a fascinating conclusion. The reviewer who said that Donaldson was degrading women clearly never continued through the books where her strength, and that of several other women, is the kingpin upon which the machinations of the series hang. The Real Story serves to set up the rest of the books -- read it, but don't give up here -- the reward will come, better and better with each book.
Rating: 
Summary: Depressing
Review: This book was relentlessly disturbing, depraved and ultimately depressing. I'm not sure why I bothered finishing it.
Rating: 
Summary: A great book
Review: This book is a prelude to an incredible series. It is deep and dark, none of the characters are predictable and the plot is incredibly complicated. Unfortunately, most of those crying "misogyny" never finished the series - humanity is saved by the intelligence and power of a woman (other than Morn). But as for The Real Story, it is bleak and stark, and on its own would probably be mediocre (or at least pointless). As part of the best Science Fiction ever written, it is masterful. But if you like your stories where everyone is nice and friendly and one-dimensional then skip this.
Rating:
Summary: The gap series
Review: If you are in any way squemish, The Gap Series is not for you. There are no shining heroes like Luke Skywalker or Han Solo. This is a painfully real and vivid portrayal of the darkest side of human nature. Take a journey into a world full of rape, betrayal, murder, deceit, genocide, political intrigues and finally redemption. Probably the best sci-fi series ever written. Satanically good.
Rating:
Summary: This is mature, character-driven science fiction.
Review: It's amusing to note how the reviews of the Gap series change from the first book to the last. For The Real Story, you have a typical mix of ones and fives whereas, by the last book, there is an almost consistant level of fours and fives only. This disparity is due, of course, to the fact that most of the one-star-raters were put off by the brutality of the first book and so declined to proceed through to the fifth, where we get reviews from those, such as myself, who see the Gap series for what it is: a bleak, honest, and amazingly well developed, character-driven story that is largely atypical of the sci-fi genre which, a la Gene Rodenberry (God rest his soul), tends to paint the future in almost perfect rosy hues. What I see in Donaldson's series is a story that utilizes the basic flaws in its central characters, lays them bare, and builds upon them to tell a story that does not rely upon the description of technology to get the message across. There are no noble, infallible captains ready to take the helm and save the universe. There are no transporters (the ultimate deus-ex-machina) with which to fashion the perfect solution. Every problem that arises is dealt with in a thoroghly human manner, not always (or often) with much success. We learn to accept the characters, flaws and all, for what they are, even when their actions make us cringe. For example, many reviewers note the sadistic treatment of Morn Hyland by the anti-hero Angus Thermopyle as a reason not to read the book. Granted this can be a bit unsettling. I even found myself hating Angus by the end of "The Real Story." But by the middle of the third book, I was strangely sympathetic, even felt compassion for this twisted rogue, forced to undure the remote whims of a power greater than himself, Hyland, and Succorso combined. It takes a collossal writer to make a character like Thermopyle sympathetic, but Donaldson does so admirably. The same can be said of the way he turns Nick Succorso from a hero icon into a selfish savage. This is indicative of the way Donaldson has mastered the art of character development. He honed it in the Thomas Covenant cycle (another brutal character who eventually becomes a hero,) and he has now polished it perfectly. But I digress. I have to agree with those who say that the first book feels like a setup, like a mere prologue to a greater play. It is. The fact that it is so quickly read proves as much. It took me two and a half books to really sink into the story, but once I got there, I found the Gap series had taken its place on the top of my list of greatest sci-fi series, alongside Foundation and the Hyperion Cantos. I mention Hyperion as the another shining example of character-driven sci-fi. If you've read it, you should understand. Properly reviewing this book, much less the series, in 1000 words is nearly impossible. Nevertheless- long story short: if you are a weekend sci-fi fan, more interested in the picture perfect futures and technology oriented epics of the Star Trek genre, stay away from the Gap. If you are a militant feminist, stay FAR away. If, however, you are a lover of character development, if you enjoy the theatre, and if you want a change of pace, you must read this series. And if you liked Dan Simmons' Hyperion, please, please, enter the Gap.
Rating:
Summary: Finished it out of morbid fascination
Review: I do not understand how people identify with a protaganist who beats, rapes, drugs, rapes, kills, rapes, rapes rapes rapes. I do not understand it. I was locked into this by sheer morbid fascination. Let's review. Protaganist is like the good guy and stuff. Angus is SUPPOSEDLY our protaganist. Angus rapes our female lead several times. Donaldson moved up from Thomas Covenant. Covenant only rapes once. Sick book. If I could give it a negative 5 I would.
Rating:
Summary: I'll never read Donaldson again...
Review: I kept reading trying to get to the real story but kept winding up in the degradation of a woman and her treatment by ALL the characters as an object to further their own egos. I think Donaldson also uses Morn as an object, a way to cause conflict and to help show how degradation and humiliation affects the abuser and the viewer. The Covenant series didn't do much for women, the Mirror books claimed a female hero but repeatedly set her up for deliverance by either a man or an unexplainable event--she can't help herself or fulfill her destiny without help. The books made my stomach hurt. It was unacceptable and unredeeming violence against a person without serious reprecussion. I requested that these books be removed from the Juvenile Fiction section of our public library. That is a first for me.
Rating:
Summary: I met Donaldson once at a book signing.
Review: He struck me as a not very personable guy--he seemed bored as hell with the whole gig. But my copy of his first "Thomas Covenant" trilogy still has his signature. But...on to the main topic. This book and its four sequels depict man's spacefaring future the way the "X Files" depicts the near-future FBI. There's nothing in this series suggestive of man's outgrowing his present-day character flaws like you'd find in Heinlein, Asimov, Star Wars or Star Trek. Instead, you find the galaxy under the thumb of a huge mining company and its tame police. To paraphase the old Tennessee Ernie Ford song, humanity in this series owes more than it's soul "to the company sto'".There are no heroes here--the best you get to oppose the bad guys are these dysfunctional cases. Like a young policewoman who'd be a great hero by virtue of her sense of right and wrong were it not for the fact that she spends most of the time getting victimized. Even her bosses hang her out to dry. I tell you, if they ever make a movie of any of this series, Lifetime will have as much of a claim on broadcast rights as the Sci Fi Channel.. But you know, now i think I understand Donaldson better. He's a bona fide iconoclast--maybe he finds ordinary sci fi too goody-goody. This is one very gifted writer, but from him you don't get "The Jetsons". More like what if Nietzsche wrote fiction.
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