Rating: 
Summary: Overall good book, but it's SO BLEAK.
Review: This book is somewhat like my life, bleak, and more bleak. It's good entertainment and interesting stuff, a good book, but oh so depressing. Read it anyway, cause it gets better in the sequels, and you won't understand the sequels unless you read this.
Rating: 
Summary: Stunning . . . .simply one of the finest works around
Review: I suppose I am incapable of evaluating this book as a singular effort. It is really just the first chapter of what is with out a doubt one of the finest works of fiction ever published. For those of you who feel that this book is lacking something, it is wise to remember that it is only a prelude to a mind bending, soul stretching, unimaginably complex and beautiful epic tale. "The Gap Into Conflict" is akin to the low rumble that occupies the first twelve seconds of Richard Strauss' "Thus Spoke Zoroaster." The heart-lurching "BUM-BUMMMMMMMMMMS" are still to come! Not to mention the crystaline symphonic resolution. Take it from me, this series will suck you in and force your own soul to emulate the unimaginable trials and triumphs of the main characters. Just imagine having your family slaughtered, being beaten, raped, demoralized, stripped of all semblance of dignity, impregnated with mind controlling devices so that your tormentors can manipulate you with the push of a button, and then without food or rest, enduring crushing G-forces, being pursued by a menagerie of police, archvillains, aliens, and rivals, you still manage to come up with the instantaneous solutions to impossible problems that present themselves one after another, and upon which your very survival depends. I have to catch my breath just thinking about it. I read this series one book at a time by borrowing each successive book from a friend of mine who was reading them. Despite the fact that most of them top 500 pages, I read each one in less then 48 hours. Then I would have to wait until the next weekend to receive the next book. In the interim I thought of nothing else. Angus Thermopyle, Morn Hyland and Nick Sucorso became more real to me than my friends. A newly purchased hampster of mine, an unusually robust and cunning specimen of rodentia, even received the not quite ignoble title "Angus Thermopyle". I lived and breathed this saga, and I highly recommend that you do as well.
Rating: 
Summary: This is Donaldson?! Are you sure?!
Review: I read this book after finishing Donaldson's series of Covenant books (all six, which took me an entire year), hoping for more of his genius in a different setting. All I can say is, if this book is anything like Donaldson's other science fiction books, he's much better at fantasy. The protagonist is Angus Thermopyle, a space pirate, a drunk, and an all around jerk. At first, I figured he would be the unlikely hero, that something would happen to change my opinion about the character. It didn't. If there were rednecks in outer space, Thermopyle is them. Maybe Donaldson's other scifi books are better, but I can't give this one more than 2 stars, which is probably more than it deserves.
Rating:
Summary: Conflict, Yes, I think so.
Review: Stephen R. Donaldson is a masterful author of the highest calibre. Once again, he proves this with a magnificent start for a series that has captivated me and kept me re-reading it to the point of ignoring the books I still haven't gotten around to reading yet.The story starts out slow, wrapped up in mundane details of life; even though some people may find it annoying, it is what makes the characters believable and human. The main reason that this book is good (my middle-of-the-line rating is in comparison to the other four) is because it is not a typical speculative fiction novel with carbon-copy characters doing the same predictable things in every predictable scene. It is a human nature story that just happens to be set in the future. I particulartly like his peculiar way of describing the technology. Donaldson's story telling is again the weak or "evil" characters ending up doing the right thing (sometimes) even if it is for the "wrong reasons." It's real, the characters are believable, because we can understand why they act like they do (once the background is provided in the rest of the series). If the characters turn you off in the first book, read at least the second, and understand the deapths of Donaldson's character development. He's a master.
Rating: 
Summary: Woah, what a downer
Review: Wonderful writing - talk about depressing content. I even read on in the series, it was still depressing. Call me a 'Disney', but occasionally I need a little pick-me-up before I become morbid from the lack of light at the end of the tunnel. But for all that, this book is a wonderful literary creation. Donaldson is a superb writer and I can't deny that this book is an amazing piece of writing. Lord, though, I had to go watch 'Peter Pan' several times through after reading this . . .
Rating:
Summary: Classic Donaldson work
Review: Donaldson does an excellent job of setting up the whole story. His treatment of people's perceptions versus the reality is very enlightening. The psychology of the characters is very deep, something I personally have come to expect from Donaldson. He explores their motivations, their hopes and fears, and their dreams with such detail that you feel pity even for Angus Thermopile. I didn't want to put the book down. In fact, the only reason I only gave it 4 stars is because the following books are even better. I strongly recommend reading this series to anyone who has read his books before. Now, if you haven't read any of his books, start with the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.
Rating: 
Summary: the one and one half books really stank!
Review: I can't for the life of me think the author of "The Thomas Covenant Chronicles," and "The Mirror of Her Dreams" for which I've read seven plus times each is the same slug who wrote the forementioned books. What a waste of talent!
Rating:
Summary: ...ands its only the beginning.
Review: What at first seems to be a book about the violent degredation and abuse of Morn Hyland becomes the source of the psychological motivation for all the major characters in this supurb 5-part epic. Understanding this story is the key to the rest of the arc. Almost all the major plot points are initiated here: the nature of space travel, the condition of human space and the politics that drive it, the strength and humanity of Morn, the viciousness and fear that drives Angus, the malice of Succorso, and the honour of Warden Dios. This book, especially on a second reading, proved vital to the logic of what follows. A superb series.
Rating:
Summary: Donaldson's Just Getting Started
Review: I gave this book only 4 stars because I had to leave room for the later books in the series. In "The Real Story," Stephen Donaldson is mearly setting the stage for what will come later. In "The Real Story" Donaldson sets up the classic melodrama of Hero-Damsel-Villian and proceeds to turn it on it's ear. The story starts off simple, and almost familiar, but over the chapters that follow he adds on more and more layers until the story threatens to topple the very universe he's created. While reading "The Real Story" you think you know where all this is heading, but you don't. You CAN'T. Through the Gap Series, Donaldson takes his characters -- and the reader as well -- through events of such astouding complexity that the characters are stripped down to their very souls and the tremendous depth of the human character is revealed. One reviewer on this site was discouraged by the minimalist nature of this book and declined from reading the rest. How unfortunate, because what follows is simply one of the best examples of imagination and story crafting I've read in a long time. Donaldson will probably be remembered by his popular Thomas Covenant Chronicles, but those who have experienced the entire Gap series will never forget it.
Rating:
Summary: I wanted to like, but I hated it, but I really like it.
Review: I can't help hating the Characters. There isn't a single good person in the whole series. I'm not casting the first stone, I'm throwing a boulder. They make me so mad! Some parts are throughly drawn out. But if you read the ENTIRE series you will love it, it took me till the 3rd Book. In fact it's not a series, its a good book bound in 5 Issues. The tension just keeps building and building.
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