Rating: 
Summary: Brutal, but riveting. Unpeels layers of plot slowly.
Review: After a rather stale prelude ("The Real Story"), Donaldson begins to unpack his complex saga. Morn, "rescued" by Nick from the clutches of Angus, soon learns that he is just as bad as her previous captor. Paiting a broad brush, one might say that "The Real Story" was about Morn being ravished by Angus, while "Forbidden Knowledge" tells of her violations at the hands of Nick. But this novel (like the three which follow) has all the dimensions of a well-developed epic sorely lacking in the first book. Behind the bombardments of rape, sadism, loathing, and mean-spiritedness we catch hints of a serious and intricate plot. Nick, though a criminal, apparently does occasional jobs for UMCP's Data Acquisitions division (the "CIA" equivalent of the United Mining Companies Police), but he has also had shady dealings with the Amnion, the alien species which has long labored for humanity's extinction. Nick takes Morn and his crew to the fringes of Amnion territory, where he incurs the wrath of his alien "cohorts" through reckless behavior. Meanwhile, Angus has been abducted by Data Acquisitions Director Hashi Lebwohl, who begins overseeing his illegal transformation into a cyborg for a special classified mission. As the DA officials construct Angus into a superhuman (but less than human) tool, you can't help but feel sorry as you watch his soul being stripped away. Key character: Warden Dios. You only get a taste of him in this book, but watch his crucial role unfold in the next volume, "A Dark and Hungry God Arises".
Rating:
Summary: Brutal, but riveting. Unpeels layers of plot slowly.
Review: After a rather stale prelude ("The Real Story"), Donaldson begins to unpack his complex saga. Morn, "rescued" by Nick from the clutches of Angus, soon learns that he is just as bad as her previous captor. Paiting a broad brush, one might say that "The Real Story" was about Morn being ravished by Angus, while "Forbidden Knowledge" tells of her violations at the hands of Nick. But this novel (like the three which follow) has all the dimensions of a well-developed epic sorely lacking in the first book. Behind the bombardments of rape, sadism, loathing, and mean-spiritedness we catch hints of a serious and intricate plot. Nick, though a criminal, apparently does occasional jobs for UMCP's Data Acquisitions division (the "CIA" equivalent of the United Mining Companies Police), but he has also had shady dealings with the Amnion, the alien species which has long labored for humanity's extinction. Nick takes Morn and his crew to the fringes of Amnion territory, where he incurs the wrath of his alien "cohorts" through reckless behavior. Meanwhile, Angus has been abducted by Data Acquisitions Director Hashi Lebwohl, who begins overseeing his illegal transformation into a cyborg for a special classified mission. As the DA officials construct Angus into a superhuman (but less than human) tool, you can't help but feel sorry as you watch his soul being stripped away. Key character: Warden Dios. You only get a taste of him in this book, but watch his crucial role unfold in the next volume, "A Dark and Hungry God Arises".
Rating: 
Summary: Never have I been happier to finish reading a book
Review: After many years of seeing Stephen Donaldson's Gap series on bookstore shelves, and resisting the urge to buy them after admittedly enjoying the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, I finally succumbed and bought Gap into Vision.
I wish that I had continued to resist.
Donaldson continues his death spiral from the Mordant books into a pained and unnecessary story about characters which are difficult to feel the slightest twinge of interest for. After many failed attempts at developing intrigue around three central characters, the plot tries to recover by constructing the foundations of a new universe for future books.
I don't think I will be buying them. Indeed I don't know if Donaldson himself took this book seriously; it was obviously the start of a series (even evidenced by the small size of the book) yet he made no real attempt to build a fabric and weave characters into them in the hope that the book would both stand by itself as a story and encourage people to continue in the series.
The sexual domination themes were repeatedly reinforced to the point of tedium, and quite frankly it was only the fact that I was in an aircraft with nowhere else to go and nothing else to read that induced me to complete it.
Never have I been happier to finish a book
Rating:
Summary: Thrusters engaged as Donaldson truly starts his saga
Review: After the 'Real Story', the atmosphere of Forbidden Knowledge comes as a relief to readers fond of his previous works. His theme of individual victory against overwhelming odds is soon brought to the fore. There is an intriguing backstory of Angus' fate and the even more intriguing Amnion to help things along.Those sorry he didn't remain in fantasy will be relieved to discover this is space opera, not really science fiction; higher on character development, lower on technical details. Includes scenes I still clearly see months later.
Rating: 
Summary: Another Masterpiece
Review: Another masterpiece from Donaldson. Pick it up and READ it.... if you like it try out his other books. The story of Angus and Morn continues, even more gripping and well developed than in the first book. Like The Real Story, there is bleakness and desolation, but they only serve to highlight the characters. The extremes that they are forced to experience shape them and make them believable as individuals, and make this book very dramatic and powerful. You are brought to understand and care about the characters, and by the end you will find yourself looking on to the next book. After reading this book I went out and bought the rest of the series.... I had no fears about being disappointed by any of the books, and I wasn't. Two other people in my family were hooked on this series as well, once I showed it to them(they almost strangled me for losing the third book :) )
Rating:
Summary: Another Masterpiece
Review: Another masterpiece from Donaldson. Pick it up and READ it.... if you like it try out his other books. The story of Angus and Morn continues, even more gripping and well developed than in the first book. Like The Real Story, there is bleakness and desolation, but they only serve to highlight the characters. The extremes that they are forced to experience shape them and make them believable as individuals, and make this book very dramatic and powerful. You are brought to understand and care about the characters, and by the end you will find yourself looking on to the next book. After reading this book I went out and bought the rest of the series.... I had no fears about being disappointed by any of the books, and I wasn't. Two other people in my family were hooked on this series as well, once I showed it to them(they almost strangled me for losing the third book :) )
Rating:
Summary: Far too harshly reviewed !
Review: C'mon guys ! Can't you just marvel at the way Donaldson manages to make impossible situations resolve into the only plausible, if distasteful, solution. Sure, the rest of the series rambles - but this is an amazing tour of the decisions the human race has to take if faced with the cliched fate worse than death. Always infuiantingly plausible.
Rating:
Summary: fantastic book in a fantastic series
Review: Donaldson writes a very ingrossing tale. It is the second book in a series of five, and while perhaps not the best book of the series (perhaps I would even go so far as to say my least favourite) it is still a fantastic book. The series is listed as one of my top ten books/series on my homepage. Donaldson writes with a clarity and depth of emotion that few writers could achieve. I found his characters to be very believable, each with motives and plans, and plans within plans. Everyone is under pressure all the time, and the plot is relentless. Really gripping stuff. I had started his earlier novels from the Thomas Covenant series, but didn't finish as they didn't really grab me. This series, however, doesn't let go!
Rating:
Summary: The second book in a great series
Review: Forbidden Knowledge begins one of the most brilliantly written space dramas in recent years. Mankind is threatened by an alien race that not only wants to conquer us, but also has aspirations to genetically transform us into replicates of themselves and take away our humanity. The result is a conflict in which our humanity itself is at stake, and this makes it fascinating. However, Donaldson does not end with just another human-alien conflict, but goes further, showing how humanity is fighting itself as much as it is fighting the aliens. It should be said, though, that I do not believe that this series is for everyone. It is very dark and sometimes savage, so if you are one who only enjoys books that have a Hobbit kind of story, this book is the exact opposite and not for you. I believe that this is why people have diametrically opposing views on this series.
Rating:
Summary: A minor triumph - start on this one.
Review: Forbidden Knowledge is well-written, excellently paced and constructed as well as could be expected. It extends the story and characterisation of brutalised Morn and her fleeing to Nick Succorso from Angus Thermopyle, saving the latter pirate's life to keep control over the zone implant he gave her. This is a many-faceted story of corporate corruption, greed, and an insidious alien presence that seeks to undermine human life as a prequel to changing it into something non-human (Amnion - the name of the aliens). A complex and fascinating faster-than-light future is set most effectively against a background of Morn struggling to stay alive and sane aboard a pirate ship with a captain as alternately unstable and brilliant as the rest of his crew, and various people who want to help, rape, hug and understand her. The tale takes leaps of horror, throwing itself from intra-crew intrigue, sexual jealousy, viruses and murder, to confrontation with an alien horror and an unimaginably horrific yet at once deeply human and profound examination of childbirth, all mingled in with the tale of Angus from the first story, and an examination of the ethics of turning a human into a machine. As a study in how a book can be at once enthrallingly horrible and a thorough character study of several different people, this book has top marks. The only thing that brings it down - the only thing at all - is the consideration that others without my love of SF and dark foulness will read it, and not have the same opinions. If you haven't got a strong stomach then you probably won't be reading "Forbidden Knowledge" in the first place; but, if you do start, my advice is don't finish. You will have nightmares. This consideration of others forces me to mark down. In terms of piling horror upon horror in an intense and sickening yet maniacally gripping and extraordinarioly effective, and - crucially - *human* way, this story has no equal. Anywhere. It's goddamn brilliant. But it may not be to your taste.
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