Stephenson is well-regarded for his Thomas Covenant books, which I’ve read a couple of times and have enjoyed a great deal. So I thought I would revisit Donaldson’s sci-fi works. The “Gap” series inhabits a sci-fi future centered on space travel, mining, corporate and police conflicts, and the interrelated lives of his central characters. The series is patterned after, or at least inspired by, Wagner’s Ring cycle. So the action is, not surprisingly, dark, dramatic, and tragic.

I can’t say I enjoy these books. I didn’t like the first one, didn’t like the second one that much, and stopped about halfway through the third (which feels like a mortal sin to me). Maybe Donaldson redeems himself at some point, but the action feel like melodrama to me, and his characters are frankly uninteresting.