Monday, January 16, 2006

A Dark and Hungry God Arises, Stephen R. Donaldson

Title: A Dark and Hungry God Arises
Author: Stephen R. Donaldson
Rating: Good

A Dark and Hungry God Arises is book three of the Gap series. It continues the story of the three main characters: Angus Thermopyle, Morn Highland, and Nick Succorso, as well as introducing (and/or developing) several more. Book two left things at a major cliff hanger; here things aren't left quite as open, but there is clearly a lot of the story still to tell.

I am enjoying these books quite a bit. Donaldson's handling of the space opera setting is better in books two and three than it was in the first. I suspect he requires a complex plot and setting to do his best work, and he simply hadn't figured it all out while writing the first volume. As always, his characters are still very dark, full of conflicts, and most are stuck in the bad side of humanity much or all of the time. Never-the-less, they grow on you, in a weird way.

There are two more left in the series, and I'll start on book four very soon. Perhaps tomorrow.

In short: recommended, but as I mentioned in my previous review, I haven't read the entire series yet, which means I can't yet address the entire thing as a whole. I'll have to do that when I review the last volume.