Book Review

Science Fiction

Jonas, Gerald

1991

Overview

THE GAP INTO CONFLICT: The Real Story (Bantam Spectra, $18.95) is the first volume of a new science fiction series by Stephen R. Donaldson, whose eight previous novels, beginning with \"The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant,\" have sold more copies than I care to contemplate. According to a publicity blurb, Mr. Donaldson is known for the \"intensity\" and \"emotional power\" of his prose. In this new novel, he packages old-fashioned space opera in the guise of a fairy tale -- a narrative strategy that owes something to the work of Paul Linebarger, who wrote under the name Cordwainer Smith. But Linebarger was one of science fiction's most accomplished stylists, with some worthwhile thoughts to share about freedom and dependence. Mr. Donaldson, who has nothing on his mind beyond a nasty bit of woman-bashing, must make do with such sentences as \"Her wail became a screech, as wild as the cry of a mad thing\" and \"She began to look sharper, more dangerous; her nipples were poised on her breasts as if they could do damage.\" Ms. [Vonda N. McIntyre] is the author of the Nebula Award-winning \"Dreamsnake\" (1978). In that book she took time to develop her central character, a young woman whose healing \"technology\" grew out of a symbiotic relationship with other living creatures and who was herself a complex exemplar of the wider planetary culture. By contrast, the people in \"Transition,\" for all their social posturing and protestations of love and hate, seem to have no existence beyond the exigencies of plot. What happens inside them is described in language that ranges from the telegraphic (\"She snarled with despair\") to the improbably analytic (\"Victoria, I don't know how to answer the question, 'Is Zev your lover?' It doesn't mean anything in the sea, and Zev hasn't been with

• Publisher: New York Times Company
• Subject: Aldiss, Brian Wilson (1925-2017) / Armstrong, Alexander / ARNASON, ELEANOR / Aronica, Lou / Ballard, J G (1930-2009) / Bayley, James / BROSNAN, JOHN / BRUNNER, JOHN / Card, Orson Scott / Chance, David / Clarke, Arthur C / Donaldson, Stephen R / FORWARD, ROBERT L / Gottbaum, Leo / Hawn, Loren / Jablokov, Alexander / Jeter, K W / JONAS, GERALD / KING OF THE DEAD (BOOK) / Knight, Damon / Lee, Gentry / Lem, Stanislaw / MacAvoy, R A / McIntyre, Vonda N / Mitchell, Betsy / Moffett, Judith (1942- ) / PARK, PAUL / Platt, Charles / Rankin, Robert / Robinson, Frank M / Scarborough, Elizabeth Ann / SCIENCE FICTION / Silverberg, Robert / Spinrad, Norman / Stoker, Abraham (1847-1912) / STOUT, AMY / Swanwick, Michael / Turner, George / Wakefield, Richard / Wiggin, Andrew / WILHELM, KATE / Williams, Walter / WILLIAMS, WALTER JON / WILSON, ROBERT CHARLES / ZEBROWSKI, GEORGE