Ansible 323 Supplement

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The Gap into Thog
Adam Roberts

Adam was moved by some quixotic impulse to read Stephen R. Donaldson's Gap sf series. From volume three he began collecting quotations for Thog, as below. His own overview of the sequence appears at his Sibilant Fricative blog, from which it may be deduced that page numbers refer to the UK HarperCollins paperbacks. Now read on ...

The Gap Into Power: A Dark And Hungry God Arises (1992)

• [22] Without warning, a tingle ran down Holt's nearly strong spine and tightened around his scrotum.
• [87] When he lifted his head again, he was smiling like a corpse with an orgasm.
• [97] He felt too buoyant to sit down.
• [100] A sigh of relief or trepidation seemed to spread from him around the bridge.
• [100] 'He didn't say,' Scorz reported, as if he were fighting a knot in his throat.
• [100] A laser of inspiration shot along the synapses of Nick's brain; his nerves were ablaze with coherent light.
• [119] She didn't reply. Her only answer was the increasing stability of her strides.
• [124] Grinding his teeth to steady himself, he pushed her on down the corridor.
• [135] In the privacy of his bowels, he feared Angus too intensely.
• [137] Angus Thermopyle laughed – a sound like the pulping of flesh.
• [155] Naturally no room, however private, could be secure from what Milos Taverner might have called 'buggery'.
• [186] With a mental lift of his shoulders, Warden Dios trusted his fate to people he couldn't control.
• [192] 'You've made us look like garbage, like weasels! You've curled their moral hair to the roots!'
• [192] Despite his calm, organic duplicity, the DA director had sweated through his lab coat.
• [267] Even if his brain had decided to pull away from her before he became helplessly enmeshed in Angus's plots, his body might have remained where it was.
• [337] Stumbling as if her neurons were no longer sure of their synapses, she left him alone.
• [350] Implications came into focus in the light as if his strong fingers held them down on the desktop for her to see.
• [381] With his mouth full of ash and fatality, he recognized that before long he was going to go mad.
• [425] His hands thrashed like dying fish at the end of his arms.
• [451] He'd run out of choices. His simple, reasonable, and above all secure buggery had been turned against him.
• [453] The silence which greeted him was so complete that he could taste it.
• [484] But in his weighted stomach he believed, knew, that Warden Dios didn't kill the people he was sworn to protect.
• [548] He saw the white glare of uncertainty from Davies' eyes.
• [550] Locking his legs, he tried to thrust his hips up and forward. At exactly the wrong moment he stumbled.
• [594] Morn rose as if she were going to sail through the top of her head.

The Gap Into Madness: Chaos and Order (1994)

• [109] Wheeling like a blow, he raged.
• [130] Angus' heart clenched in a grimace which didn't show on his face.
• [146] For reasons she couldn't name, premonitions of disaster burned in her palms.
• [165] Her shoulders hunched into a clench of disgust, which she deflected into a shrug.
• [170] His hands were steady as stones as he toggled his intercom.
• [174] If other means failed he probably had a dozen strategically placed buggers he could rely on.
• [176] Above his open mouth, his eyes blinked like cries.
• [177] His aura yowled of furies that didn't show on his face.
• [205] The smears on his lenses refracted his blue gaze into streams of hope and apprehension.
• [216] The face that greeted him in his mirror was as wrinkled and used as a sheet of crumpled tissue.
• [233] Perspiration turned to ice on his forehead and ran down the sides of his jaw.
• [237] Matter is 'frozen' energy ... Conversely energy may be understood as 'liquid' matter.
• [240] She discovered that most of her aches were gone, and her ears no longer registered everything against a background of pain. Nevertheless her anger remained.
• [251] She had to clench her teeth and grip her gun hard to prevent herself from flinging her stew across the galley.
• [252] Under his fat, his features hardened.
• [264] His grin was so abhorrent that Angus howled to himself; but he made no sound.
• [265] Davies looked like his chest was congested with shouts.
• [266] Angus looked straight at Nick, but with his peripheral vision he studied his readouts.
• [280] A clutch of loss lifted his shoulders like a shrug.
• [281] His eyes slid off as if they'd lost their grip.
• [295] Davies seemed to feel tremors run through Angus; neurons misfiring like a suppressed storm. He didn't care, however.
• [313] The air had grown viscid with mortality.
• [373] His scars looked like streaks of acid under his eyes, burning deeper and deeper into his cheeks. Heat poured off him as if he were overflowing.
• [381] Her heart beat in her ears, the veinous funeral march of her inadequacy.
• [395] [She was] shivering as if the cold had become metaphysical.
• [441] Sweat oozed like wax from his skin.
• [454] [Sib was] throwing the torque of his shoulders and the strength of his arms like projectiles at Nick's ribs and kidneys.
• [488] Koina regarded him with darkness stirring in the depths of her gaze. The restrained tension of her cheeks and forehead hinted at bleak bones beneath the skin.
• [510] His eyes were so full of white fear that they appeared to have no irises.
• [527] Nick let out a clenched laugh.
• [538] Nick leered back at him from under his eyebrows.
• [577] His beard moved like a blade whenever he spoke or turned his head.
• [658] Through a red, squalling, visual knife of pain, he found the controls on his chestplate.

The Gap into Ruin: This Day All Gods Die (1995)

• [15] In the pockets of her labcoat her fingers twitched as if they were entering data on a purely metaphysical keypad.
• [38] A pallor of betrayal seemed to leach the color from her cheeks; even from her eyes.
• [38] Indignation and confusion appeared to flush through Chief Mandich in waves, staining his skin with splotches like the marks of an infection.
• [39] In one sense Hashi noticed the reactions of his companions. But in another he paid no attention to them at all.
• [46] Hashi spread his hands disingenuously.
• [46] Now at last Warden permitted himself a reaction, which may have been surprise.
• [47] Anodyne Systems, the sole licensed manufacturer of SOD-CMOS.
• [51-2] That substance is a coenzyme. Inherently inert ... it combines with some of the human body's natural apoenzymes to form an artificial holoenzyme.
• [63] Mandich murmured an obscenity between his teeth.
• [66] He appeared to shudder like a man being sickened by uncertainty.
• [67] The DA director wheezed. He fluttered his hands in front of his face to ward off emotions for which he had no use.
• [97] He shook his head. Carried by its own momentum, his head continued rocking from side to side on his weak neck.
• [109] Her voice ached like Morn's arm.
• [117] Food and coffee had rubbed the smudge from his gaze.
• [147] Dolph's deep, rumbling tone sharpened trenchantly.
• [168] His companions were vivid with tension. Their postures shouted of dangers Min didn't know how to evaluate.
• [180] Angus snorted past his grin.
• [255] His eyes emanated a moist heat that Warden had never seen in them before.
• [317] Min's jaws clenched and loosened as if she were chewing iron.
• [342] Cleatus was full of explosives – metaphorically speaking ... his eyes held a lupine glitter, and his beard bristled like wire.
• [366] Smoke seeped out of her hair as if the mind under it had been burned to the ground.
• [375] Lane hid a grin behind a fringe of unclean hair.
• [420] Fasner spoke so fiercely that acoustic shatter fretted the edges of his voice.
• [471] His voice sounded as bleak as hard vacuum.
• [437] Darkness mottled his face: blood and dirt marked his skin like livid stigmata. His heavy arms beat anguish against his sides. 'Stop it!' ... Instinctively he aimed his rage like despair at Morn.
• [447] Standing rigid, as if he were remembering a crucifixion, he shouted.
• [474] She was a good fifteen centimeters taller. But the ominous intensity he radiated, the sense of critical mass he conveyed, made him seem larger. He gave the impression that there was no limit to how far he might expand.
• [476] Every eye in the room clung to her urgently.
• [480] Blaine wore her sexuality like an accusation.
• [485] Sen Abdullah gaped like a man who couldn't breathe well enough to grasp the opportunity Koina had given him.
• [499] In response he brandished his beard at her like a club.
• [525] Ceatus closed his mouth. But he left his demand hanging in the air.
• [525] The sound of knives filled Hyland's voice.
• [667] Mikka swallowed a knot of tears.

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