Plothole that's bugging me as I replay the Myst games

[mutualcore]

I've given a lot of thought to Myst over the years, including some of the classic conundrums like:

• How did Atrus build all of those structures in the Ages of Myst and Exile?
• How did Sirrus build all of those structures in Spire?
• What are we to make of the Red and Blue Books from Myst in light of the Revelation game?

While I think there have been plausible explanations put forth resolving all of those things, the one thing I still don't understand is how Atrus and Catherine were both able to become skilled in The Art when it was Gehn who taught it to them in the first place - the man whose Ages are all unstable because of his poor understanding of The Art. Maybe this is explained in one of the Myst novels, but I've never read them.

[xbolt]

If I remember correctly, (It's been a long time since I read the novels,) while Gehn was teaching Atrus in D'ni, Atrus was also studying some surviving Books. And while Gehn was experimenting with all sorts of hacks in his worlds, Atrus was being much more simple and safe. They got into a fight where Gehn was chastising him for being too traditional.

And it's possible that the Book of Atrus dealt with the structures on Myst, but it's been so long, I don't remember. Now I really want to read the novels again... I highly recommend that you read them too. They're quite good.

There's no real good explanation for the red and blue Books, other than Revelation changed the canon of how the Books worked. It's said now that the Ages were always there, just not shown. However, it was stated in either the novels or a journal in Riven that the trap Books worked by suspending the user within the link between Ages.