Rating: 
Summary: A not so decent Man who lives for trouble.
Review: This is one in a series of THE MAN WHO which followed all those CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT, a kind of follow through with some of the same characters. This one is a violent man involved with the martial arts and who kills without conscience. He had killed his own brother while drunk. Enough said.This is touted to be a 'tale of a hero's dark night of the soul.' I feel he has no soul. Any killer is lacking morals and any other virtue. Most drunks lack all the needed virtues to function in this world. Stephen Donaldson is one of my favorite writers for the trio he did with A MAN RIDES THROUGH as one of them. He had a good woman in these about time travel back to medieval times. I read his GAP series, GAP INTO VISION, GAP INTO MADNESS; I think there had to have been a third in this series. Anyway, I read them but did not understand much, so I classed it as science fiction. If this book is based on real life, it is a life I know nothing of and wouldn't want to -- I had a young neighbor boy back in Pulaski who watched KUNG FO on t.v. and would get out in the front yard and perform all those moves with a long stick. Before I realized what he was emulating, I thought the child had gone crazy. To me, the martial arts are too noisy to begin with and ridiculous to watch. I suppose you're supposed to scare off your opponent by kicking high and yelling. To me, that is the coward's way out, not real fighting. Brew fits his name as he is an alcoholic whose loved ones have turned their backs on him (mainly because of the murder he committed), not his drinking. The love of his life seems to be as seedy a character as he. Donaldson, who lives in New Mexico (my daughter-in-law said she had met him when my son was a teacher in Alburque), is perfect with his use of the English lalnguage, the thing which attracted me to his writings. Now, he is on a MAN thing, THE MAN WHO RISKED HIS BROTHER, THE MAN WHO KILLED HIS BROTHER, THE MAN WHO FOUGHT ALONE, (a new series, I guess) and A MAN WHO RIDES THROUGH (which I loved, he was not a modern man but was from the medieval times). We need more dignity and humility as they practiced back then, even with the cruelty in wars. We still have much cruelty in war. Consider the beheadings which are a continuing thing going on at the moment in Iran. Where has civilization gone -- to the dogs?! A dog-eat-dog world, what a drudge for sensitive, civilized folks.
Rating: 
Summary: Unfinishable
Review: When I saw the name Stephen R Donaldson on a new hardback, I immediately picked it up! I mean c'mon! This is the man who wrote the utterly dark & outstanding Gap series (and let's not forget Covenant)! But very soon into the story, I found myself thouroughly un-enjoying this book. As other reviewers have said, it moves very slow and nothing really happens except the main character/narrator whimpering and mewling about how miserable things are in his world. I think Axebrewder is SRD in book form. I listened to and met SRD at a book signing last year and I was unimpressed with the man - he rambled on and on about things nobody besides himself could possibly understand, and, in general, seemed as gloomy as Axebrewder and Convenant.
I was really looking forward to enjoying something new, but alas, this effort fails utterly. At least I got the author to sign the book...
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