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Summary: Be True; You Need Not Fail
Review: Thomas Covenant has been destroyed by fate. Nevertheless, he continues to live. Stripped of his family, health, career, and identity by the leprosy which has made him a figure of fear, Covenant doggedly hangs on to his miserable life, inspecting his numb extremities for damage as he gropes blindly for some human contact. "Be true," a mysterious old beggar tells him. "You need not fail." Then he is in a wonderful never-never land, heartbreakingly beautiful and achingly described, where a pretty young girl cures his leprosy with a handful of mud and everyone hails him as the reincarnation of their ancient hero Berek, come back to save them with his white gold wedding ring, which is a talisman of power in the Land. So far, standard wish-fulfillment fantasy, and Tom's troubles are over, right? Wrong. Covenant is too damaged, too close to death, to be brought back so easily. He knows this is a hallucination (think it's not? read carefully) and is frantic to escape. Fate drags what's left of him across a landscape of incredible beauty and wonder, drawn from the mind of a great author, and forces him to become involved, then throws him back to his awful leper's life on Earth. There's never been anything like this book and the two sequels; it made publishing history and set a new standard for fantasy writing. Too much has been made of the author's debt to Tolkien; every fantasy writer owes JRR a huge debt that can't be repaid, except in the way Donaldson does it here: a huge, rich fantasy that doesn't rely on elves, trolls and hobbits to make it run, with a wonderful creation myth and laughing, large-souled Giants. There's nothing you can validly compare this to; it's a true original.
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Summary: Thomas Covenant the Unbelievable
Review: To their fans, works of such perrennial popularity become impervious to critism, but if you're a careful reader and demand (as do fans of Hard SF, for example) a fairly high standard of verisimilitude and common-sense in a character's behavior, you may find The Chronicles too vulnerable to logic to be entirely successful. On a lesser note, I was continually reminded that Donaldson's indebtedness to Tolkien is too significant to go unacknowledged by the author. Those who seek the dark, introspective Fantasy departure that this book strives to be would be more challenged by Mervyn Peake's brilliant, underappreciated (in the U.S.) Gormenghast novels.
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Summary: The Best Set of Books I've Ever Read!
Review: I first read this book 20 years ago, right after my high school graduation. I could not put the book down. The Land seemed so real and in the characters were people you know in your own life. I was so immersed in the book that I couldn't put it down until I finished it and then was sad because I wasn't ready to leave the Land that Stephen Donaldson had drawn me into. It was an agonizing wait until the next book in the series was released in paperback form. Each book left me craving the next book in the series. The series revolves around Thomas Covenant a pariah in his own world. He is mysteriously pulled into another world where his ailing body is healed. It is too much for him to grasp. This can't be happening, it must be a dream and all I have to do is ride it out and I'll wake up. Of course, it's not that easy. The people in this new world think he is the reincarnation of an historic hero and expect him to save them. The book is so wonderfully drawn and the characters so alive you'll hate to finish the sixth book in the series. The good news is that the series is just as good the second time around. You'll be surprised at what you missed the first time. My 14 year old son has just read Lord Foul's Bane and loved it! It's pretty exciting to find a set of books that a mother and teenage son can read together and discuss without embarassment. If you are willing to believe you will be richly rewarded with a story that will follow you for a long time. Nancy
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Summary: Best books ever
Review: These books are the best books you will ever read. The way Donaldson sweeps you into this tale is extraordinary. These books are better than Tolkien's best. A must read 6 book series.
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Summary: a "Mecca" of fantasy
Review: I am amazed at how many people hate this series! Thomas Covenant is a physically and emotionally flawed hero. (Anti-hero for all you dim wits out there) The absolute greatest characters of all time are flawed, and have human weaknesses. Despite their shortcomings, we find them fascinating, and timeless. The "Unbeliever" is such a character in the realm of fantasy. Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Oedipus, Ulysses, Samson, I could go on and on. If you need a warm and fuzzy, formulaic good guy, do not read this series! But also do not read Shakespeare, Joyce, T.S. Eliot, or just about any other timeless author who created timeless characters of depth and tragic flaws. Also don't watch any spaghetti westerns, Quentin Tarantino, the Godfather series, Blade Runner, or any other of the really memorable characters of film. Stick to moronic sitcoms, and formula movies with the flavor of the month hero.And by the way, I am not drawing a parrallel between Donaldson and truly classic literature. I will say that Donaldson is to fantasy literature. as Shakespeare is to classic literature. They are in my opinion, the standard by which all others are to be judged. For those out there who point out the grammatical flaws in the stories. English is a constantly evolving entity of communication. Try reading Chaucer or Milton, or way out there stuff like "Alice in Wonderland" or "Jabberwocky." Donaldson is not redefining the parameters of language, he does however, weave a great epic tale though. The only problem with the series to me is that none have come close to the depth and complexity of the Covenant series. I have started at least five other fantasy series I couldn't finish because it was too squeeky clean and formulaic. I hope there is another series of some other author out there that is this good. I haven't found any. Ann Rice is great. Frank Herbert is Fantastic! Tolkien was a messiah. Any other suggestions from any of you out there would be greatly appreciated. basho64@aol.com
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Summary: Stilted Language From A Young Donaldson
Review: Donaldson is an excellent writer. Lord Foul's Bane is his first effort, and it simply lacks the character development of his later works. While we are supposed to suspend our disbelief for a fantasy novel, this books demands more: that we throw our common sense out as well. Sorry, Donaldson, just can't do it. This guy cannot write worth a darn! He makes stuff up that is not realistic! Thomas Covenant is a major league jerk! I could write a better book than this, no problem. I will not tell anyone to read this book because it is so bad! When I first began to read this series, I was taken by the obnoxiousness and rather unlikeability of the protagonist. I couldn't believe that somebody could actually write about such an anti-hero so I kept reading, and about two-thirds of the way through the first book, I was stunned by the poor quality of writing. I have read the entire series. It is not often that any writer so obviously feels the need to use big words for the sake of using big words. I found the Gap series to be much better.
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Summary: Painful prose
Review: Donaldson's ideas might have been more effective had he a better command of the English language. I found it hard to focus on characterization or plot when I was choking on a pretentious and awkward simile, and there is at least one of these every page. The author's writing in places approaches mythical proportions of badness. He uses fancy words ("ineluctable," "incarnadine") where simpler ones would illustrate his point better, and in at least once instance he used a word, "irrectitude," which is apparently not even recognized by the Oxford English Dictionary. And the word-based names were usually clumsy; "Landsdrop" does not roll off the tongue well, and "Vilesilencer" just had me cringing. Covenant's responses to the events around him never struck me as very believable, either. This may have been a personal response, but it seemed to be more angst for the sake of angst than a compelling and enthralling characterization. The other characters felt similarly flat. Moreover, Donaldson's logic fails utterly in places. At one point the good guys survive (with only a few casualties on their side) a battle where they are outnumbered ten to one. This is ludicrously unrealistic. I also felt that the societies of the Land were thin and poorly structured, and I didn't enjoy them enough to accept them as fairy-tale-like constructs. This is, frankly, one of the worst epic fantasies I've read, and everyone I've spoken to personally who has read it agrees with me. The language and the characterizations make reading this a painful experience.
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Summary: Wow!
Review: Wow, this book was amazing. From start to finish, I was completely hooked. Approaches Tolkien.
Rating:
Summary: It's a class act
Review: This book is fantastic i have read quite a few reveiws on this site and i agree the supporting charicters are 1 dimensonal BUT there is a book by steven donaldson with a note at the beginning he says the charicters are one dimensonal to keep the reader thinking that he is in a fantasy and it is not real that is why.and I am only 14 so excuse the spelling and languege?
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Summary: Fantastic book and series.
Review: This is my favourite book/series. It's not your normal fantasy as it's quite dark and doesn't follow the standard formula that most fantasy books do nowadays.
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