Lord Foul's Bane (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Book 1)

Rating:
Summary: Good idea turned boring
Review: The book gripped me immediately thanks to the original approach: the hero being a leper is the epithom of the outcast. You come to witness and imagine the trial he faces and the greatness of his attitude: he wants to survive, he does not want to give up life. But my first disappointment occured when suddenly he is transported to another world to perform a duty which is rather unclear by an evil being who talks like a sub-Shakespeare villain. Then, the second disappointment was the rape. Either I did not understand his reasons for it (he had suffered too much through leprosy and wrecked marriage ?) or the character is so low that the book made no sense. I accepted the first one, else there was no point in keeping the reading. But the disappointment grew as the hero cannot decide, act or even think. He is clueless and all the second characters whirling around him with pride, lawfulness, honor and goodwill appear like bufoons. You desesperately wait for the moment when the character transcends himself to become the hero. But that never happens. All seem random, with a aching sense of misery and hopelessness. There are some good ideas and thinking that lift the story at time. The storyline is just another clone from Tolkien alas: people, principles, words. Without the grandeur. I won't buy the second book.

Rating:
Summary: I LOVED THIS SERIES
Review: This series is awesome. I like it because it is not simply a poor rip off of Tolken - like so much out there is. It is honestly more similar to a good scifi novel than a fantasy novel in many ways because instead of simply being entertaining, it contains quite a bit of philosophical commentary imbeded in the story. Donaldson creates a world that is essentailly ideal interms of nature and the characters relationship to nature and then throws a leaper into that world. It many ways it is an extreme look at how we ourselves would cope with that sort of perfection or in Covenant's case inperfection. At the same time the main character is essentailly a terriable person who never stops whining- which some find revolting yet it is honestly refreshing to find a fantasy novel with a hero that is not one-dimensional. I guess my real comment would be that if you like the Dune novels, anything by Dan Simions, or even the current Martin series, you will probably like these books. If, on the other hand, having a main character named Covenant the Unbelier does not at least peak your interest, these probably are not for you.

Rating:
Summary: The most annoying main character ever!!!
Review: Wow.. I really didn't like this book, i was totlally irritated at the main character the entire time. The main character, Covenant is a completley unlikeable, horrible person. When he raped Lena, any connection between me and the character was cut of indefienable. Also what REALLY annoyed me was the way Convenant acted in the Land. The people in the Land really annoyed me as well, because they were willing to randomly risk their lives to some guy who yells at them the entire time, (Everytime he said, "Don't touch me!!" I neverly threw the book across the room).

The other characters are just too detached from the main, completely different that there is no connection at all. I think Donaldson realized this and to make up he randomly shouted characters name throughout the novel like "FoamFollower!" as part of the despcrition. Really annoying

The plot was a complete cliche, so bad that I was skipping through description by the end. I just didn't care about this book, about Covenant, and about the secoundary characters who worship him.

In conclusion, some people liked it, some didn't. It is all about taste. For me, I don't like it when the entire book is pain and misery and suffereing. I like it when there are some limited horrible events that make up the characters persona, but not this unending agony of death and annoying characters. Anyway, read if you want, I warned you.

Rating:
Summary: shocking--and not necessarily in a good sense
Review: I found the writing to be overstated. There was not much flow. I had to reread several passages over again in order to understand what the author was trying to say. The main character is deplorable. I hate him. The rape scene in the beginning definitely threw me for a loop. What threw me for a bigger loop was the fact that he did not seem remorseful about it. And yet, he is the hero? All these people in this strange world worship him simply for what they think he represents--a hero reserected from their past. He moves through their world wallowing in self pity, believing he is dreaming, and trying to find a way back home. Why? Beats me. Why would one want to go home to be an outcast?

The reason I gave this story three stars instead of one is the fact that the author has a unique story line. I plan to read the second in the series for the sole purpose of seeing if he has somewhere he can take it. And to see if Covenant (the main character) redeems himself for his horrible actions in some way--or at least pays for them. One can only hope.

Rating:
Summary: You've got to be kidding! Protagonist, Covenant, is a worm.
Review: I can't believe all the positive reviews on this book/series. I have struggled through Book I and Book II holding onto scant hope that the author would somehow redeem the main character, Thomas Covenant. He is an unlikable, egocentric, cowardly, whiny, sniveling, and I'm afraid, unredeemable worm. Try as I might I can't like him. I don't care if he lives or dies. I can't even feel sorry for him. I've read quite a bit of fantasy, some very good, some not so good but this is really awful. I'm afraid that I would find the author's style to be quite tedious even if I did like the characters. Do yourself a favor and read George RR Martin, Guy Gavriel Kay, Tad Williams, almost anyone else, but don't bore yourself with the Unbeliever.