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Summary: One of my favorite fantasy series
Review: Read this series, very thought-provoking. The hero is also the villan, the symbols and allusions to our life are very true and powerful. Love Donaldson! read his other stuff too, especially The Mirror of Her Dreams and it's sequal.
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Summary: Drudgery, waiting for something to happen
Review: I love so many fantasy books, but I'm completely puzzled as to why so many people enjoy this book. An actual event will happen only every 60 pages or so. The rest of the time the author drones on about the trees and rocks, or about the main character's pessimistic view on life. Even a slow-moving philosphical tome such as Atlas Shrugged moves very quickly by comparison.Many of my friends recommended this as a wonderful book, but the reasons for that are complete mystery to me. Move along and select a different book.
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Summary: Better than Tolkien???
Review: When I was a teenager my friends and I used to debate which was the better series, Covenant or Lord of the Rings. I now look back at this as silly. Both series are great but I do still think the Covenant series is a much more mature work. Where some of my friends thought that Donaldson's inclusion of a magic ring in the story was a LoTR rip off. I have always viewed the inclusion of a magic ring as sort of a parody on LoTR. I have always felt that the comparisons of this trilogy to Tolkien's are superficial anyway. To be honest I am probably not the best reviewer of this series. I don't really like fantasy literature with the exception of LoTR and Convenant. They are actually the only two series in any genre that I have read (to be honest I couldn't get into the 2nd chronicles. It seemed like a repeat). However I am glad that when I was a teenager these were viewed as the best fantasy series around and not that Harry Potter stuff. I can't stand that garbage. The Convenant trilogy may be forgotten in a hundred years from now, but I am still convinced that it is a masterpiece.
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Summary: A vision unlike any other...
Review: Buy this book, now. You will not be disappointed. In fact, with the possible exception of The Lord of the Rings, the Thomas Covenant series is the best the fantasy genre has to offer, bar none. Compared to the melodramatic dreck that populates most modern fantasy pulp fiction, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, starting with Lord Foul's Bane, shines with originality, gut-wrenching emotions and drama. The main character is Thomas Covenant, an author who develops leprosy and whose life in the "real" world is stripped of all that is good. Covenant then is transported by The Creator and The Despiser to travel to the Land, a magical place where leprosy does not exist and where Covenant strives not to go mad with his newfound health. Brilliant. Contrary to one reviewer, who called the Chronicles dark and gave it three stars, that is far too simplistic a review. It's deep, not dark. For every heart-wrenching scene, there are an equal number of transcendent ones. By the end of the first (and best) series, you will find yourself entirely caught up in the Land, wishing that somehow you could be transported there. In addition to Covenant, The Land is so utterly rich, so complex and so beautifully described, that you will never, ever forget it. Try finding a Piers Anthony novel that you remember ever detail of four months after you read it. I first read the Chronicles 15 years ago (and several times since) and they were imprinted onto my brain. BTW, Donaldson's Gap series is also excellent (more of a sci-fi epic)... The Mirror of Her Dreams series is derivative fantasy sludge, however, so read it with low expectations. My only disappointment, frankly, is that Donaldson hasn't written anything in years!
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Summary: Paradox
Review: I read this series for the first time 20 years ago and have re-read it several times since. Each time I have "seen" something new. I had some trouble understanding the characters and actions until I finally understood that everyone, every character is a paradox. Thomas Covenant a man who is impotent, diseased in his world is a potent hero in The Land, the Giants who are so strong are the first to fold to despair, the Bloodguard whose demeanor is so passionless yet whose passion for the Land evoked the earthpower that was their vow. I found paradoxes for every character. Donaldson speaks of balancing on the point of the paradox. This is the balance that Covenant desperately seeks through the first three books, believing and not believing. He eventually sees that it is not important whether the Land is real or not, what is important is that he make decisions based on truth and honesty and compassion for himself and his fellow men, to be true. Granted, Covenant is a monumental pain in the first three books but he is a man fighting for his sanity and his very life. The Land and it's plight makes your heart ache, it's defenders make you weep with their grace and beauty. I came away from these books like a person waking from a dream.
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Summary: Denial is really tedious
Review: My problem with this book is the main character, Thomas Covenant. His self-absorbed denial gets really, really old after a while. For instance, he refuses to eat because eating would mean that he buys into the Land which "obviously" can't exist. Oh please, get over yourself! I think the story would have been a lot more engaging and zippy if the reader weren't forced to wade through his rotten attitude on every page.
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Summary: Wonderful writing, but...
Review: Part of whether you like this book will depend on what you're looking for in your reading. If you like dark, depressing, realistic fantasies with all of the dark side of human nature exposed, the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever are for you. Mr. Donaldson writes with gripping power, and his world will draw you in irresistably. Unfortunately for some of us this is a problem. I don't read to find out about the dark underbelly of human nature, I generally see enough of that on the evening news. I read to find pattern and meaning in things that may otherwise seem horrible - which never really seems to happen in Donaldson's books - at least not in this series. His writing is undeniably powerful, but very, very dark. By the last book "White Gold Wielder" I couldn't not read the book, but I was depressed for darn near two weeks after reading it. In short, Donaldson is a good writer, but I really can't recommend this series. Try "Mirror of Her Dreams" instead. The same powerful writing, with a much more optomistic view of human nature.
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Summary: A 10,000 word essay on trees and bushes
Review: A painfully boring read. The hero is a jerk, the writing is terrible and the story goes on and on and on. Don't waste your time
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Summary: Thomas Covenant - Triumphant in any world
Review: When I first read "Lord Foul's Bane" I was unprepared for the power the story embodied. Stephen Donaldson's writing captivated me from the first page and I was seemingly transported to the Land as a personal witness to the events that unfolded before me. The character of Thomas Covenant is that of a tragic hero. A man suffering physically and emotionally in ways that would cripple others but serves only to strengthen his sense of himself to the point that he becomes the perfect antidote for the ills of the world in which he finds himself. Once I had devoured the first volume I instantly set out to consume the remainder of the adventure. I am constantly baffled by the intermittent negative comments I have read about this series and of Donaldson's writing style. After reading and re-reading this series I find myself no closer to understanding the shortcomings some have expressed regarding the quality and character of these books. I can only offer my humble opinion that I find "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" a masterpiece of imagination and worthy to stand beside the heralded fiction of our age.
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Summary: Deep, Dark, Well-Crafted Fantasy
Review: I've read this book, and this series, twice, with a span of twenty-some years in between. When I first read it, I liked the characters, images, and story, but the language seemed deliberately over-complicated and intellectual. Now, after re-reading it, I think that I just wasn't ready for it the first time. Thomas Covenant is a successful writer working on a sequel to his best-seller. He has a young, beautiful, loving wife, and a little child. He lives in the country in a home he sees as his haven. He has it made. And then, he is diagnosed with leprosy. His wife leaves him because she fears he will contaminate their child. He spends months in and out of hospitals. He is shunned by his neighbors. Thomas Covenant is outcast, and deeply depressed. He withdraws into himself and builds a wall around him as thick as he any castle or fortress. Suddenly, he is in an entirely different world. There is no leprosy, he recognizes no one, he recognizes nothing of where he is, and everyone identifies him as the reincarnation of an ancient, semi-mythical hero, who was foretold to return to The Land to heal it with his magic. Covenant doesn't believe any of this, and assumes, despite the apparent impossible reality of everything around him, that he is in a delirium-induced delusion. He is named Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. What does he do? Does he wait to awaken, and thus end the delusion? He tries that, but the "reality" of his new surroundings continues. Does he believe what everyone in this new and strange world tells him? He refuses that option, as he sees it as a surrender to insanity. Thomas Covenant reaches a compromise with himself: he accepts that he is living in an illusory world induced by a coma, but accepts that the best way to pass the time is to cooperate in the illusion. The seeming reality of his new world keeps enticing him into accepting its reality and surrendering his Unbelief, but he is obstinate. Oh, by the way, through all of this, Thomas Covenant remains cynical, depressed, sarcastic, irritable, rude, and generally a pain in the [neck]. An interesting hero, indeed. Thus is launched "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever". The series was a trilogy, and then a second trilogy was added. The characters are deep and well-developed, the writing is complicated, intelligent, and extremely sophisticated (the exact opposite of Hemingway's stunning simplicity and not far off from Faulkner's esoteric and obtuse complexity), and the story is riveting. This is NOT a fun, easy read. This IS deep, major fantasy on an epic scale. It might be hard to get into, but it will be hard to put down once you do get into it.
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