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Summary: Complex Fantasy for the Discerning Reader
Review: The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant are an intensely satisfying experience for the more cerebral reader. There are actually two series based on the adventures of this modern day leper that, combined, explore in great detail the human suffering and anguish felt by an outcast in one society who becomes a hero in another. Thomas Covenant's primary dilemma seems to be in distinguishing reality from fantasy. In contrast to the great Don Quixote, Thomas Covenant refuses to believe in his fantastic adventures. Are they real or are they delusions induced by a series of tragic accidents? It's up to you to decide!
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Summary: Excellent Series!
Review: Well, my thoughts mirror all those other reviewers who gave this book 5 stars so no need repeating what's been said. As far as fantasy is concerned nothing else comes even close to what Tolkien and Donaldson have written.
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Summary: Sluggish and Wordy, in an almost good way.
Review: Thomas Covenant is a big ole donkey, but not because he wants to be. He's cursed in a very real way with leprosy, and it still hangs over his head even after he enters the fantastical Land. Donadlson makes wonderful use of metaphors and images, but he doesn't write with a great flow, and the battles are mediocre. Though that could be summed up by Covenant rarely being in the middle, let alone fringes of battle; thus none of the strife, fear, blood, is really thrust at us. They are just things happening. I can only think of one battle, really where it was any other way; and thus this book can be a little boring if you can't stand Thomas. I never really understood why he didn't embrace the land more even after accepting it, even after befriending the Giant. But he sticks to his character, and is true to himself. If you don't want a character who keeps telling people to not touch him, keeps being cruel to survive; if you don't want a character who is human just like you but afflicted with one of the world's most horrid dieseases, for its time, anyway, then don't read this book. But if you can stand the slow pace, the loosely strung battles, and the man that is Covenant, you will find a good novel underneath.
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Summary: A Little Criticism
Review: For the sake of being fair, I will admit that this novel did have one or two redeeming factors. The setting was interesting, and the theme was intriguing. However, I find Donaldson's writing style to be repetetive, and the further I got in the book, the more it irritated me. Also, no matter which angle I look at it from, I find the main character to be generally unlikable. Perhapse it isn't a flaw of the novel, but I find it very difficult to make it through a novel about a character who utterly repulses me. As a foot-note, I have to add that, to the novel's credit, it wasn't anything at all like Tolkien's books. If you're considering purchasing this book, I'll just say that you'd better be able to sympathize with an immoral coward.
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Summary: The Thought of TLOTR Never Crossed My Mind
Review: I remember first reading Lord Fouls Bane in algerbra summer school, years ago. Yes--many, many Sci-Fi/Fantasy books are "corrupted" by the writtings of Tolkien, some unintentional and some down right blaintaint. By the time I read LFB, I must have read TLOTR's ten times and I can honestly say, I never said to myself this book reminds me of.....or Donaldson was influenced by .....this book and the entire series stands on it's own two feet and is very different from most. For those reviewers who thought Donaldson was too wordy or hard to read, I never thought using descriptive words to create incredible visions of another world was such a terrible thing. This series is very good, it captures your emotions and delivers all the action and adventure you would ever want to ask for.
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Summary: The best fantasy series around (Along with Lordoftherings)
Review: These books are great, well as long as you can get past the first 50 pages or so. This book and the ones that follow are the most thought provokeing, awe inspiring original books out there. They are right up their with Lord of the rings and if you don't like "High Fantasy" you might find them even better than Lord of the Rings. These books are billion times better than much of the books produced by todays Tolkein Wannabes (Like The Shannara books) and are overall great, they just take a while to get into. I would however not recomend these books for young readers because of some of the Adult themes dealt with in the book. If you feel your old though, go an get the book now!
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Summary: Can You Endure The Land Of The Gelidly Clenched Jaw?
Review: Yes, it's become an influential classic. Yes, I have a soft spot for it as one of the first fantasy epics I ever read. Yes, I re-read it when I'm feeling very bored or very brave. Still, the young Donaldson is one of the most irritating writers ever. If you MUST write 100 words where 3 will do, make them Plain English. If you MUST use a Thesaurus to find exotic alternate words, use them correctly, and without jarring the tone of the writing. And what the heck dictionary includes "roynish"? Word- coiners should be wary of being compared to Lewis Carroll At His Worst. Donaldson is (was) guilty of these faults, as well as wooden goody-goody and baddy-baddy characters and unreal dialogue. It's no wonder Covenant never believed in The Land if they all talk like that! Nevertheless, there's some great description, freaky monsters, sinister bits, good plot twists and a certain amount of musing on the nature of reality, art, responsibility, and so on. It's a shame that the discerning reader is regularly floored by the gnarly bits, as well as having to put up with one of literature's least likeable main protagonists. Oh, yes. And the six books together are VERY, VERY long. Comparable to TWO Lords of the Rings. Apparently, one editor did not suffice, since only a small bit was removed from "The Illearth War". It was subsequently published as "Gildenfire". NB - the older Donaldson who wrote "The Gap" is a distinct improvement, although his usage of words can still be a tad bizarre.
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Summary: Compelling
Review: Here is a creation that stays with you long after you've finished reading. Beautifully conceived, Donaldson easily moves the reader to suspend disbelief and go along with his reluctant, diseased hero to a magnificent world where logic, honor, and reason play far greater parts than they do in the one we know.I was introduced to Donaldson by a friend, and I'm grateful. It would appear that this book and its two companions were orignally one very long manuscript (at least based on the copyright information.) If that was indeed the case, Donaldson is to be commended for creating a remarkable cast of characters and some fine magic, and sustaining it over the course of many, many pages. A gifted writer with an enviable imagination and a talent for clean, clear prose. This is a splendid book, part of a splendid series.
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Summary: Beauty on a grand scale
Review: I was a freshman in high school when I bought this book at the local bookstore. Just having finished The Lord of the Rings, and The Sword of Shannara, I was eager to discover what it was that caused critics to say that Donaldson played hardball to Tolkien's softball. It wasn't long before I found out. Thomas Covenant (for those who don't look for allegory in fiction, think of Christianity's doubting Thomas), a leper from the "real" world, is transported to a magical place, refered to simply as "The Land", where through its innate Earth-power, he finds his leprosy healed, long dead sensations returning to him not like glory, but rather like plague. So long has he tied his identity to that of a leper (outcast unclean!) who is comfortable only in self-pity, and so convinced is he that what he is experiencing is not real, that he allows himself to lose control, rapes the girl who helped to heal him. It is a sobering beginning, one which sets the tone for the rest of the series. Here in the Land, Covenant learns that the white gold wedding ring he still wears--though divorced, as his wife left him, took their son away in fear after he contracted leprosy--is a paradox. White gold does not exist in the Land, is not bound by the laws that rule and subdue the Land, and is the keystone of wild magic. "There is wild magic graven in every rock, contained for white gold to unleash or control..." What Donaldson does here is create a *true* fantasy world. Not one modelled after medieval or Renaissance Europe, not a copycat of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (though, indeed, in this series, the fate of the world rests in a reluctant hero and a ring -- but the similarity ends, severely so, there), but one crafted from his heart, like a fairy tale. The strength of this book lies not in its plot; indeed, I find the plotting here to be simple, a trend that does not continue in the next two books of this trilogy. While this is the story of a quest (The Lords of Revelstone set out with Thomas Covenant to wrest the Staff of Law from Drool Rockworm, to keep it away from Lord Foul himself who delves deep within the earth for banes far more powerful and vile), it is also the story of an anti-hero and his discomfort, his challenges. It is easy to dislike Covenant, easy even to hate or despise him. We fall in love with the Land that Donaldson creates, see that Covenenant himself loves the Land, and yet it is Covenant's inability -- or refusal -- to come to terms with his own Unbelief, that may spell disaster. As a teenager I found myself longing to step into the pages of this book, wrest the ring from Covenant, and challenge the Ravers (Foul's servants), Drool Rockworm -- even Lord Foul, if he dared. Lord Foul -- who is he? He is "...the Despiser...Satansheart and Soulcrusher...Fangthane...Corruption...the Gray Slayer." He is every bit our Devil, is trapped in the Land by the Arch of Time as Lucifer is in Hell, and lusts to break free from his prison, to challenge his "enemy", known simply here as the Creator. Covenant, it seems, is the only one who can stop him.
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Summary: JRR Tolkien's Bane
Review: SOrry Hobbit man, Lord Foul's Bane is the best fantasy series known to man. Never has life been pictured in a more abstract-realism pastiche of trial, error, depspite and purification. TragicHero Thomas Covenent is the best and most philosophizing character of all time. He revels in pain and despair, dealing with the ultimate social paralysis, leprosy. He lives in a land of spite and distrust and is transferred to another place, The Land. What happens next shakes up Urlord's reality. Everything changes and rather than be ignored, he is honored and charged by expectation. This is the perfect story for all infirmnities. The introspection of TC is revolutionary, as it discusses the battle of despair. If you have not read this book, I cannot help you. Feel the Land work, take away, work, take away...ARGH Covenant! If you cannot fall in love with every character for the subimation of their craftedness, there again, i cannot help you.
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