The first chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever: Lord Foul's bane ; The Illearth war ; The power that preserves

The first chronicles of T...

by
Stephen R. Donaldson

published	2002 by SFBC
binding	Unknown Binding
isbn	073942548X (isbn13: 9780739425480)
ebook
pages	863
date added	02-17-07 edit book

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Seth rated it:

(review of isbn 0345329627)

09/27/07

bookshelves: masterpieces, sf-f-h

Read in January, 1987

recommends it for: existentialists, crossover fantasy fans, almost any fantasy fan

This series is somewhat infamous: it's widely regarded as brilliant (which it is), it's widely considered depressing (which it can be), the hero is often unappealing (which is the point), and many find the trilogy at least 25% too long (which is true). Plus, the follow-on trilogy tells almost the same story with almost the same point to it.

So, what's the fuss about?

Covenant isn't "Tolkien with the serial numbers filed off." That it holds together with a complete fantasy ...more

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

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Sarastro rated it:

(review of isbn 0006473296)

03/29/08

bookshelves: fantasy

Read in March, 2008

Stephen Donaldson's epic The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever doubtlessly belong among the classics of fantasy literature, and at least among fantasy readers of my own age, they are considered part of what you are expected to have read. Now I finally have.

It begins well, with the unlikely protagonist Thomas Covenant -- a best-selling author fallen victim to leprosy who is thrown into a parallel world -- arriving in the Land, a place that cannot possibly exist and which Cov...more Stephen Donaldson's epic The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever doubtlessly belong among the classics of fantasy literature, and at least among fantasy readers of my own age, they are considered part of what you are expected to have read. Now I finally have.

It begins well, with the unlikely protagonist Thomas Covenant -- a best-selling author fallen victim to leprosy who is thrown into a parallel world -- arriving in the Land, a place that cannot possibly exist and which Covenant refuses to take seriously. The Land is introduced to us as a mystic, magic and half-intangible place, setting a melancholy mood that is very appealing to me. However, as the story of the first book unfolds, the Land begins to take on the shape of any fantasy world in the tradition of Tolkien. There are points where the similarities between the Land and Tolkien's Middle Earth are on the verge of plagiarism. Such dismissals are highly unfair, however, because firstly the similarities are mostly in the "literary props" used by Donaldson to tell the story of the character of Thomas Covenant, and secondly because Donaldson clearly builds on his own ideas. Stephen Donaldson is not telling the story of the Ring of power. The white gold ring, the Staff of Law, the Illearth Stone, and indeed the entire Land itself are only the backdrop to the story of Thomas Covenants inner struggles.

The underlying idea for the story is good and original, but unfortunately any good idea has to be transformed into prose for a book to be written and read, and Donaldson is not quite up to the challenge. There are many points that may be discussed, but in order not to repeat Donaldson's principal mistake and make my own telling too long, I will just mention those things that matter most: The story is rather long and slow at many points and of rather average quality, but here and there are a few chapters that are simply brilliant, where all of a sudden Donaldson's flowery, unwieldy and long-winded language suddenly works. The key feature of Covenant's character is his disbelief in the reality of the Land. Unfortunately Donaldson won't let his reader share this unbelief, but rather goes on to tell his story from points of view that make sense only if the reader decides that the Land is really real, and not a figment of Covenant's imagination. This ruins the illusion for me, and makes Covenant a rather less interesting anti-hero. Over all, character development, while present, doesn't always match the pace of the story. This all boils down to two things: the story is much too long, and it is told in a rather too fancy language, which seems contrived rather than poetic.

These books might have been brilliant if Donaldson had made the story one third of the length, and if he had allowed himself a somewhat more conversant English. If you are a fantasy fan, then by all means do read these classic books, but if you are just looking for a good piece of fantasy, then I'd suggest taking a look at for example Ursula K. LeGuin's stories about Earthsea instead....less

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

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The first chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever: Lord Foul's bane ; The Illearth war ; The power that preserves

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