Stephen Donaldson

[S.E., Gray Mouser]

I just won an ARC copy of The Last Dark by Stephen R. Donaldson via LibraryThing. The funny thing is that, despite my passion for dark fiction, I failed twice to get through the first in the Thomas Covenant series. I did enjoy his short story collection: Reave the Just and Other Tales. He is also from Ohio (woo-hoo! There are many dark fantasy writers from my hometown state).

Anyway, I find myself compelled to try Donaldson again..but The Last Dark is the final in a series. There is no way I can read the entire series before reading this last one. Any feedback from members here about the Convenant series?

[Periklis, Fafhrd]

I picked up a british copy of Reave the Just And Other Tales upon your recomendation S.E. Haven't started this yet. Since I'm not attracted to long series I won't be trying any "Thomas Covenant" books, although The Atlas Of The Land is a great map-book of the first three books...

[Charles]

I really liked the first three of the Thomas Covenant series, though I hated the character of Covenant himself.

[Thomas]

Donaldson is hands down one of my favorite authors, so of course I will recommend reading everything leading up to The Last Dark. Congrats by the way!

You can probably get by with synopsis, however, the raw emotional content will not be there. The previous book builds up some very powerful feelings and character attachments that will be missing.

Now I must run off to see where I can get me a copy of The Last Dark.

[Joseph, Master Ultan]

I liked the first two trilogies although yes, Covenant himself is a horrible, horrible person. (I read them repeatedly back in high school, then revisited them when the first new book came out.) So far I've only read the first book of the latest series and I have to admit I wasn't too impressed by it; but when the final volume comes out I'll go back and wrap things up.

[[deleted user]]

Hmm, I have that first book on my shelf. I've been meaning to check it out since I heard the controversy about the main character. Haven't gotten around to it yet, but people must like it for such a long series to be around!

[Jason]

I recall really enjoying the first three books, the next three less so. But it has been too long for me to remember any details to explain as to why.

So much information, so little brain capacity, it seems...

[Joseph, Master Ultan]

What I really liked about the second trilogy was how nonstandard it was -- the first volume brings us back to the Land but it's a Land that's been thoroughly broken and corrupted; then in the second volume we head across the sea to entirely new places.

What I noticed on my reread several years back is that Donaldson kind of likes to overcomplicate his prose.

[Dan]

I haven't picked any of his books up but I have the first 3 Thomas Covenant books on my shelf along with a couple short story collections of his I have been meaning to get to.

[Bruce]

I read the first trilogy when it first appeared. Very imaginative, but I can't say I'd ever read it again, nor the sequels. Like already mentioned, the main character was a real turn off.

[Ian]

I read the first two trilogy some time ago and really enjoyed there originality. it is hard to like covenant, especially after the rape in the first book, but he does tend to grow on you and he does learn and change. I tried the first book in the last chronicles, but was disappointed, after a good start it got terribly slow and boring.

[Andy]

It's one if the finest fantasy series I've ever read. I would highly recommend that you give it another try. Perhaps the best thing about this series is the atmosphere it managed to create; I found that I truly could suspend my disbelief.