Has anyone read Stephen R. Donaldson? He is my favorite author and I think Iβve read everything heβs ever published.
I read the Thomas Covenant Chronicals and the follow up trio. Just saw last week that there is a whole new follow up "next generation" series. I bought the first of those last week. Not sure when I will get to it, but I have some Dune series additions to get through, first. π
yes thanks that sums up my response too. (not the Dune ones though couldn't get into them for some reason.
The Thomas Covenant Chronicles was an excellent read. I never forgave the hero character for his self-pity and viciousness though. I wanted a white gold ring all through High School and finally got one when I graduated...
I was married with a white gold ring!
Yes, loved the thought-provoking existential angst of the Thomas Covenant series. A leper shunned by society who, through his own internal and external struggles, becomes the heroic savior of the Land. So much more substance than your typical fantasy novels. Had to put it down occassionly and just think about it...and feel about it.
The six Thomas Covenant novels came out when I was a teenager and were a very very important part of my literary background. However, I went back and tried to reread them in my thirties and for some reason, and I don't have a logical explanation for it, it no longer clicked with me.
The other worldliness of it somehow had lost its magic. The brutal rape at the beginning of the first novel which, as a teenager, seems like something I could overlook in Covenant's character, now made me unable to sympathize with him throughout the rest of the books. Whether we as a society had matured on the notion of rape, or simply I had evolved in terms of my own tolerance for it I do not know.
Outcast! Unclean! I've read a bit....haha....the first six Thomas Covenant books when they first came out...don't know why I stopped...glad you put this out, I think there are 4? more. I think I liked the ending of the White Gold Wielder and just left it at that. Always worried that an author will kill books I love...haha...I tried to read another book of his....I will have to go look it up...Mirror Of Her Dreams? I think that is it...
@WizardBill I didn't like it when I tried to read it when it first came out....but it might have just been 'IT'S NOT THOMAS COVENANT!!!'....haha...maybe I will give it a gander again.
Good stuff. Wrestles with some pretty heavy themes for fantasy.