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3.3 AVERAGE
3.3 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Very uneven. Writing clunky and dated.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault
I thought this was a fantastic book. I've noticed that lots of people complain about the book as a result of the main character, but I think, beyond being the protagonist, he’s an important stylistic element. He bridges the gap between our world and the fantasy world, making it more believable in some ways, and, more importantly, provides a stark contrast to the nobility and fecundity of the Land and its inhabitants in a way that simply telling the story could never have done. Without Thomas Covenant, it’s still a good book, but it doesn’t jump out as much.
Also, complaints about a lack of creativity in the names are unfounded. True, there are several characters who appear not to have inventive names, but a lot of names in general are simply translations from other languages, so the few 'simplistic' names could be thought of as translations to English that we understand. The names are fine. People are picking at straws.
The characters are vivid, their speech is unique and playful, and the writing is rich and lyrical. I loved it. Lots of mystery, too.
Also, complaints about a lack of creativity in the names are unfounded. True, there are several characters who appear not to have inventive names, but a lot of names in general are simply translations from other languages, so the few 'simplistic' names could be thought of as translations to English that we understand. The names are fine. People are picking at straws.
The characters are vivid, their speech is unique and playful, and the writing is rich and lyrical. I loved it. Lots of mystery, too.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
I wrote out an entire long review for this book yesterday but then accidentally backed out of it before I published it and lost it all. I don't want to write it all again so here's the main point:
1). Thomas Covenant is annoying and a bad person, yes, but that's because he is a broken man that has been completely shunned and hated by society. He had adapted and survived by hardening himself and learning to live without hope. He is not meant to be liked, because he is thoroughly unlikeable. You are meant to understand what he is going through and see his character journey throughout the series.
2). The rape scene is a horrible thing, yes, but Thomas Covenant does not get off the hook for it. He feels the consequences of it and his guilt from it throughout the entire series and it is absolutely portrayed as something extremely negative so stop saying Stephen R. Donaldson is a misogynist pervert with a rape fetish. Portrayal does not equal approval.
So of you want classic fantasy with easily pigeonhold black and white characters, go read something else. But if you want classic fantasy with a complex morally grey protagonist you're forced to work with, read this book
1). Thomas Covenant is annoying and a bad person, yes, but that's because he is a broken man that has been completely shunned and hated by society. He had adapted and survived by hardening himself and learning to live without hope. He is not meant to be liked, because he is thoroughly unlikeable. You are meant to understand what he is going through and see his character journey throughout the series.
2). The rape scene is a horrible thing, yes, but Thomas Covenant does not get off the hook for it. He feels the consequences of it and his guilt from it throughout the entire series and it is absolutely portrayed as something extremely negative so stop saying Stephen R. Donaldson is a misogynist pervert with a rape fetish. Portrayal does not equal approval.
So of you want classic fantasy with easily pigeonhold black and white characters, go read something else. But if you want classic fantasy with a complex morally grey protagonist you're forced to work with, read this book
I learned that sometimes the bad guy is the good guy.
On the surface, this 1977 novel is a Narnia-style portal fantasy, in which a person from our reality travels to another and gets caught up in an epic quest. The lush worldbuilding is as intricate and achingly beautiful as anything in Middle-earth, and there are even some specific Tolkien parallels to be drawn (although that mostly comes across as author Stephen R. Donaldson engaging with the same archetypes, rather than emulating The Lord of the Rings directly). I love the distinctive culture and sense of history to this realm, and I think I would enjoy reading stories set there no matter what.
What really elevates the series, however, is Donaldson's marriage of that setting to a deep psychological drama driven by his protagonist's anguish. Thomas Covenant suffers from leprosy, a debilitating condition that cannot be cured but can merely be managed by strict self-discipline and constant monitoring of one's body for the damage that dead nerves won't report. Lepers can't afford to lose themselves in delusions that would distract from self-care, and so when Covenant finds himself magically translated to the Land and healed of his illness, his only recourse is to insist that he's dreaming and reject the role of prophesied hero that has been thrust upon him.
The "all just a dream" trope can be hacky when deployed as a conclusion, robbing the preceding events of their import, but by frontloading it as a question, Donaldson reverses that traditional equation and navigates a delicate tension. If the Land has a genuine existence and the self-styled Unbeliever doesn't act to save it, he will have doomed its people to an awful fate. Yet if it's instead a lie that he lets seduce him, his mental health may never recover. Although the later volumes increasingly lean towards the interpretation that everything is real after all -- as does the immediacy of the world here and probably the typical reader's expectations of the genre -- the weight of Covenant's dilemma and what it drives him to do is sharply poignant.
Most controversially, an early chapter of this first book sees the tortured antihero attack and rape a sixteen-year-old girl, whom he takes as another figment invented by his own subconscious to torment him. It's an ugly act that he grows to repudiate and decidedly not something we're meant to endorse, but I can understand how that's not an element everyone is prepared to tolerate in their escapist literature. And while the assault has dire repercussions that follow, it's somewhat problematically positioned by the text as primarily afflicting the rapist himself, rather than his victim or her community.
Ultimately Lord Foul's Bane and the wider saga it begins explore the philosophical thesis of whether the actions we take in our dreams can be understood morally; whether hate must be resisted and beauty preserved at any cost to the soul. It's a nuanced theme in a grand locale, full of fierce characters and dazzling magics, and it's what makes this work a true postmodern classic.
--Subscribe at https://patreon.com/lesserjoke to support these reviews and weigh in on what I read next!--
Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter
What really elevates the series, however, is Donaldson's marriage of that setting to a deep psychological drama driven by his protagonist's anguish. Thomas Covenant suffers from leprosy, a debilitating condition that cannot be cured but can merely be managed by strict self-discipline and constant monitoring of one's body for the damage that dead nerves won't report. Lepers can't afford to lose themselves in delusions that would distract from self-care, and so when Covenant finds himself magically translated to the Land and healed of his illness, his only recourse is to insist that he's dreaming and reject the role of prophesied hero that has been thrust upon him.
The "all just a dream" trope can be hacky when deployed as a conclusion, robbing the preceding events of their import, but by frontloading it as a question, Donaldson reverses that traditional equation and navigates a delicate tension. If the Land has a genuine existence and the self-styled Unbeliever doesn't act to save it, he will have doomed its people to an awful fate. Yet if it's instead a lie that he lets seduce him, his mental health may never recover. Although the later volumes increasingly lean towards the interpretation that everything is real after all -- as does the immediacy of the world here and probably the typical reader's expectations of the genre -- the weight of Covenant's dilemma and what it drives him to do is sharply poignant.
Most controversially, an early chapter of this first book sees the tortured antihero attack and rape a sixteen-year-old girl, whom he takes as another figment invented by his own subconscious to torment him. It's an ugly act that he grows to repudiate and decidedly not something we're meant to endorse, but I can understand how that's not an element everyone is prepared to tolerate in their escapist literature. And while the assault has dire repercussions that follow, it's somewhat problematically positioned by the text as primarily afflicting the rapist himself, rather than his victim or her community.
Ultimately Lord Foul's Bane and the wider saga it begins explore the philosophical thesis of whether the actions we take in our dreams can be understood morally; whether hate must be resisted and beauty preserved at any cost to the soul. It's a nuanced theme in a grand locale, full of fierce characters and dazzling magics, and it's what makes this work a true postmodern classic.
--Subscribe at https://patreon.com/lesserjoke to support these reviews and weigh in on what I read next!--
Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter
The main character is so miserable I just couldn't get hooked.