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3.3 AVERAGE
3.3 AVERAGE
The book's unique premise and its bitter hero captured my initial interest. But once those were established, reading was a slog - I felt most of the book was the all-too-familiar "whisked-away-to-a-magical-land" plot, all full of overwrought plot devices and arbitrary encounters, and these didn't feel substantially affected by the book's unique elements.
I probably would have stopped reading mid-way, except that that's when I reached the rape scene. That caught my attention; that shook things up. Horribly, of course, but it seemed so terrible and momentous that surely from here on the book would take form around it, leading to something new and interesting.
Alas, I was sorely disappointed. I slogged through the entire volume, and for most of it, the rape seems practically ignored and forgotten. Even when it finally is addressed, the treatment is dull, inadequate, and entirely uninteresting. Hopes dashed. Alas.
I probably would have stopped reading mid-way, except that that's when I reached the rape scene. That caught my attention; that shook things up. Horribly, of course, but it seemed so terrible and momentous that surely from here on the book would take form around it, leading to something new and interesting.
Alas, I was sorely disappointed. I slogged through the entire volume, and for most of it, the rape seems practically ignored and forgotten. Even when it finally is addressed, the treatment is dull, inadequate, and entirely uninteresting. Hopes dashed. Alas.
I couldn’t finish this book. Turns out I am not interested reading a book with a whiny rapist protagonist.
I started the book back in the 70s and didn’t get any farther back then. It turns out I’ve never really been fond of child rapists.
I started the book back in the 70s and didn’t get any farther back then. It turns out I’ve never really been fond of child rapists.
Never had a book been so good at putting me to sleep.
Nasty and derivative. I would prefer to give it 0 stars.
Originally reviewed at Parsecs & Parchment
I can’t decide if this book is pure distilled genius or a flaming bag of garbage. Maybe it’s both. I change my mind on a daily basis. Say what you want about LORD FOUL’S BANE (and people have a lot to say about it apparently), I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since I turned that last page.
So Thomas Covenant is a leper, living in contemporary USA. He’s also a monumental a-hole. Which is fair enough; his wife has left him, taken his son away and he’s basically become a social outcast, spurned by mainstream society.
I’d probs be bitter about that too.
However, things take a surreal turn when he’s hit by a car and wakes up in a fantasy world called The Land, where he’s hailed by the population as the reincarnation of a legendary hero, sent to save them from the evil Lord Foul. In a twist on the epic fantasy trope of The Chosen One, Covenant refuses to accept the responsibility thrust upon him; his gruelling life as a leper has instilled in him the tools he needs to survive, to accept his lot and live with the harsh reality it entails. He rejects The Land entirely, believing it to be nothing more than a hallucination or dream brought on by his accident and the novel follows his journey through The Land while he struggles to stay grounded and maintain his sanity in a world he believes isn’t real.
That right there is a solid fucking premise!
But then it just goes to hell in a handbasket.
Thomas Covenant is a detestable piece of shit, which is why most people don’t like this book. I don’t have to like a character to be interested in reading about them so that didn’t bother me. What did bother me was it just ended up being so dull.
The protagonist doesn’t do anything. Which I get is intentional. He doesn’t think The Land is real, he doesn’t want to succumb to the fantasy and elevated status this hallucination is bestowing on him, only to return to his leprosy-ridden reality where he’s so reviled.
Unfortunately for us, that doesn’t make for a compelling novel.
And if you’re going to have your main character standing by, refusing to do anything while everyone around him takes the initiative, at least make everyone else interesting. But no, we’re subjected to a cast of one-dimensional cardboard cut-outs who don’t seem to care, or even react to the fact that Covenant is such an asshat.
Then there’s the prose, which is about as purple as purple gets. A quick Google search informs me that’s called Patriarch. So yeah, the prose is Patriarch levels of purple. Long, meandering descriptions of hills and forests and chapter-spanning monologues of lore we’re given no reason to give a flying shit fiddle about.
Despite all this however, there are some compelling reasons to still read this book. Which feels weird to say simply because I resented so much of my time reading it, but I’ll direct you to this very insightful Goodreads review by Brian, as he does an excellent job of articulating the fascinating concept behind the story and why this book might be worth reading if you want to think about it on a deeper level. He articulates it much better than I could and I’d only end up parroting a lot of what he says.
Suffice to say, there are reasons certain people might want to read this book, but they’re niche and not compatible with having an enjoyable time. As a work of art or philosophy, to be placed in the context of the wider fantasy genre and pondered on, this book is very interesting. As a reading experience, honestly it was just plain boring.
I can’t decide if this book is pure distilled genius or a flaming bag of garbage. Maybe it’s both. I change my mind on a daily basis. Say what you want about LORD FOUL’S BANE (and people have a lot to say about it apparently), I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since I turned that last page.
So Thomas Covenant is a leper, living in contemporary USA. He’s also a monumental a-hole. Which is fair enough; his wife has left him, taken his son away and he’s basically become a social outcast, spurned by mainstream society.
I’d probs be bitter about that too.
However, things take a surreal turn when he’s hit by a car and wakes up in a fantasy world called The Land, where he’s hailed by the population as the reincarnation of a legendary hero, sent to save them from the evil Lord Foul. In a twist on the epic fantasy trope of The Chosen One, Covenant refuses to accept the responsibility thrust upon him; his gruelling life as a leper has instilled in him the tools he needs to survive, to accept his lot and live with the harsh reality it entails. He rejects The Land entirely, believing it to be nothing more than a hallucination or dream brought on by his accident and the novel follows his journey through The Land while he struggles to stay grounded and maintain his sanity in a world he believes isn’t real.
That right there is a solid fucking premise!
But then it just goes to hell in a handbasket.
Thomas Covenant is a detestable piece of shit, which is why most people don’t like this book. I don’t have to like a character to be interested in reading about them so that didn’t bother me. What did bother me was it just ended up being so dull.
The protagonist doesn’t do anything. Which I get is intentional. He doesn’t think The Land is real, he doesn’t want to succumb to the fantasy and elevated status this hallucination is bestowing on him, only to return to his leprosy-ridden reality where he’s so reviled.
Unfortunately for us, that doesn’t make for a compelling novel.
And if you’re going to have your main character standing by, refusing to do anything while everyone around him takes the initiative, at least make everyone else interesting. But no, we’re subjected to a cast of one-dimensional cardboard cut-outs who don’t seem to care, or even react to the fact that Covenant is such an asshat.
Then there’s the prose, which is about as purple as purple gets. A quick Google search informs me that’s called Patriarch. So yeah, the prose is Patriarch levels of purple. Long, meandering descriptions of hills and forests and chapter-spanning monologues of lore we’re given no reason to give a flying shit fiddle about.
Despite all this however, there are some compelling reasons to still read this book. Which feels weird to say simply because I resented so much of my time reading it, but I’ll direct you to this very insightful Goodreads review by Brian, as he does an excellent job of articulating the fascinating concept behind the story and why this book might be worth reading if you want to think about it on a deeper level. He articulates it much better than I could and I’d only end up parroting a lot of what he says.
Suffice to say, there are reasons certain people might want to read this book, but they’re niche and not compatible with having an enjoyable time. As a work of art or philosophy, to be placed in the context of the wider fantasy genre and pondered on, this book is very interesting. As a reading experience, honestly it was just plain boring.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Rape
This book served as a kind of personal assignment to delve into the kind of fantasy I want to write myself. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant follows a leper named Thomas Covenant who gets hit by a car and wakes up in a fantasy world called The Land, where it turns out he is of semblance to a past hero and is expected to defeat the evil Lord Foul.
I have not read a fantasy book where a glossary was necessary and, quite frankly, the amount of things going on made the index a necessity. This book was very dense, hence the long time it took me to finish it. In addition, there were some parts that felt a little extraneous to me, like when Covenant becomes healed and assaults the poor peasant girl who healed him. Three hundred pages later and I'm still thinking about it which is a bit of a red flag to me. Aside from that, the Unbeliever's story is a great tale of human confusion in the face of great adversity and is a recommended read for people who want to take a break from politics or fetch quests.
I have not read a fantasy book where a glossary was necessary and, quite frankly, the amount of things going on made the index a necessity. This book was very dense, hence the long time it took me to finish it. In addition, there were some parts that felt a little extraneous to me, like when Covenant becomes healed and assaults the poor peasant girl who healed him. Three hundred pages later and I'm still thinking about it which is a bit of a red flag to me. Aside from that, the Unbeliever's story is a great tale of human confusion in the face of great adversity and is a recommended read for people who want to take a break from politics or fetch quests.
I didn't hate this book. My thoughts on it almost all the way up were negative, but I didn't hate it. This is why:
I am a character writer, and by association, a character reader. Meaning that I am incredibly judgmental about the depth and quality of characters in the books I read. I loathed Thomas Convenant. He was - to me - the epitome of a despicable character. From a writer's perspective, though, I understand that he wasn't supposed to be likable. However, needing to follow him through the Land and listening to his constant whining became a tad intolerable for something who prefers her protagonists to be just a few steps away from Gary Stu (okay, maybe a couple bounding yards. But definitely not several miles). That said, here are my continuing thoughts on the book.
After this point, there will, inevitably, be a few spoilers. Not book-wrecker spoilers (I don't think) but read at your own risk.
Firstly, I was very well tolerating Covenant in his own world, although I thought he was whiny and his walk to town was impossibly long and draggy. It was the moment that his got hit by that car and summoned into the Land that his character clashed so heavily with all the good there. The first moments of his encounter with Drool and Lord Foul are just fine - good pacing, clear enough character: you know that this part is supposed to be foggy. But then we find Covenant on Kevin's Watch with the delightful Stonedowner, Lena. I like Lena. I thought she was charming, dreamy. Again, I do believe this is by design, because if you love Lena, then you really despise Covenant raping her.
It was the rape that unfairly set my mind against the book. I hate rape. Who doesn't? But even within the first hundred pages, it just wasn't classy.
And it is after the rape that I think Covenant becomes truly despicable. He lacks any element of empathy, a lack-of-trait which drives me mad. He spends the entirety of the next hundred pages whining about his condition and complaining about how this whole thing is a dream. For me, this would be tolerable except I find Atarian, his guide and Lena's mother, to be weak and depressing, therefore leaving us with two characters for just less than a quarter of the book whose woes take up more time than the beauty (and evil) in the surrounding Land.
As a reader, in this 100-page stint, I turned my attention to the Land. Donaldson has crafted his world beautifully, an accomplishment that I envy. I can imagine the changing scenery perfectly, and you can feel the impending shiver as evil stretches out and corrupts it.
Once Covenant is dropped with Saltheart Foamfollower, the pacing becomes a littler quicker (thank goodness!) and the characters around Covenant become much more interesting (even while Covenant himself remains intolerable). Foamfollower is a particular favourite of mine, because I felt his character was very well-rounded and he was a changing character; the developments you see around Foamfollower are slightly heartbreaking. He is the character with empathy, the one who tries so hard to make Covenant see.
Donaldson has crafted a few very interesting species in this story, as is expected in any epic. I particularly like the Bloodguard and Ranyhyn. Bannor's character (a Bloodguard) is wide open, yet shut tight. I think that paradox makes him a enigma, and an interesting character.
Once the Questers left the remnant of Woodhelven, I found myself enjoying the book, and wanting to read it. I won't spoil the ending, but I am happier, now, picking up the second book than I was in the first half of Lord Foul's Bane.
I will say that Donaldson's pacing bothers me a little - but I also have problems with that in The Lord of the Rings and therefore I am inclined to believe that it is my own problem with epic fantasy. The slows are very slow and the fasts are so quick, I needed to go back in and read them several times to understand what had just happened.
I am a character writer, and by association, a character reader. Meaning that I am incredibly judgmental about the depth and quality of characters in the books I read. I loathed Thomas Convenant. He was - to me - the epitome of a despicable character. From a writer's perspective, though, I understand that he wasn't supposed to be likable. However, needing to follow him through the Land and listening to his constant whining became a tad intolerable for something who prefers her protagonists to be just a few steps away from Gary Stu (okay, maybe a couple bounding yards. But definitely not several miles). That said, here are my continuing thoughts on the book.
After this point, there will, inevitably, be a few spoilers. Not book-wrecker spoilers (I don't think) but read at your own risk.
Firstly, I was very well tolerating Covenant in his own world, although I thought he was whiny and his walk to town was impossibly long and draggy. It was the moment that his got hit by that car and summoned into the Land that his character clashed so heavily with all the good there. The first moments of his encounter with Drool and Lord Foul are just fine - good pacing, clear enough character: you know that this part is supposed to be foggy. But then we find Covenant on Kevin's Watch with the delightful Stonedowner, Lena. I like Lena. I thought she was charming, dreamy. Again, I do believe this is by design, because if you love Lena, then you really despise Covenant raping her.
It was the rape that unfairly set my mind against the book. I hate rape. Who doesn't? But even within the first hundred pages, it just wasn't classy.
And it is after the rape that I think Covenant becomes truly despicable. He lacks any element of empathy, a lack-of-trait which drives me mad. He spends the entirety of the next hundred pages whining about his condition and complaining about how this whole thing is a dream. For me, this would be tolerable except I find Atarian, his guide and Lena's mother, to be weak and depressing, therefore leaving us with two characters for just less than a quarter of the book whose woes take up more time than the beauty (and evil) in the surrounding Land.
As a reader, in this 100-page stint, I turned my attention to the Land. Donaldson has crafted his world beautifully, an accomplishment that I envy. I can imagine the changing scenery perfectly, and you can feel the impending shiver as evil stretches out and corrupts it.
Once Covenant is dropped with Saltheart Foamfollower, the pacing becomes a littler quicker (thank goodness!) and the characters around Covenant become much more interesting (even while Covenant himself remains intolerable). Foamfollower is a particular favourite of mine, because I felt his character was very well-rounded and he was a changing character; the developments you see around Foamfollower are slightly heartbreaking. He is the character with empathy, the one who tries so hard to make Covenant see.
Donaldson has crafted a few very interesting species in this story, as is expected in any epic. I particularly like the Bloodguard and Ranyhyn. Bannor's character (a Bloodguard) is wide open, yet shut tight. I think that paradox makes him a enigma, and an interesting character.
Once the Questers left the remnant of Woodhelven, I found myself enjoying the book, and wanting to read it. I won't spoil the ending, but I am happier, now, picking up the second book than I was in the first half of Lord Foul's Bane.
I will say that Donaldson's pacing bothers me a little - but I also have problems with that in The Lord of the Rings and therefore I am inclined to believe that it is my own problem with epic fantasy. The slows are very slow and the fasts are so quick, I needed to go back in and read them several times to understand what had just happened.