Well, I just knocked off the first volume of 4 in the Third Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, good old Mr. Happy Leper. And I must say the book grabbed me pretty quick, and kept me going thru at a steady pace. An enjoyable read. A lot less guilt, since good old doc Linden is the main character. Not no guilt, but less guilt, and less self-loathing.
So all in all I give it a definite “Thumbs up”, or ring finger high in the air, or whatever symbology you pick to indicate approval. I’d love to kick it around with anyone else who’s read it.
And the Haruchai are still really inflexible pains in the ass. But the ur-viles are sorta cute this time around! :eek:
At the risk of sounding stupid, I could have sworn Covenant died in the second series. :dubious:
… you’re scaring me with the magical horsie thing. Please tell me you’re joking! Trans-dimensional lepers are one thing, but magical friendly horsies might be more than I can take.
Thanks for the review. I didn’t care for the second trilogy, and will probably skip the third, but now I will probably get this for a friend for Christmas (someone who enjoyed all 6 books more than I)
You forgot the Ranyhyn? Earthpower itself incarnated in steed form? Actually they are the best magical friendly horsies to be written about since Oromë’s horse Nahar sired the line that led to Shadowfax.
Yeah, Covenant died, but when your daughter breaks the law of death, whatcha gonna do?
Actually the old ex-leper hasn’t made too many appearances yet.
I haven’t seen this in the bookstores yet, but I suspected there was something in the making when I saw that the first two series recently got reprinted with new covers.
Is it out in hardback or paperback? Any idea what the release schedule is for the sequels?
I’m reading it now (well, not at this moment) so don’t spoil anything for me Although, I have to kinda say, I’m a little disappointed. Not grandly so, and not enough to stop reading but…
Well, I’ve never liked Donaldson’s dialogue style much to begin with, but then, that’s not why I read him. But it seems even worse this time around. The conversation with Meg and Linden in the beginning of the book seemed so… wrong. “Will you believe… [this]” “Will you believe…[that]?” First of all, most people say “Would you believe?” And not three times in the span of two minutes. And the swearing… well, I figure it’s my fault, because I always wished Covenant would use more colorful language than “Hellfire and Damnation!” but whenever a swear is used in this book, it feels like swearing for swearing’s sake. Ditto with the description of the bathroom in the jail. He throws in a throwaway hint at a toilet, but it feels almost shoved in, as if he said “All those people who kept asking me how people in the Land “use the facilities” - HERE.”
And, without spoiling, all I can say is, it was blatantly obvious who Anele was from moments after his introduction. Linden’s Avery surprise (and incredulity) just didn’t make any sense.
I dunno. I’m enjoying it, but I think that’s more from a sense of being somewhere familiar. If this were my first introduction to Donaldson, I don’t think I’d have made it this far.
Oh, and it’s in hardcover, and he hasn’t written the second or third (and final) books yet. He estimates on his website that it will be 9 years before the third book is ready for purchase.
I know what you mean. I read the first chronicles when my dad sent me the set for my birthday. It was several years before I could get around to getting the second chronicles, so I ended up re-reading the first set first, then the second set. When I heard the third series was coming out, I re-read both the first and second series. By the time the second one comes out, I’ll probably re-read all of it all over again. Not that I mind
Wow, I didn’t even know there was going to be a 3rd chronicles.
I am going to have to get the first one in this new series but I have no idea how I’ll deal with 9 years.
My wedding band is white gold, out of tribute to these books being the spark that started the fire of my desire to read for pleasure when I was still in high-school. As flawed as many think the chronicles are, I’ll always love Thomas Covenant.
Maybe we can have Robert Jordan, George R. R. Martin and Steven Donaldson write a series together! It will never end!
The Martin series is the last fantasy series I will ever make the mistake of starting before it is done. It’s just not worth it. I’ve tried to work by this guideline for many years, but for some reason I can’t remember broke it for A Song of Ice and Fire.
Of course, what this practice leads to is a whole bunch of collections on my shelf where the whole series is paperback except the final book is in hardcover… The Malloreon, Mordant’s Need, The Sarantine Mosaic, Memory Sorrow and Thorn, Viscount of Adrilankha… I’m sure there are others.
But I’ve marked my calendar for 2013! The First Chronicles is one of my top three favorite fantasy series of all time, and the Second Chronicles, while not as good as the first, is still an excellent read.
Well, it’s sort of “quality of dialogue” vs. “quality of storytelling”. A lot of Tolkien’s dialogue sucked, frankly. But man, what a story!!
Same for Donaldson. His “Gap” series just blew me away. He introduced concepts, conflicts, and characters whose complexity boggles my mind, even as I think they sound like ham actors sometimes.
Agreed - that was the original point I was trying to make, and failed to clarify properly in my last post. Donaldson tells an amazing story, and that’s why I have stayed loyal this long. But it’s not something that is immediately evident, and had I not already known what he is capable of, I probably would not make it past the first chapter of a book that begins with the crappy dialogue such as this one did.
Throw Piers Anthony in the mix and I think they’d all explode!
I do not think it is fair to toss Robert Jordan in with the rest. At least the others do actually manage to finish a series. I am getting to the end of my rope with Jordan. With his publication of a prequel, of all things, before he is even done with his neverending series has me thinking he is just riding the money train for all it is worth. I used to think having no end to a good thing was, well, good. Now I just want to see the bloody thing over with…I doubt I can learn anytyhing more about women’s fashion at this point from Mr. Jordan and would like to see it finished (IIRC I have been on this series for 12 years).
As for the Covenant series I am of two minds. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant were among the earliest series I read once I discovered the joys of reading an loved them. Then the second Chronicles came out and I dutifully read those and while I liked them well enough I hated how The Land had been damaged. I know that is partly the point of those books but at least in the first series we had The Land itself to counterbalance our self-loathing hero. Depressing Land and depresssing hero were a painful pill to swallow.
Then I met Donaldson at a book signing event and he was a prick. I’ll allow I may have just caught him at a bad moment but what I walked away with is “that guy is a prick” just the same. Technically that should not affect my enjoyment of what he writes but it makes me not want to give him any money ever again.
On the whole I think I will wait till the whole series is on paperback. That way I can rip through it on one go, wait to see a broad opinion form if they are worthwhile books and if I am to give Mr. Donaldson another dime then at least it will be as few dimes as possible.
Not defending him in any way, but he does say that he absolutely dreads book-signings (he’d rather be writing, he claims) so maybe that explains the numerous accounts that I’ve heard that say the same thing.
