Boy this thread is bringing back memories for me too. I read the books way back in the 80s, and though I still have those copies somewhere, I haven’t read them since. The first five are in paperback, and then for **White Gold Wielder ** I finally invested (or could afford to invest) in hardcover.
Funny though, I don’t really remember the language being all **that **, ahem, interesting. Then again, as a teenager I was very fond of great big words.
It’s actually something of a relief to see that there are other intelligent people out there who like the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. I mean, i knew that the books were best-sellers, but i never ran into many people who read them. Even worse, for a while it seemed that every time i mentioned liking them, i would be berated by some holier-than-thou Tolkein freak who would go into great detail about why Donaldson was a hack, and often a plagiarist to boot.
I love Tolkein, and i actually read the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings at about the same age that i first encountered Donaldson’s work (early teens), but despite some of the similarities, the two authors’ series are really quite different in many important ways, and liking Tolkein should not preclude liking Donaldson also.
If you don’t like Donaldson, fine. But don’t give me shit about it just because you prefer Tolkein.