# Should I finish it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 12, 2009, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-finish-it/506140 "2009-08-12T04:06:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-finish-it/506140/21 "2009-08-13T14:24:05Z")
Thomas Covenant starts out as an ass and … well I don’t want to ruin the ending except to say I kept reading to see if he ever got less assholeish. Way back when I young and starved for fantasy books, after finishing LotR for the second time, Convenant was a bit of fresh air. In the same vein as LotR without being to derivative like some books I could mention. There are some excellent scenes that I still remember 30 some years later. Ultimately the story as a whole didn’t really lead anywhere so I have to echo others in this thread and say, life is too short to read books you don’t feel like reading. Lot’s of good fantasy these days, or so I hear, that you could spend your time with. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-finish-it/506140/22 "2009-08-13T14:42:37Z")
I LIKED the Thomas Covenant books (both the first and the second series) but I liked them more for The Land than for Covenant. The Land is fascinating, and the rest of that world likewise. But I’m a Subcreation (as Tolkien phrased it) freak…I’ve owned, at various times, the Karen Wynn Fonstad atlases of The Land, Pern and Middle-Earth, and I practically collect “A Guide To” books (Vampire Chronicles, Mayfair Witches, World of Wheel of Time, etc.) and D&D setting sourcebooks. I love worlds more than stories sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-finish-it/506140/23 "2009-08-13T15:57:57Z")
I slogged through all the (too-heavy-handedly-written) books, and I found myself identifying with Tom: He was in The Land without wanting to be there, and I WAS TOO! > [@Typo\_Knig](#): > > Life’s too short to finish books you don’t like, even if other people love them. De Gustibus, YMMV, and whatever floats your boat. Okay! [puts down _Time Traveler’s Whatever_, picks up another _ **Animorphs** _ book] Ahhh… ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-finish-it/506140/24 "2009-08-13T16:14:26Z")
I sort of enjoyed the books when I read them, but I’ve never had more than a tiny urge to read them again. If I did, I might skip around just to read about the Giants and the Blood Guard, who were great characters. Donaldson seemed to know how cool they were compared to his main character, since he got a separate book published just to let us read the excised chapter about Banor, and Saltheart Foamfollower has become a god-like figure by the second trilogy. Still, if I’m ever called to cut a bad guy in half with a sword, I might shout “Melenkurion abatha! Duroc minas mil khabaal!” as I landed the stroke. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-finish-it/506140.md?page=1)