The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

Cafe Society
1

I inherited these books from my brother a while back, after he found the Lord and purged his collection of all those pagan fantasy books ( :rolleyes: ), and I’m just now giving them a whirl. I gotta say, I’ve been hearing for years about how these books are classics of the genre, but so far, I’m distinctly underwhelmed. I’m about halfway through the first book, so please tell me better things are to come.

So far, it’s like Donaldson ripped off the worst parts of Tolkien (Evil Overlord, the whole thing revolving around a magic ring, overly-wordy, emo writing, general Teutonic mythological setting) and Moorcock (selfish bastard of an antihero drawn magically from another place and time, a la The Eternal Champion, to save humanity from some grave threat in these days of waning Magic) and mashed it up with really bad all-around writing.

So far, we have an embittered leper getting run down by a police car, and waking up in a magical world full of pixie dust and druidic magic. He is immediately assaulted by Gollum (shit, I mean Drool Rockworm,) who has found some ancient talisman of power. He then runs afoul (ha!) of Dread Lord Crappy Exposition for a few pages, who conveniently gives him the rundown of everything he’s missed in the past 1000 or so years. Shortly thereafter, he then apparently deus ex machina’s hisself out of the leprosy by using some crunchy, granola, woods-hippie dirt (oooooh, it’s hurtloam,) after which he wanders around the idyllic countryside for a while, before pulling a very Elric-esque rape of the first chick that he comes across, his guide and savior Lena.

Uh huh. The White City and the Lords of Humanity are being sorely pressed by the Demondim (orcs) and the ur-viles (Nazgul, other generic nasties,) and he is called to help defeat the forces of Evil before Drool can delve too deep in Moria (or whatever) and unearth a Balrog (I mean, the Illearth Stone.)

So far, it’s pretty much the same ol’ yadda yadda yadda. This guy doesn’t have the talent for setting and context that Tolkien did, nor the capacity for characters of Moorcock. Yet here we are.

Should I keep on with this thing? Does it actually become original and interesting at some point?

2

if you survived the first part of the first book and are still reading you might as well finish the first book, if that doesnt keep you interested then just stop there.

I loved the books when I was younger but yeah you are right about the whole tolken rip off on a level thats pretty much plagiarism.

he does have some interesting ideas and they were a worthwhile read way back when I was younger but I doubt I could read them again.

3

I was about to threadshit, but I see that the OP shares my opinion. Biggest pile of toss I’ve ever had the misfortune of reading. Finished the first trilogy in my late teens, the third book of which I had to force myself to read, got loaned the fourth book, read one page of it and just went “oh for fuck’s sake, there are six more of these?” and went out and did something more fun instead, like setting fire to my eyelashes, or playing D&D.

4

They are long, involved, often depressing and the protagonist doesn’t learn shit until about the last 20 pages of the (app) 2000 pages of the first 6 books.

On the other hand, parts of it can be interesting but if you didn’t like the first one then don’t bother with the next 5.

5

So far, I’m taking the responses as a vociferous raspberry. Anyone think any different? My casual reading time is way too valuable to me to waste it on wading through a turd.

6

Yup, you’ve pretty much summarized my reading experience right there. Made it 3/4 of the way through the first book and never bothered to finish it.

7

I think I went ahead and finished the first book, but I didn’t consider it time well spent. And I didn’t mind the Tolkien copying so much as that the lead character is such a jerk that I just didn’t care about what happened to him.

8

I liked them quite a bit when I read them in middle school, and when I re-read them in high school.

While certain elements are undeniably derivative (but what fantasy isn’t?), I think there is more creativity as you go along.

9

I’ll defend the series :slight_smile:

I agree with the OP about the first book though, it truly is derivative crap. I threw it across the room many times in disgust at the silly exposition, threadbare plot, and cardboard characters. It was only because a friend (a fan of the books) had dared me to read the whole trilogy that I even continued.

The following books are brilliant however, they feel like a completely different author (or one that wasn’t dusting off his first novel written during middle school recesses). Character, pacing, plot, everything is wonderful and original, it becomes its own world. Perhaps then you’ll see that the fan-wanking of Donaldson is justified.

I fully recommend just stopping now with the first book, finish up by just reading the Wikipedia summary, and then jump right into reading the Illearth War. I’ve reread the series (books 2 - 6) many times over, but refuse to ever touch the vile literary abomination that is book 1.

10

Have a look at this old thread:
Book discussion: THE CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT

My own opinion of the Chronicles can be found in the first reply in that thread.

11

I remember liking SaltHeart Foamfollower(?) but that is about it. Thomas Covenant was a depressing shithead and I kept wishing he would just die of leprosy already. I read the whole series, can’t say I would recommend it.

12

Thanks for the link. I see there are indeed some defenders of the series around here. Good to read their perspectives.

13

The giants story saddened me beyond belief. Like I said, the storyline is frequently very depressing.

14

I managed to make it to the third book, but that’s one of the few I’ve started and didn’t finish. As I recall, all three books were in my car when I sold it and I don’t even care. I’ve never missed them, nor have I ever been curious as to how they ended.

15

I tried this book on a strong recommendation and my feelings are summed up exactly by the OP. I couldn’t quite understand why the author was so desperate to make the protagonist out to be such a cunt - the rape scene seemed almost contrived (“hmmmmm, I seemed to have reached the bottom of the barrel, how can I scrape it any further?”). Had the fantasy world bee a bit more engaging I may have persevered but I couldn’t be bothered and quit 2/3 of the way through.

16

People love them or hate them. I love them - sounds like you don’t. If you don’t like the first one you won’t like the others - they’re all different but I doubt you’d find much to enjoy in any of them.

17

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate them yet. I’m just becoming disillusioned, and I wanted to stop and look around to gather my thoughts and get some other opinions before I wade back in.

18

The chronicles of TC as Tolkein rip-off is not a complaint I’ve heard before. The LoR is the touchstone book for an entire genre and its influence can be seen everywhere, so equating various plot elements of the chronicles with LoR is not an especially meaningful criticism IMO. I feel that the chronicles are a long way from the formulaic high fantasy that really does retread Tolkein, so I’m surprised that would be a major objection to the books.

I read the books in high school a long while back, so take this with a pinch of salt, but I’ve always rated them as a cut above most fantasy. Good ideas and story-telling let down by some truly risible prose. Even for a genre that is not known for its prose stylists, Donaldson is/was seriously bad. Bad in the sense of his language, rather than the structure of the books which was ok. Having a leper, and a leper’s consciousness, as the anti-hero was original, and he also built a very effective environmental voice into the books. The idea of the land (‘The Land’) as a sentient Gaia-like entity was not new, but he did a very good job of realising it as a central thread of the books.

I’m also taken with guys who hang their balls out when writing - its a grandly realised, amps up to 11 set of books in many ways. The purple prose is I guess a consequence of this. I wasn’t taken as much with the second three books (hated the female doctor character). The power that preserves (great title!) I remember as being the best of the first set.

19

I’ve just read the linked thread and there are some great posts there - brings a lot of the books back to me (thanks thudlow boink). The chronicles are very poe-faced and solemn, Donaldson has had the same sense of humour bypass operation as Tolkein, and this sort of writing maybe doesn’t hold up well today. Saying that, there is always Kevin landwaster. Kevin! :stuck_out_tongue:

20

I prefer Covenant to LotR (I prefer hangovers to Tolkien) but recognize that LFB isn’t his best. Seems to be written for a teen audience.
They get better, I think.

I don’t know if I’d like the series so much if I found it for the first time as an adult (I was 12 or so when I started them) but I still enjoy the books and re-read them every decade or so.

The first couple Shannara books struck me as far more obviously derivative.