By Stephen Donaldson
The Thomas Covenant books are, without a doubt, well written. They tell the tale of a man who becomes a leper and is left distraught by the isolation that is forced upon him by an uncaring world. His wife divorces him, the townspeople shun and fear him. The doctors at the leprosarium merely teach him how to survive but he has to learn to cope on his own.
In one of his few excursions into town, he seems to become involved in an accident but is hurtled instead into a land of wonder. It is a land where health and vitality are built into the rocks and trees, where, even his leprosy begins to recede. But Covenant knows that this is impossible, knows that if he were to accept this as real, he would become careless and hurt himself – and hurt for leper is a deadly thing. With dead nerves in his limbs, wounds can go unattended, unnoticed – left to become infected and gangrenous. He must preserve himself and therefore cannot believe what he sees, hears and touches. The vitality of this place overwhelms him so much that he commits a horrific crime and begins to despise himself.
The evil that stalks this place and seeks to destroy it has a name – Lord Foul The Despiser but, within the tale, there is always that moment of doubt within the reader – is this real? Or some analogy dreamed up by Covenant’s mind? Foul himself is like a leprosy within The Land, and Covenant is inextricably involved through his White Gold wedding ring. White Gold is the wild magic – the force that can create or destroy – the force that is not beholden to the laws of the Land. But Covenant does not know how to use it.
The White Gold is Donaldson’s Deus Ex Machina and he uses it to a frustrating and yet great effect – always present, threatening and yet paralysed through Covenant’s self doubt and self-despite. Are he and Foul one and the same? Right to the end of the trilogy the question is never truly answered – and this is Donaldson’s great strength. He creates a wonderful, imaginative world and populates it with characters with real flaws, real doubts, suffering and great hopes.
I don’t want to give away too much of the story to anybody who has not yet read this series but it is suffice to say that it is Fantasy with the edge of a rusty razor blade. Throughout the three books of the First Chronicles, Covenant suffers for his guilt and crimes – and yet must find a way to overcome – drawing him inevitably towards a final desperate gambit. Something very familiar and yet a little different.
The worst thing you could possibly do is just try to draw comparisons between this and LOTR. They are both great works with overlapping themes. Both can be savoured for their own unique perspectives and tales of overcoming the odds. Both can be enjoyed by all of us if we just open our minds a little
The three books in this trilogy are Lord Fouls Bane, The Illearth War and The Power That Preserves.
The Thomas Covenant books are, without a doubt, well written. They tell the tale of a man who becomes a leper and is left distraught by the isolation that is forced upon him by an uncaring world. His wife divorces him, the townspeople shun and fear him. The doctors at the leprosarium merely teach him how to survive but he has to learn to cope on his own.
In one of his few excursions into town, he seems to become involved in an accident but is hurtled instead into a land of wonder. It is a land where health and vitality are built into the rocks and trees, where, even his leprosy begins to recede. But Covenant knows that this is impossible, knows that if he were to accept this as real, he would become careless and hurt himself – and hurt for leper is a deadly thing. With dead nerves in his limbs, wounds can go unattended, unnoticed – left to become infected and gangrenous. He must preserve himself and therefore cannot believe what he sees, hears and touches. The vitality of this place overwhelms him so much that he commits a horrific crime and begins to despise himself.
The evil that stalks this place and seeks to destroy it has a name – Lord Foul The Despiser but, within the tale, there is always that moment of doubt within the reader – is this real? Or some analogy dreamed up by Covenant’s mind? Foul himself is like a leprosy within The Land, and Covenant is inextricably involved through his White Gold wedding ring. White Gold is the wild magic – the force that can create or destroy – the force that is not beholden to the laws of the Land. But Covenant does not know how to use it.
The White Gold is Donaldson’s Deus Ex Machina and he uses it to a frustrating and yet great effect – always present, threatening and yet paralysed through Covenant’s self doubt and self-despite. Are he and Foul one and the same? Right to the end of the trilogy the question is never truly answered – and this is Donaldson’s great strength. He creates a wonderful, imaginative world and populates it with characters with real flaws, real doubts, suffering and great hopes.
I don’t want to give away too much of the story to anybody who has not yet read this series but it is suffice to say that it is Fantasy with the edge of a rusty razor blade. Throughout the three books of the First Chronicles, Covenant suffers for his guilt and crimes – and yet must find a way to overcome – drawing him inevitably towards a final desperate gambit. Something very familiar and yet a little different.
The worst thing you could possibly do is just try to draw comparisons between this and LOTR. They are both great works with overlapping themes. Both can be savoured for their own unique perspectives and tales of overcoming the odds. Both can be enjoyed by all of us if we just open our minds a little
The three books in this trilogy are Lord Fouls Bane, The Illearth War and The Power That Preserves.
). I've often wondered about this series, but it always sounded somehow pretty lame - "Lord Foul" is a name straight from Victorian melodrama, which promises little and is very off-putting. 
