The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever: Book 1
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Liked It1 of 1 members found this review helpful “This is a great series with a rich, well-developed mythology and lore. One of the better fantasy series available, especially since it has such a unique setting and environment and is not simply "yet another Lord of the Rings clone". Donaldson crafts a very entertaining world, and you will be...” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It1 of 1 members found this review helpful “You know, I really wanted to like this book, the first in Stephen Donaldson's popular Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever series. Donaldson, to his credit, has a main character with a lot of potential. Thomas Covenant is a bitter, cynical, mean-spirited man from our own world who lost his entire life...” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“I've started this a couple of times and not finished it, having never found it quite compelling enough. Having another go now.”
sid_rw wrote this review 4 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“First book of the First Chronicles trilogy of Thomas Covenant”
Thistle Steel wrote this review Sunday, November 22 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“A have-to-read for fantasy fans. Classic. One of the great antihereos of modern fastasy literature. Great adventure, suspense, character development and growth.”
Kelly D wrote this review Monday, October 19 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“How does one start a review on a book one despised for the first 376 pages, and wavered between love and hate for the last 98? Because that’s my general feeling about Lord Foul’s Bane. It’s a nice long book with a fantasy story, a made up land, a strange language, people with pointy ears, people who live in trees, horses that seem smarter than your average horse, giants, mountains, a ring that glows, old men with long beards and special staffs (staves?), and a creepy underground dwelling “cavewight” who yearns for power. Sound familiar? Yes, it’s a lot like The Lord of the Rings. But it’s a little different: it’s slightly easier to read. But that doesn’t make it great. The writing was slow and sluggish at times, far too much expository description for locations which could have been understood better with less detail, “less is more” sometimes rings so, so true.
The Crowded Leaf wrote this review Friday, September 11 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Thomas Covenant is a leper living in a small town where he’s generally shunned and avoided. His wife has left him and taken their son. His utility bills are paid by unknown parties so that he doesn’t have to walk to town and expose everyone to his disease. People fear him, and he’s become bitter and resentful because of it. He’s an extremely unlikeable character; I wanted to like him, I wanted to feel his pain and loneliness, but he pushed me away, made it completely impossible to feel sorry for him. When he walks into town one day to pay his phone bill he meets a strange beggar who gives him a note with a short story about a man who finds himself in an other-world which he believes is a dream and so he refuses to defend himself, and a follow up question on courage and ethics. It appears very random, until we look back (hindsight is twenty-twenty afterall) to figure out that the story in the note is really what happens to Covenant. Covenant speaks with the old beggar (who is blind and walks with a staff – methinks this beggar will turn up again in later books) and gives him his wedding ring. The beggar returns the ring, Covenant walks away, is hit by a police car, and wakes up in The Land. He’s greeted by the creepy cavewight, a lot of clouds and smoke, and a disembodied voice known as Lord Foul (the evil guy). Lord Foul gives him a message he must take to the Council of Lords and then the voice and the cavewight disappear, and a girl comes to Covenant’s rescue, and the journey begins and doesn’t end for a long, long time.
(Sometimes I wonder how people come up with these intensely overflowing ideas. Whole other-worlds, characters, languages, scenery… it’s incredible.)
Covenant’s journey is both physical, and mental, as well as emotional for him. The entire span of the book he’s convinced he’s dreaming. You would think he’d catch on that The Land had helped heal his leprosy, but he’s in serious denial. It’s one long mental crisis that peaks three-quarters of the way through when Covenant realizes he needs to pick a side, make a decision, but he doesn’t do it right away. He has kept moving only because moving forward through the “dream” is the only way he can survive… but when he’s met over and over again with those defining moments where an action from him will make him a hero, he cowers and shakes, and runs away. Perhaps that makes him the most realistic fantasy character I’ve ever read. He doesn’t become the hero overnight, in fact, he may not be the hero at all. He doesn’t make his own choices because he wants to, he’s pushed into a corner where the only thing left is to appear as though he’s made a decision. I am not sure if he ever really did decide to be the good or bad guy, or if he did the only thing he could do because that’s all there was. He’s flawed, and that’s real.
I found the similarites to The Lord of the Rings to be slightly distracting at times. I am sure Stephen Donaldson knew what he was doing when he wrote Lord Foul’s Bane (first published in 1977, 23 years after The Fellowship of the Ring). Perhaps LOTR wasn’t as mainstream then as it is now. I am no expert.
I do want to (eventually) read the next two books in the first trilogy of the Chronicles (The Illeath War, The Power That Preserves), and perhaps the many, many books that come after (one more trilogy, followed by a tetrology). If for nothing else than to find out what happens to the characters in the beginning that affect Covenant but never return. And to find out if he ever becomes likeable. And to see if the old beggar is who I think it is.
Overall, I’m going with a neutral 2 1/2 stars out of 5 on this one. I really did not like most of the book, but the end (slightly) redeemed itself.”
“Okay, by far hands down this is my favorite book of all time. I love this book so much that I bought it and read it until the front page was hanging off. And I went out and bought almost all the rest of the books in the series.
^^Embie^^ wrote this review Saturday, August 29 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
I like how the main character in the book is an anti-hero. I hate Thomas and loathe him but I have some hope that he'll wake up and become better but that ain't happening at the moment. -Laughs.-
This book is amazing, and you'll eat it up if you just give it a chance. ^^”
“I really disliked the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, mainly because of the negative attitude of the protagonist. The settings and situations all seemed very derivative of other fantasy series. I was almost relieved when Thomas died at the start of the sixth book. Maybe I would think better of these stories if I read them again, after all these years, but there are too many new books I want to read.”
Norman H wrote this review Monday, August 10 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I tried to read this book a few years ago, on a close friends suggestion, and it fell flat for me. I never finished it. After finding it in a used bookstore in early July, and gave it another shot, and absolutely loved it. The first time, I wasn't ready for the antihero,Thomas Covenant. This is a fantastic book!”
Brett A wrote this review Tuesday, August 4 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“If you liked the Gunslinger series by Stephen King, you will love this series of books, another great author who produces a great character”
John C wrote this review Wednesday, July 1 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
