I may have to read "Lord Foul's Bane" again...
...after seeing this. I wonder if Heatherly and Julie will take on the next five books in the first two Thomas Covenant trilogies. I haven't read those books in almost 20 years. They may be due for a reread.
(Via Be Lambic or Green)
(Via Be Lambic or Green)
He's in the midst of writing the third (and last) chronicles; the first of the four books has already been published ("Runes of the Earth"). It's very good. Also, he's going to be a guest star on their show; maybe their last episode, but I'm not sure about that. If you follow the link at the bottom of the page there, you'll get to the official SRD page. The gradual interview is especially worth looking through. Donaldson can be extremely eloquent and coherent in discussing his work.
ReplyDeleteScott
Like you, I haven't picked up those books in a decade or two. I never want to see them again. The first trilogy was a thousand pages of unrelenting despair and self-torture followed by an inexplicably happy ending. It didn't get any better. I'm sure he knows what he's doing -- he sells better than I do -- but I'm not doing that again anytime soon, not even for tv exposure...
ReplyDeleteI have read the various Chronicles of Thomas Covenant novels three times over. Each time I ask myself why. If anyone ever needed a definition of the words Bombastic Adoxography...
ReplyDeleteI read 'em twice. I suspect they may not appeal to me now in my early 40's in the same way they did in my late teens and early 20's.
ReplyDeleteScott,
ReplyDeleteActually, I haven't liked anything Donaldson has done since the Thomas Covenant series. The Gap books (at least the first two) were particularly bad. (Never mind what it says about me that I read the second one after hating the first one so much.)
He tends to have extreme effects on people. I like his work a lot, but I can _easily_ see a lot of ways to criticize his writing. The first Gap book...yeah, I agree with you there. I'm not sure why I continued with that series, but they did get better. Not my favorite series, though.
ReplyDeleteOne thing, however, I'm convinced of: he's a writer with integrity. As a writer myself, I have found a lot of good advice and inspiration in his gradual interview (at his site). Most of my favorite authors (Naguib Mahfouz, Penelope Fitzgerald, Marguerite Duras, etc.) are unreachable (dead or not online). Somehow Donaldson's Covenant series has always resonated with me, and it was gratifying to discover that Donaldson himself is someone I could admire.
- Scott
I really wanted to like the Thomas Covenant series, I really did. I got hooked on the first one and it was all downhill from there.
ReplyDelete