The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever: "Lord Foul's Bane", "Illearth War" and "Power That Preserves" [Paperback]

"Thomas Covenant" also adds another dimension to story telling that challenges the reader. You do care about Covenant in these stories, but the reader's first reaction to him is to dislike, even loathe him. Donaldson then takes all the typical actions of a fantasy hero and turns them on their head. Where as Lira threw herself in to the action (rightly or wrongly - and I liked that treatment), Harry Potter rises to the challenge of being a hero, as does Frodo, or Aragorn standing tall and proud and fighting his cause come-what-may; Thomas Covenant does all he can to get away from his situation. Many times he has the opportunity to change the course of events, and when things look like they couldn't get much worse; he does a damn good job of making things sink to a new dismal low!

Sounds depressing? Actually, it is at a surface level, but somehow Donaldson manages to make you "care" about Covenant, so the reality is that despite wanting to throw the book at something very breakable in frustration, the reader is driven on to find out what the hell happens next.... There is a lot of landscape description and epic journey type stuff that Tolkien is known for, but with Donaldson's writing, like Tolkien, it's not merely padding to make the books the thick volumes they are, it's the stock that makes the soup, the pure water that makes a good ale, the nitrogen in the atmosphere we breath. You don't actually think about it too much, it's all part of the atmosphere of the story.

Someone said to me that if I liked the Potter stories, then I'd like the Dark Materials trilogy - it was described to me as the "next step on, intellectually from Harry Potter, that added a new and darker dimension to its stories". I think I agree with that. If this statement was generally the case, the "Thomas Covenant", is the grown up version, the adult treatment and a natural progression from those two series. There a useful comparisons to be made between Lord of the Rings and Thomas Covenant, though TC doesn't have the wealth of lore and the rich history of LOTR. It has some, but some folks found LOTR heavy going because of all that. TC has enough to make you care about the land in which the story is set (another Tolkien-esque concept), but doesn't overburden you with too much.

The plot is that TC is in this world - in present day - a man suffering from leprosy who is feeling more than a little sorry for himself. In a way not entirely described (and not really required), TC finds himself in a world where he is not only cured, but is seen as some sort of messiah (another old and familiar concept). TC wants none of this and despite doing everything in his path to avoid things that seem to have become his responsibility, is steadily driven in to being the hero whether he likes it or not. Donaldson does a masterly job of using the reader's preconditioning to this type of story and twisting it in to unexpected directions, that I can compare with jumping in to the sea. It's cold and a shock to the system at first, you really want to get out and wish you'd not bothered, but slowly, as you become accustomed to the temperature, it turns in to a wonderfully relaxing luxury. Donaldson does exactly the same, but keeps chucking buckets of cold water at you for good measure!

There are six books, "The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant", and surprise, surprise, "The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant". Each book has it's own individual title and starts with "Lord Foul's Bane". I won't give too much away, but there are very strong Tolkien overtures in this first book. Lord Foul, you won't be surprised to hear, is the baddie. The first three books can be read without the second three, but not, I would suggest, the other way around, despite the addition of another main character. Having read all six, I would also suggest that it would be a great shame to miss the second three. They are uncomfortably different to the first three, despite being set in the same world etc. But then, I'm sure that's the idea. I won't give away the ending, save to say that Donaldson delivers his climax in a way that doesn't disappoint. There's much more I'd want to say once you've read it (if you read it! or if you read it and don't slash your wrists half way through as TC fails AGAIN!), but as much as I could enthuse about these books, you'd have to read them yourself. They are traditional fantasy, more Pullman than Potter, and I'd say that a cross between His Dark Materials and Lord of the Rings is probably a good comparison. Read more ›

The setting is The Land, a mythical world which of course resembles Middle-earth in many ways. Like Tolkien, Donaldson depicts a largely rural, agrarian society, but unlike Tolkien the inhabitants are mostly humans (the creatures of folklore, while present, are slightly thin on the ground - not a criticism by the way). The threat to the Land comes from without, but Donaldson seems most interested in the interior landscape of his protagonist, the leper Thomas Covenant.

This is the thing that elevates the novels above the bulk of fantasy fiction: a bitter, self-pitying main character who, being shunned by human society, has lost in faith in the goodness of people. His despair is the subject of the book; when he is transported from our own world into an idyllic world where he is not just accepted but needed, he cannot believe in its verity and so cannot be the saviour the people so desperately call for. The Land is the exact opposite of the uncaring world he has known, and his despair makes him reject the friendship and kindness he meets with, selfishly spurning those who offer friendship, causing pain to those who put their trust in him. Covenant is interesting because he has psychological depth. As a hero he is flawed, all too human, and the plot centres around his painfully slow acceptance of his role in a world he does not really believe in: to be its saviour, to offer its people the very things that have always been denied him: friendship, faith and love....

The books are moral, in the broad sense, and seem at times to echo Christian beliefs of charity and kindness. The second trilogy evokes Adam and Eve's expulsion from paradise, as Covenant, plus female companion, enter a wilderness where the Land used to be. In the middle book of the second trilogy, the giants, perhaps Donaldson's most memorable creations, accompany Covenant on a sea voyage into fabulous new places, recalling, amongst other things, the Greek myths. What manages to sustain our interest through all six volumes is Covenant himself, his slow evolution from unbeliever to believer in the existence of goodness, and his attempts to make reparation for the evil he himself has wrought. Lord Foul, the novels' Sauron, is merely a device, though an effective one, and Donaldson is more interested in the darkness within us. It could be argued that Lord Foul is Covenant himself, or more particularly his own darkness, and it takes him two attempts, and a lot of self-knowledge and moral growth, to finally banish him for good. All in all, there is enough here to satisfy people who do not usually get enough out of fantasy novels. Read more ›