Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #154196 in Books
• Published on: 1996-08-05
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Customer Reviews

Hugely disappointing
The opening chapters make you sit up and think... a leper hero what a great idea, something really good is going to come out of this. Unfortunately it doesn't, the character stumbles through events that have no coherence in a world that has not been well thought out. The guy is unsympathetic, which may be deliberate but does not suit the fantasy genre well. And the quality of writing does nothing to compensate for these disadvantages.

One of the few books I've finished feeling angry with the author, and it put me off trying anything else of his for ages. Read the 2-volume Mordaunt's Need instead of these as he did better there.

Bizarre
I've tried to read this book several times over the years, at the vehement urging of my mother, who, ironically, has never been able to get past the first book herself. And that seems to be the thing with this book - people sing its praises, but then there seem to be so many who just give up on it, and complain that it doesn't go anywhere.

That's true - this book really doesn't go anywhere. And even when it does go somewhere, you're still waiting for it to go somewhere. Only in the last fifty pages or so does the real action heat up, and even then, it seems half-hearted, as though something is missing.

If I had to label what's missing, I would have to say that it's originality and a solid, likable main character. What Donaldson has done is admirable - he's described the emotional torment of lepers and the unacceptable way in which they are shunned by society - but when he rants continuously on about this throughout the entire book, it eventually gets tiresome. Of course, the rape that Covenant commits early on in the book also serves to put many off. But then, isn't it a testament to the emotional torment he's going through? The main attraction of the trilogy is following Covenant through his inner journey, and the Land is just a means of doing this.

Throughout the book, it feels asthough Donaldson sacrificed the Land and all of the other characters simply so that he could develop Covenant - and it isn't enough. It doesn't inspire. The reader is also confronted by a feeling of despair at the atrocities done to the land, and Covenant's own reluctance to accept his fate. The only attraction to this is the realisation that Covenant is intensly human, unlike many heros of the same genre.

On the plus side, Donaldson's writing is very poetic, and he gives vivid descriptions of certain aspects of the land - Andelain, for example - which are sometimes hard to imagine. The Battle of Soaring Woodhelven is also wonderfully described, and doesn't fail to get the adrenaline flowing as Foamfollower throws Cavewights about like twigs. Deeper lessons are also here for the learning, as the message that we have become far too seperated from the health of the Earth is only too obvious. When Covenant is asked how his people survive in this state ("without beauty"), Covenant replies that he doesn't think we do - we're just stubborn.

Sadly though, for me, such nuggets of wisdom weren't enough to save the story and make it spectacular. Other reviewers were right when they said that this series needs patience, and perhaps when I'm older, with more time, I'll come back to it and find some more deeper meaning.

Now, I'm going to read the rest of the series, simply because I'm stubborn. I hope that they change my mind.

Irresistable
The writing shows a great imagination and contains an irresistable storyline. All the usual fantasy epic criteria are there and if you love Tolkien you'll love this...