slarter's Full Review: Stephen R. Donaldson - Lord Foul's Bane
There are very few fantasy novels that can claim a more "adult" audience than is normal for the genre. This is most certainly true of the 1970s, when the aftereffects of The Lord of the Rings could still be felt (despite its current multi-generational appeal, the sequels to The Hobbit, a children's book, were intended for a young adult audience). Into this milieu, Stephen R. Donaldson introduced The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, the first three books of a massive epic that has been decades in the making. At present (late 2004), the first book in the last series of the series has just seen publication, and the grand story arc promises to be complete within the next several years. Donaldson attempted, in his work, to stretch the boundaries of the genre. He chose an anti-hero as his protagonist, a man so flawed and bitter that in a psychological sense, he moved counter to all that fantasy readers had come to expect from a main character. Moreover, he wrote on a level that would challenge the intellect of most adults, let alone those of high-school age. The first novel in Donaldson's first adult fantasy trilogy, Lord Foul's Bane, is a fascinating and captivating novel that, while not entirely comfortable to read, is an unforgettable experience.
<=== Characters & Plot ===>
Thomas Covenant, outcast, pariah, and leper, walks with rigid strides into a town that fears his very existence. His slow excommunication--a bleak charity that pays his bills, delivers his groceries, and bereaves him of meaningful human contact--grates in his already tortured psyche like a rusted gear in a monstrous machine. His last link to life is his telephone bill, but he finds that it has already been paid; he has been irremediably cut off. Outside, an encounter with an inscrutable beggar leaves him shaken, adrift, and when he stumbles and falls in front of a speeding police car, the words, "Be true. You need not fail," echo in his mind.
His accident is not an end, however, but a beginning. The red spikes of the police lights resolve themselves into a pair of glowing, malice-tinged eyes, and a manic glee pierces his silence. Drool Rockworm, cavewight of Mount Thunder, has recovered the Staff of Law, and with it has summoned Covenant to the Land. The wight, though, is subject to a greater power still: Lord Foul the Despiser wrests the unwilling guest from Rockworm's clutches, speaking words of illimitable contempt. Covenant, cut by his tormentor's despite, resists, and becomes the stunned bearer of painful news to the Lords at Revelstone Keep. He must deliver a message of doom. Says Lord Foul, "I shall not rest until I have eradicated hope from the Earth. Think on that, and be dismayed!"
Now Covenant finds himself in a world that cannot be. The Land cannot, must not exist. The health and healing he finds are false, perilous; nerves don't regenerate. It is a deadly dream of wholeness--lepers cannot afford hope. Against his will, he undertakes to deliver the message he has been given. The stonedownors Lena and Atiaran Trell-mate, the giant Saltheart Foamfollower, and the Lords Mhoram and Prothall will befriend and aid him, but he is tormented by his dream-health. Unwillingly, grudgingly, he is drawn into a quest to save the Land, a world he cannot accept. This is reflected in the name he takes for himself: Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever.
<=== Analysis ===>
Heroism abounds in fantasy literature. Indeed, the genre thrives on it. The most fascinating aspect of Lord Foul's Bane, then, is its introduction of the anti-hero, Thomas Covenant. He is not powerful, he is not potent. He is driven by bitterness and gall, rage and anguish. His is a life in shambles, shards of former success serving only to accentuate present grief. Where before he boasted a wife, a son, wealth, and boundless optimism, he now possesses only leprosy, the single fundamental fact of his existence. To ignore it is to die a death of slow suppuration and rot, to accept it and fight it is to assent to gradual ostracization, an expulsion from community. The healthy fear leprosy, a disease that even in today's world is viewed as unclean. Thomas Covenant, leper, cannot afford to believe in a world that promises him health.
We do not empathize with Covenant. In this, Donaldson inverts the dogma of fantasy literature. There is evil, and there is good, but between the two poles stands the protagonist, unable to accept either. Both, he believes, are products of his fevered imagination, self-destructive urges playing out in his diseased mind. He drifts fruitlessly with those who strive for good, but his fundamental grief and self- loathing keep him from anything but accidental heroism. Those around him strive, struggle, and fall while he screams his ineffectual dissent to a deaf world. Yet we care for the Land. Where Covenant cannot, we drink in its health, its potency, and value its essential beauty. Those with whom the Unbeliever travels are fully drawn characters, full of potentialities and promise, vigor and individuality, and we feel for them. In spite of our frustration with the main character, we are drawn ineluctably into the flow of the story, feel the tension and urgency of those willing to sacrifice themselves for that which they love.
In addition to crafting a believable anti-hero, Donaldson injects a sincere love of language into his novel. His vocabulary is prodigous; within the first few chapters alone, we stumble over words like 'carious,' 'recidivists,' and 'preterite.' His similes are dark and evocative. Metaphors dance madly around the edges of the things they describe, sometimes bearing only the barest of connections to their original subject. The author wields language like a rapier, eschewing broad and unsubtle strokes and lancing again and again into precise, pinpoint wordings, vivifying the prose with jolts of esoteric excellence. If there is one unfortunate tendency, it is in his predilection for beginning his sentences with the dreaded "And." Many times over the unnecessary conjunction begins a sentence where it could easily have been deleted to better effect. Even so, the quality of the prose overall far outweighs this slight irritation. It is difficult, yes, but it is also rewarding.
<=== Finale ===>
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever holds a preeminent place among the multitude of epic fantasy trilogies. The nature of its protagonist alone lifts it above the mundane novels of its genre. Covenant, the anti-hero, is infinitely more complex and intriguing than the seemingly all-powerful swordsmen and rogues that populate fantasy literature. The characters around him, both men and women, possess real individuality, and a rigid integrity that elicits sincere admiration; their white-knuckled adherence to their most treasured principles even in the face of dire circumstances is magnificent. Finally, the prose is far beyond average, and even the literate reader will be driven to a dictionary more than once. This does not seem to be authorial arrogance, but rather a genuine attempt to elevate the genre, to explore new modes of expression in a literary category that seems to attract mediocrity like moths to a candle. In sum, Lord Foul's Bane is a challenging, but rewarding introduction to one of the most ambitious epics in fantasy literature. You may not like Thomas Covenant, but you will not forget him.
The first book in one of the most remarkable epic fantasies ever written, the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever.He called himself Thomas Coven...More at Buy.com
The first book in one of the most remarkable epic fantasies ever written, the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever.He called himself Thomas Coven...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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