The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever

Michael · The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever

It turns out that a lot of people I've talked to couldn't stand Stephen R. Donaldson's Thomas Covenant books, and some of the reasons they cite are well-founded. If fact, what annoyed me the most was needing to look up nearly every other word in the dictionary. I mean, come on, my friends complain to me if I use just one "big word" in my writing - Donaldson could have shown some restraint.

Still, despite its shortcomings, The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever is my all time favorite fantasy trilogy, and my favorite book is book two, The One Tree. It's actually quite tragic and - like a good song or poem - it elicited an emotional response from me that I just wasn't expecting.

It was, of course, the very nature of an anti-hero like Thomas Covenant that got me into the first trilogy. He really is a piece of work, not at all a roguish but lovable hero. In fact, I found myself wanting to hate the guy as read the story, but that made it all the more interesting for me. And Linden Avery - a character introduced in the second trilogy as Thomas' companion into the Land - is only marginally better (she doesn't have much room to judge her companion).

So I obviously liked reading about Thomas and Linden, but in all my favorite characters in The One Tree are Seadreamer and Pitchwife. These characters are lovable, and heartwarming.

Mala

I've never heard of these ones, but I'm intrigued, so I'll keep my eye out for them.

btw, what kind of things do you write?

Michael

I mainly write fantasy - although I have a "plan" for one sci-fi that I might never get around to writing - except that I am more interested in blending genres than in writing straight fantasy. Right now I'm working on a dark fantasy series called Coven of the Worm.

I also have a completed draft of a future fantasy, but I'm not sure what to call it. You see, I actually finished the draft about 15 years ago (boy am I slow) and at the time I called it "The Matrix Wars." You can see why I can't use that title now. I don't refer to this story as "science fiction" because there's no science. Some people think I'm being strict, but the truth is I like "future fantasy" as a genre.

The same goes for "science fantasy," which does have science - or maybe pseudo-science - but jumps to some way out conlusions that do not agree with theory. I have an outline for one of these, too.

As for Thomas Covenant (although I like the Second Chronicles better) you're probably better off starting with book one of the first, Lord Foul's Bane.

gnome1special

While it has been some time since I read these chronicles I, like yourself loved and hated them.

And yeah, I have a thing for anti-heros ... I'm a big spidey fan. Talk about a sap turned super hero. ;)

Michael

Oh yeah, I like the saps turned hero too...if only because I can relate to them so much when they're saps! Spidey is still all-time favorite superhero.