Customer Reviews

Lord Foul's Bane (Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Book One)

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Usually when people review series or sagas waits to read all the tomes before writing the individual review.
I choose to review each installment as soon as I finish reading it as not to be influenced by the overall picture in detriment of the individual volume.

The first trilogy of "Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever" was Donaldson's first opus and launched him to immediate consideration of public & critics.

Donaldson's proposal is quite risky.
The main character is unable to compromise with the fantastic universe that deploys before him. The reader will certainly not identify with Covenant's sour & bitter personality.
Nevertheless a powerful story is constructed over this implausible pillar!
Second risky item: a baroque language is used by the author. As I am a foreigner to English language, it doesn't bother me to take a look into dictionary when reading any book. In order to understand this trilogy, the difference with other readings is just the greater frequency I needed to look up words.

The tale is as follows: Thomas is a writer whose first novel is a best seller. When he is enjoying his success and trying to write his second book, he is found to be a leper.
He looses two fingers of his right hand. His wife & son run away from him. He spent a semester at a leprosarium and returns to his home, just to find what a leper's life is: no one wants to relate to him, he is an outcast, forced to solitude.
He turns into an angry & resentful person.

Suddenly after a car accident he awakes in a different universe: The Land.
First he faces absolute evil incarnated in Lord Foul who releases him with a message for the Lords of the Land.
Then he encounters a young & beautiful girl that guide his first steps in the Land and thinks he may be the reincarnation of Berek Halfhand the greatest hero of the Land.
Thomas refuses to accept this universe as "real"; he thinks it is just a figment of his imagination; a defensive delusion to evade his painful reality.
He recovers his lost sensitivity in his hands and extremities. He is so charged of unmanageable energy that he commits his awful "original sin": he rapes the lovely Lena. This sin will torture & shame Covenant all thru the story.

Atiran, Lena's mother unaware of his wrongdoing leads him in search of the distant Revelstone, the Home of the Council of Lords. When Atiran finds out Thomas' felony, another Land's characteristic come to the fore: the Oath of Peace, creating a well of tension within her.

Stage by stage the Land and its dwellers will be presented to Covenant (and the reader) growing in complexity and interest.
Finally the Lords receive the message and launch the final Quest that closes this volume.

It is great book that may be enjoyed by fantasy fans and general public as well!
Reviewed by Max Yofre.

I started this book/series about 30 years ago - it remains within the top 5 of all fantasy series I've read to date. These are the *only* books I've re-read for the pure entertainment, and to pick up nuances I may have missed on the initial reading. Summaries are numerous, so I won't give you another one. If this sounds like something you may even marginally enjoy, I can assure you that you won't be sorry - "Lord Foul's Bane" will set you on the path to a double trilogy (I haven't read the 3rd series yet, which starts with "Runes of the Earth") that will knock your socks off! Enjoy!