Gilden Fire (Previously Unpublished Episode from The Illearth War) [Import] [Paperback]

Stephen Donaldson (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Fontana / Collins; n.e. edition (1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0006168434
• ISBN-13: 978-0006168430
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,349,625 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Focus is the Bloodguard not Covenant., February 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Gilden-Fire (Hardcover)

A series of chapters, removed from the Illearth War book (it was already too large a volume and required editing) These chapters remove Covenant as the narrator, and focus on the Bloodguard, including rituals, origin and why THEY chose to protect the Lords. Their history and involvement is clarified with this text. I agree it has no place within the chronicles as the viewpoint is that of a third party, however, as a separate book it makes interesting reading when positioned as originally written in the middle of the Illearth War, although the tome was released as an afterthought following the end of the second chronicles. Is this an attempt by Donaldson to sell more books? Or is he genuinely concerned that the reader understands more about the Bloodguard? Read it and make your own decision.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Bloodguard Vignette, August 30, 2005

By 

Matt Graubner "blackwolff" (Kentucky, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gilden-Fire (Hardcover)

This book is really nothing more than a vignette, a deleted scene from The Illearth War. According to Donaldson's foreward this was part of an initial separate section to the novel. However, he realized (after being told by his publishers to cut the manuscript down) that the story (told from the perspective of Korik the Bloodguard) didn't have a narrational connection to Covenant's world, thereby weakening the perception of the Land's unreality so key to Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. Therefore along with Tull's story this episode would have comprised the fourth section of the novel.

However, all of that said I would definately recomend this to anyone who loved the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. You learn more about the Bloodguard in these few pages than in almost the three novels of the first Chronicles--furthermore it is simply insightful and interesting to see things from the perspective of a Bloodguard.

Don't bother with this if you've not read The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. Simliarly you don't need this if you already have Donaldson's collection of short stories Daughter of Regals.

However, if neither of the above apply then you should hunt down this book, especially since this volume will fit better with hard back volumes and includes several illustrations not found in the collection (though the one of Revelstone clearly does not mesh with the book description and the one found in the Atlas of the Land).

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you loved the first Thomas Covenant series...., May 5, 1999

By 

D. Berdanis "endymion9" (Joliet, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gilden-Fire (Hardcover)

You have to read this missing chapter. Somehow it adds even more depth to the Bloodguard...and I didn't think that was possible.