Donaldson, Stephen R. Books

Fatal Revenant: The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

Stephen R. Donaldson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 69 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The Unexpected Present 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

When I found out that Stephen Donaldson was writing another Thomas Covenant chronicle, I felt like I had been given an unexpected gift. Something I really wanted but never thought would be given. The second book of the last chronicle is a wonder.

Donaldson unfolds his tale with all the loving care of a Giant. And this latest installment is another shining example of his craft. Sometimes heart wrenching, sometimes uplifting but always lyrical.

Anyone who has read Donaldson before should have already read this book; anyone who hasn't read Donaldson, but enjoys fantasy should buy a copy of Lord Foul's Bane, today. And pick up a good dictionary at the same time. The wordsmithing in these novels adds another dimension to the tale for those who take the time to understand.

This book is a winner and guides us deeper into the mystery that is the Land and the human heart.

Editorial Review:

The instant New York Times bestseller, and the return of the Thomas Covenant series— “a landmark fantasy saga.”(Entertainment Weekly)

In the most eagerly-awaited literary sequel in years, Linden Avery, who loved Thomas Covenant and watched him die at the end of Book Six, has returned to the Land in search of her kidnapped son, Jeremiah. As Fatal Revenant begins, Linden watches from the battlements of Revelstone while the impossible happens—riding ahead of the hordes attacking Revelstone are Jeremiah and Covenant himself, apparently very much alive. But Covenant is strangely changed…

Lord Foul's Bane (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Book 1)

Stephen R. Donaldson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 347 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Donaldson = Awesome Writer 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I've read a number of newer reviews and noticed a surprising trend of negativity and bashing. I've seen a few good points in some and but think some others are reaching, i.e letting a few character names ruin the whole series for them. Maybe my review itself will be looked down upon, but although there are similarities between Stephen R. Donaldson's tales and Tolkein's I actually prefer the differences in the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Maybe I just relate with some aspects of it better.

I could put out a very long postive review of the book but think some previous reviewers had done a great job of it already. I just want to add that out of the many popular sword & sorcery and fantasy works I read growing up in the '80s this series is the only one I have found myself repeatedly coming back to over the years and gets an easy five from me.

Editorial Review:

The first book in one of the most remarkable epic fantasies ever written, the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever.
He called himself Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever because he dared not believe in the strange alternate world in which he suddenly found himself. Yet he was tempted to believe, to fight for the Land, to be the reincarnation of its greatest hero....
THE CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT THE UNBELIEVER
Book One: LORD FOUL'S BANE
Book Two: THE ILLEARTH WAR
Book Three: THE POWER THAT PRESERVES

A Dark and Hungry God Arises

Stephen R. Donaldson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Downhill FAST 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This is an addendum to my review of the first book in this series. As I explain in that review, this series started off hopefully, and turned dark.

Well, in this third book it turned (if possible) worse than dark. It got more violent, conjuring images that are too gruesome to recount. Perhaps if Donaldson were not so good at writing, it wouldn't be so bad. I've read horror books that were not as disturbing as what I found here.

I got halfway through and just couldn't go on. The shame of it is that this wasn't necessary. The storyline was compelling. I was truly interested in the characters and the plot twists were complex and gripping. Donaldson is a master. But the themes degenerated to an almost Dahlmer-esque level.

What is even more disturbing is that so many reviewers gave this nonsense such high marks. I found it revolting and sick. And I am not a prude. But, there are some things that I don't want to fill my mind with. And this is a prime example.

Editorial Review:

Remember how the fairy-tale-ish The Hobbit morphed into a wide-lens The Lord of the Rings? Plots, counterplots, and intrigue galore await readers of the Gap saga, which is still picking up speed. Allusions to Wagner's The Ring Cycle in opening book The Real Story's afterword now become clear as Earth politicians, Holt "Dragon" Fasner, and the rest of the United Mining Company Police bureaucrats enter the fray. Morn and company still teeter between exhilaration and desperation.... even readers who don't care for action or space opera may enjoy a story with this forceful a meld of character, cabal, and adventure.

This Day All Gods Die (The Gap Into Ruin)

Stephen R. Donaldson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 44 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Tough-as-nails Morn Hyland, pirate-turned-cyborg Angus Thermopyle, and the whole crew from the United Mining Company Police are back in the final book of the Gap series, This Day All Gods Die. The Gap plot has raced through the galaxy at breakneck speeds, and the conclusion is no exception.

Morn, her alien-grown son Davies, geneticist/engineer Vector Sheed, competent Mikka, and her cabin-boy brother Ciro wait aboard Trumpet. Angus lies unconscious, possibly in permanent stasis. Ciro plots to destroy the ship, driven insane by the knowledge that alien mutagens have been shot into him by Nick Succorso's sworn enemy, Sorus Chatelaine. Following nearby, Min Donner, faithful head of the UMCP Executive Division, watches the action and grits her teeth aboard Captain Dolph's battle-fatigued Punisher. Will Morn trust her? Will her voice commands over Angus's programming prevail? Who has survived the strange journey and battles since leaving the Lab? Back at United Mining headquarters, the Dragon and UMCP Chief Warden Dios's strange, twisted duel of manipulation, assassination, and corruption comes to a head when an Amnion warship sets course for Earth... and that's just the first few pages.

Get set for more of the action, betrayal, characterizataion, intrigue, corruption, and adventure you've enjoyed in the previous Gap books. If it has been a few years since you read the last installment, you may have trouble remembering some names and particularly insidious points of plot and government intrigue; you may even be tempted to reread the preceding books. Also troubling is Angus's continual rumination of a couple phrases, including "We've committed a crime against your soul" and "It's got to stop." However, you may be reading so fast you won't notice.

Forbidden Knowledge: The Gap Into Vision (Forbidden Knowledge)

Stephen R. Donaldson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Much Better 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

While I enjoyed The Real Story, it left much to be desired--there were only three characters of any relevance in the book: Nick, Angus, and Morn. What we learned about Nick was mostly through his reputation, not through confrontation in the book, further narrowing the available characters down to two. Morn and Angus's story was compelling yet hindered due to the compressed nature of the book. I'm happy to report that The Gap Into Vision has started spiraling into the epic that I hear this series is.

Nick and Morn are the main characters this time around, though there are ~15 shipmates that are significant, some of whom are very well developed. Then there are the skulking Amnion, the alien race that strives for domination through genetic mutation via drug injections.

As with the first book in the series, this isn't for the faint of heart--Morn went through hell with Angus in The Real Story, and in this version she's going through even worse with Nick. Only the aid of her zone implant keeps her from collapsing into a writhing body of agony.

This book is equally dark as its predecessor, though it's a much better story due to the vastly increased number of characters and the jacked-up stakes.

Editorial Review:

The Real Story was just a preview to this action-packed tome... The Gap series steps on the accelerator with Forbidden Knowledge. Beautiful cop Morn Hyland, desperate and in pain aboard Captain's Fancy, controls her body and mind with her illegal zone implant, recreating herself as a superbeing worthy of holding Captain Nick Succorso's affections. Jealousy among the crew, threats of rape and ship self-destruction, prisoner torture, and government cyborg programs keep things moving along. Alien Amnioni seeking genetic domination over humankind enter the scene with new technologies such as mutagens and force-growing fetuses. Bite your fingernails while you live it all (vicariously!) through brilliant survivor Morn and villain-turned-conspirator Angus Thermopyle.

Chaos and Order: The Gap Into Madness (Gap)

Stephen R. Donaldson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Punisher is on the run from Billingate Space Station, as well as other predators that follow: UMCP Enforcement Division director Min Donner aboard a crippled Punisher, Nick's archenemy (and slave to the aliens) Sorus Chatelaine aboard Soar, and the mysterious hired gun, Free Lunch. Corrupt cyborg Angus Thermopyle and ruthless Nick Succorso battle for control of the ship and the situation. Their trail leads to Valdor Industrial, where geneticist/engineer Vector Shaheed seeks to redeem himself by manufacturing an antidote to the mutagen used by the alien Amnioni to mutate human beings against their will. Brutalized yet resilient Morn Hyland, her clone/son Davies, tough officer Mikki, Pup, Sib, and the rest continue their suffering and sacrificing.

Meanwhile, back in Earth space, police and politicians battle for power as UMCP director Dios continues his grim revolution against the Dragon. Assassin kazes, political fears, and provocative bills threaten to paralyze the Governing Council for Earth and Space.

Ships battling in space? Laboratory space stations developing antimutagen antidotes against the aliens who seek to conquer humankind by mutation? Outrage, brutality, betrayal, and secrets? Donaldson lays it all out with sharp dialogue, tense scenes, and zippy action.

A Man Rides Through

Stephen R. Donaldson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In The Mirror of Her Dreams, the dazzling first volume of Mordant’s Need, New York Times bestselling author Stephen R. Donaldson introduced us to the richly imagined world of Mordant, where mirrors are magical portals into places of beauty and terror. Now, with A Man Rides Through, Donaldson brings the story of Terisa Morgan to an unforgettable conclusion. . . .

Aided by the powerful magic of Vagel, the evil Arch-Imager, the merciless armies are marching against the kingdom of Mordant. In its hour of greatest need, two unlikely champions emerge. One is Geraden, whose inability to master the simplest skills of Imagery has made him a laughingstock. The other is Terisa Morgan, transferred to Mordant from a Manhattan apartment by Geraden’s faulty magic. Together, Geraden and Terisa discover undreamed-of talents within themselves—talents that make them more than a match for any Imager . . . including Vagel himself.

Unfortunately, those talents also mark them for death. Branded as traitors, they are forced to flee the castle for their lives. Now, all but defenseless in a war-torn countryside ravaged by the vilest horrors Imagery can spawn, Geraden and Terisa must put aside past failures and find the courage to embrace their powers—and their love—before Vagel can spring his final trap.

The Mirror of Her Dreams (Mordant's Need, Book 1)

Stephen R. Donaldson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 92 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

With The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Stephen R. Donaldson changed the face of fantasy fiction forever. In The Mirror of Her Dreams, the astonishing first novel in the two-volume Mordant’s Need series, Donaldson shows us a world of wondrous beauty and seductive illusion, where mirrors hold the deadliest of magics and nothing is what it seems. . . .

The daughter of rich but neglectful parents, Terisa Morgan lives alone in a New York City apartment, a young woman who has grown to doubt her own existence. Surrounded by the flat reassurance of mirrors, she leads an unfulfilled life—until the night a strange man named Geraden comes crashing through one of her mirrors, on a quest to find a champion to save his kingdom of Mordant from a pervasive evil that threatens the land. Terisa is no champion. She wields neither magic nor power. And yet, much to her own surprise, when Geraden begs her to come back with him, she agrees.

Now, in a culture where women are little more than the playthings of powerful men, in a castle honeycombed with secret passages and clever traps, in a kingdom threatened from without and within by enemies able to appear and vanish out of thin air, Terisa must become more than the pale reflection of a person. For the way back to Earth is closed to her. And the enemies of Mordant will stop at nothing to see her dead.

The Runes of the Earth (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Book 1)

Stephen R. Donaldson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 154 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

The Runes of Earth 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I received the book promptly and in very good condition. I ordered the back series of all of his chronicles & haven't had time to read particular book, but all the used book's I've ordered,(quite a few) I'm not disappointed. Will continue to order books this way thru Amazon as my husband and I are retired, read a lot, & like most Americans who are feeling the "pinch", this is one more way to save money. Thanks Amazon & & the previous owner of this book.

Editorial Review:

Amazon.com Exclusive Content

Worth the Wait
More than two decades after he completed the Second Chronicles, Stephen R. Donaldson has begun a third series about the leprous Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. In this Amazon.com exclusive essay, Donaldson explains why The Runes of the Earth has been so long in the making.

The first chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever: Lord Foul's bane ; The Illearth war ; The power that preserves

Stephen R Donaldson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Deep, dark, epic fantasy 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

THE SERIES:
I've read this series twice, with a span of twenty-some years in between. When I first read it, I liked the characters, images, and story, but the language seemed deliberately over-complicated and intellectual. Now, after re-reading it, I think that I just wasn't ready for it the first time.

LORD FOUL'S BANE:

Thomas Covenant is a successful writer working on a sequel to his best-seller. He has a young, beautiful, loving wife, and a little child. He lives in the country in a home he sees as his haven. He has it made. And then, he is diagnosed with leprosy. His wife leaves him because she fears he will contaminate their child. He spends months in and out of hospitals. He is shunned by his neighbors. Thomas Covenant is outcast, and deeply depressed. He withdraws into himself and builds a wall around him as thick as he any castle or fortress.

Suddenly, he is in an entirely different world. There is no leprosy, he recognizes no one, he recognizes nothing of where he is, and everyone identifies him as the reincarnation of an ancient, semi-mythical hero, who was foretold to return to The Land to heal it with his magic. Covenant doesn't believe any of this, and assumes, despite the apparent impossible reality of everything around him, that he is in a delirium-induced delusion. He is named Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever.

What does he do? Does he wait to awaken, and thus end the delusion? He tries that, but the "reality" of his new surroundings continues. Does he believe what everyone in this new and strange world tells him? He refuses that option, as he sees it as a surrender to insanity. Thomas Covenant reaches a compromise with himself: he accepts that he is living in an illusory world induced by a coma, but accepts that the best way to pass the time is to cooperate in the illusion. The seeming reality of his new world keeps enticing him into accepting its reality and surrendering his Unbelief, but he is obstinate.

THE ILLEARTH WAR:

After "awakening" from his first trip to The Land, Thomas Covenant convinces himself that his first trip was all a coma-induced illusion. Suddenly, he is thrust back into the magic, wonder, and plight of The Land, with everyone counting on him to use the magic of his white gold wedding ring to defeat Lord Foul and his Illearth Stone. The problem remains that Covenant still doesn't believe any of this, and assumes, despite the apparent impossible reality of everything around him, that he is in a delirium-induced delusion. He is again faced with the dilemma of either accepting that The Land is real, which might mean he's insane, or ignoring its apparent reality and letting The Land and its people perish.

Thomas Covenant reaches a compromise with himself: he accepts that he is living in an illusory world induced by a coma, but accepts that the best way to pass the time is to cooperate in the illusion. The seeming reality of his new world keeps enticing him into accepting its reality and surrendering his Unbelief, but he is obstinate.

THE POWER THAT PRESERVES:

Once more, Thomas Covenant is thrown back into The Land. Lord Foul seems to come back stronger when he recovers from each defeat. What also grows is Covenant's love of The Land and its people. This time, his leprosy is not healed by The Land, as it is under siege by Foul's magic. Covenant still holds on to his Unbelief in The Land for fear of giving in to delusion, but the distinction between accepting it as real versus playing along with an illusion is becoming decreasingly important, to Covenant, to the story, and to the reader. Covenant's character is growing as, through adversity, he emerges from the depression he fell into after his leprosy was diagnosed. Everything is at stake now, and Covenant must gain some control over the magic of his white gold ring.

Oh, by the way, through all of this, Thomas Covenant remains cynical, depressed, sarcastic, irritable, rude, and generally a pain in the . . . neck, although less so than in the third book than in the first two books. Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum (a la "The Hanging Tree"), or Burt Lancaster could have played the part in a movie. An interesting hero, indeed.

The third book of the series, which completes the first trilogy, continues the trends of characters that are deep and well-developed; complicated, intelligent, and extremely sophisticated writing (the exact opposite of Hemingway's stunning simplicity and not far off from Faulkner's esoteric and obtuse complexity); and a riveting story. What gets introduced is the dawning realization by Covenant that, whether the Land and its people are real or not, he is beginning to care about them. This is NOT a quick, easy read. This IS deep, major fantasy on an epic scale.

For those of you that get hooked, a second trilogy was written. The first trilogy, however, can stand alone.