One doesn’t love to breathe, one just does.

Stephen R. Donaldson strings his words together in such a superb way that even if you don‘t care much for the epic fantasy, you‘ll want to read this series. The story line is a bit convoluted, very complex, and if you are not fully immersed in concentration and attention, you will not get it. Much to your dismay I’m afraid, as I too was tempted to put this book down and move on. But thankfully, I have to breathe.

There are too many characters flittering about the outlying areas of The Land, with too many mini-story-lines following the main thread, but the thought process that went into the writing of this book is mind boggling. It is because of this that I kept reading. That I HAD to keep reading. I know now that my theory about Covenant was correct, so I’ve begun to reread it before I move along to The Illearth War (Book Two), and this time, I intend to fully fall-into Donaldson’s story. He already has me with how he weaves his words throughout his imagination. Or perhaps, better stated, how he weaves his imagination throughout his words.

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever is an epic fantasy. Covenant, an author who is afflicted with leprosy, finds himself mystically transported to ‘The Land’, another Earth, a magical realm in which he seems destined to be savior. The journey he takes, the people he meets - and the message he carries are astoundingly displayed on each page, in living color, and are mesmerizing.

If you get lost, as I did, don’t give-up………this is an adventure you will WANT to take again. 

****

Lord Foul's Bane /Cover Art by

Darrell Sweet

First Ballantine Books Edition, August 1978;

and

S.C. Wyeth

Nelson Doubleday, Inc., 1977

.