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I've been thinking about picking these up to read. Would I assume you all would suggest that as a good idea?
Oh, and ... GO BUCKS! 3 days and counting!!! (sorry I am consumed by tOSU vs. Michigan thoughts lately)
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I loved the series, but it took me three tries to get through the first book. I was in high school and the idea of a guy who did not want to be a hero was just foriegn to me.
However, the last book had one of the most powerfully written chapters I have ever read. I was exhausted when I put it down.
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Good books. Somewhat overwritten - especially the second trilogy. I did the feeling that Donalson had gotten a word-of-the-day calendar.
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Both of Stephen R Donaldson's series seem to pivot around the subject of rape. Strong impact, but it's made the books at least objectionable.
I wish they'd done the Gap Series instead though. Sniff, no love for one of the most despicable heroes in literature.
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quote:Originally posted by beatnix19: I've been thinking about picking these up to read. Would I assume you all would suggest that as a good idea?
I would, but it depends on a lot of things. I've met very few people who've loved Covenant and LOTR (I'm not one of them, either).
It might depend on your age as well. I read them when I was 16, and they absolutely changed the way I looked at the world. If fora like this one had been around then, I might have been whinier than Pelegius. I certainly felt like the world was a very inimicable place, and I had no idea how I was going to get through it. I think these books helped a lot, though I'm not sure I can put into words just how they did it.
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quote:Originally posted by msquared: The last in the first trilogy.
The chapter was called Lord Morhams Victory.
It depicts the epic battle between one of my favorite characters and the evil being seiging the last bastion of good in the Land.
Oh, yes. I will never forget that chapter. It's funny... at the time I read these, I was listening to a classical music album called Fireworks! on a Walkman. Most people, when they hear "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", visualize Mickey Mouse and brooms. When I hear it, it sends me back to Lord Mhoram's Victory.
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quote:Originally posted by Architraz Warden: Both of Stephen R Donaldson's series seem to pivot around the subject of rape. Strong impact, but it's made the books at least objectionable.
I wish they'd done the Gap Series instead though. Sniff, no love for one of the most despicable heroes in literature.
Even Mordant's Need has that, to a certain extent. But it's never seen as anything but utterly comtemptable in any of his books.
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quote:Originally posted by msquared: You think those are over written? Try his Gap series. I like it as well.
I'm actually part way into the 5th Gap book. I've been reading them for the nth time over the past few months (in the bathroom, only, which is why it's taking me so long).
For all the ugliness and nastiness, there's a nobility in his stories, and this feeling of exhaltation when certain things happen that are just totally right.
quote:Originally posted by msquared: I was thinking that with CGI tech that Jackson used, these books could finally get made.
I can see Shaq being the model for Saltheart Foamfollower.
<blink> Personally, I'm pretty locked into the Darrell K. Sweet covers. To me, that's how they all look.
quote:Originally posted by msquared: I wonder who will play the bloodguard? Chuck Norris for Bannor.
Ew. Someone online actually has a casting page up with suggestions. Some of them are fairly good, I thought. If I find the link, I'll post it.
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The question is, how can you show on the screen that you haven't merely got a red moon, no, you have by all the gods got an incarnadine moon! If I were a drinking man, I'd have turned it into a game: Every time something is incarnadine, you take a shot. Of red wine, presumably.
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Chuck was a joke casting. I mean in his heyday he would have fit perfectly. Very little talking or personality but kick ass martial arts skills.
I do not mean Shaq personally, but his build. If you did not see Shaq next to another person you would not think he was as tall as he is. His body is in very good proportion for his height.
For example, Yao Ming is skinny compared to Shaq. He looks taller than he is becuase of that. Guys who are shorter than Shaq look taller becuase they are thinner.
Put Shaq next to Tom Cruise as Covenant and you would not need special effects.
quote:Originally posted by beatnix19: I've been thinking about picking these up to read. Would I assume you all would suggest that as a good idea?
I would read The Mirror of Her Dreams and A Man Rides Through first. They are great. I think the short stories he wrote after the Thomas Convenant books improved his writing considerably.
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quote:Originally posted by beatnix19: I've been thinking about picking these up to read. Would I assume you all would suggest that as a good idea?
I would read The Mirror of Her Dreams and A Man Rides Through first. They are great. I think the short stories he wrote after the Thomas Convenant books improved his writing considerably.
It's funny. When I first read Mordant's Need (the two books you mentioned), I really liked them a lot, but I didn't think they were quite up to Covenant. But over the years, I think my tastes have changed. I like Mordant's Need more than the Covenant books now. A lot more, actually. Terisa Morgan is my hero.
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I just can't see this working. If it actually becomes reality I'll be very torn on whether to subject myself to it or to live with the people I already know in my head.
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I admit to being curious as to how the non-traditional fantasy races (like Waynhim and Ur-Viles) will look. I'm hoping they're as exotic and alien as I imagined them to be.
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I have never read any Donaldson, but I've been wanting to. This conversation is intriguing and I feel left out so I think I shall have to read them now.
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I really enjoyed the first trilogy, though I struggled with Covenant himself for a while. The second trilogy was a big let down. But Donaldson had some really interesting things going on, and at times, like others have said, the stories were really powerful. Well worth a read.
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quote:Originally posted by King of Men: The question is, how can you show on the screen that you haven't merely got a red moon, no, you have by all the gods got an incarnadine moon! If I were a drinking man, I'd have turned it into a game: Every time something is incarnadine, you take a shot. Of red wine, presumably.
Ultimate drinking game. One shot of whiskey every time Jim Theis makes an inappropriate color combination. I tried doing this one with excessive adjectives, but my friend got alcohol poisoning after the first paragraph.
"The flickering torches cast weird shafts of luminescence dancing over the half naked harlot of his choice, her stringy orchid twines of hair swaying gracefully over the lithe opaque nose,as she raised a half drained mug to her pale red lips. Glancing upward, the alluring complexion noted the stalwart giant as he rapidly approached. A faint glimmer sparked from the pair of deep blue ovals of the amorous female as she motioned toward Grignr."
"The paunchy noble's sagging round face flushed suddenly pale,then pastily lit up to a lustrous cherry red radiance."
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Considering that most of the Covenant series consists of the author assuming that his readers need to have plot points, motivations, etc explained and repeated over and over and over and over again and again and again and again... ...it should be quite easy to condense the story into a script for a movie. Whether or not there is a sufficient fan-base who want to expose themselves once again to the tale, or whether there is a sufficient audience for inexcusably stupid-immoral whiny narcissistic "hero"es to give good word-of-mouth, is another question altogether.
Personally, I'd prefer a visit from the MarathonMan's dentist.
Only if they want to rework the underlying motivations of the character whose decision at the end of Illearth War directly leads to almost everything that happens in the rest of the series.
Elena is a fanatic because she has to make her mother's sacrifice mean something. And her fanaticism leads to the breaking of the law of death, the leaving of the bloodguard, the discovery Morham makes, the destruction of the Staff of Law, and the main evil of the entire second series.
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Count me in as one of those (rare around here, it seems) who hated the Thomas Covenant series. And I mean hated. And the rape wasn't what bothered me.
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It's been nearly ten years since I read the series for the first time (parents, this stuff is not really the best material for a 12 or 13 year old), and I still can't decide if I like them or not.
I'll still patiently wait and read the rest of the final trilogy, though. Because I have to know what happens.
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quote:Originally posted by Dagonee: It's the scene where she tries to seduce her father that really makes me say "Ew."
Indeed. That was really odd.
It's not that simple. He was her biological father, but she was raised by Triock, who she really considered her father. And Covenant wasn't any older than her. It's really not quite as simple as you're making it sound.
And she was damaged. Unstable. Insane, really. Nutty people do nutty things. That wasn't the nuttiest in her case.
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quote:Originally posted by Eaquae Legit: It's been nearly ten years since I read the series for the first time (parents, this stuff is not really the best material for a 12 or 13 year old), and I still can't decide if I like them or not.
Final tetrology, btw. And the fourth and last book isn't even tentatively scheduled to show up until 2013 or 2014. I feel like I'm writing science fiction just typing those dates.
quote:Originally posted by Eaquae Legit: I'll still patiently wait and read the rest of the final trilogy, though. Because I have to know what happens.
Or what happened.
I wrote him a couple of letters back after I read the first Chronicles, before The Wounded Land came out. One of the things I did was ask him if he'd ever write stories of the Old Lords. He replied that he thinks linearly. That he could never do that.
Apparently, he found a way around that, because this entire Last Chronicles is going to be flipping around in time, including back to the time of the Old Lords.
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quote:It's not that simple. He was her biological father, but she was raised by Triock, who she really considered her father. And Covenant wasn't any older than her. It's really not quite as simple as you're making it sound.
And she was damaged. Unstable. Insane, really. Nutty people do nutty things. That wasn't the nuttiest in her case
I get the reason for it in the story. It still evokes "Ew!" from me.
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I do not get how people can finish a whole book they hate. I can normally slog through about half way, but that's about it.
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Maybe a little OCD, combined with the fact that I had bought all three books.
I have actually gotten better about putting books down that I don't love. So many books, and less and less time as I get older.
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