Does the human morality still apply in the
virtual worlds, such as dreams?
In 1978, author Stephen Donaldson
explored this fascinating, philosophical question, when he debut with
a novel called Lord Foul's Bane. This is the first book to an
epic, 10 books fantasy series, following the adventures of a man
called Thomas Covenant, and his quests in a strange world called the
Land.
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
the Unbeliever, is very well known in the genre of fantasy
fictions. It is reputed for its extensive use of uncommon vocabulary,
and the interesting portrayal of anti-heroism. I added this series to
my “to-read” list 2 years ago, I bought the first 3 books (i.e.
The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever) from
ebay. it has been sitting on my bookshelf for months. Finally, I
ventured into this series last week. Today, I would like to provide a
book review for Lord Foul's Bane, the first book to this
series.
Synopsis:
Thomas Covenant was a best-selling
author, he had a wife and a son. Everything was going well in his
life, when Ill-fortune struck, and he was inflicted with the dire
disease of leprosy. Even in the 20th century America,
Covenant found himself labeled as unclean, his wife took their son
and left him, while the community treated him as an outcast. Although
his life hit an all-time low, Covenant was determined to battle
leprosy and survive for as long as he can.
One day, a police car ran into
Covenant, and he swooned, fading into unconsciousness. Covenant woke
up in a foreign, and strange world known as the Land. The people here
thought he was a hero with untapped powers, whose coming to the Land
was foretold in an ancient prophecy, to free the Land from the claws
the tyrant, Lord Foul. Covenant had no choice but to embark on this
quest. However, he did not believe his experience was a reality.
Instead, Covenant suspected he was in a dream, a very convincing,
realistic dream.
Calling himself by the title
“Unbeliever”, Thomas Covenant embarked a quest to foil Lord
Foul's devious plans. The question remains whether if Covenant's
unbelief will save, or doom the Land for eternity?
What I think about this book:
I have mixed feelings about this book.
First of all, I thought the ideas and
conceptions behind the character of Thomas Covenant, is very
interesting. Never in the world of fantasy fictions, have I ever
encountered a hero as useless and lame as Thomas Covenant, and that
made this book fascinating. Although the general plot in this book
follows the traditional fantasy trope (i.e. a quest to rescue a
powerful artifact from the clutch of an evil overlord), yet what sets
Covenant apart from other “goodie-goodie” type fantasy heroes
such as Aragorn, or Harry Potter, is Covenant's unbelief. Throughout
this book, Thomas Covenant remained a skeptic, he thought he was in a
dream. Therefore, in this book, as a man embittered by his experience
as a leper, Covenant constantly wrestled with moral uncertainties of
his actions, running into crises of virtue, in what he believed, was
a dream world. The result is, as the story unfolds, Covenant's
unbelief often led to unpredictable and interesting outcomes. This
means, despite being a lame hero, who lacked any form conviction or
brevity, Thomas Covenant is indeed, a unique hero (or specifically,
an anti-hero), whose unbelief served both as a strength and a
weakness. I was fascinated by the character of Thomas Covenant, and
the waves of philosophical questions marching behind this story.
Having said this, I must say, for me,
Donaldson's writing style killed much joys in my reading of this
book. I thought the language used in this book, is both unwieldy and
flowery. Donaldson seem to have this strange tendency to jam as many
uncommon words into one sentence as possible. Perhaps to some people,
employing this type of linguistic style, is deemed as having reached
the art of writing at its highest form. However, some readers (myself
included) can be frustrated by this form of writing style, while it
make the book hard to read, it also retards the pace of the book,
stretching the plot to a line of perpetual boredom. The result? The
book felt slow, overly long, and I skimmed through at least a third
of the book.
As I turned to the last page of Lord
Foul's Bane, I felt relieved that it was over (and that's not necessarily a compliment). I thought it was an interesting book hindered by a
pretentious style of writing. The character of Thomas Covenant
certainly provoked interesting questions about morality. This
character, is both fascinating and unique. However, because Donaldson
told the story of Thomas Covenant in such unwieldy language, the book
lose its luster. In the meantime, it is commonly agreed that Lord
Foul's Bane, being the first book to the series, is also the
weakest book in the series. As I found the character interesting, so
I will venture to read the 2nd book in the series, titled
“The Illearth War”.
Thank you for reading
this review. Until the next time, happy reading!
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