I've finished The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: Lord Foul's Bane. And really, I don't think I liked it any more at the end than I did at the beginning.
Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever, was brought to The Land for reasons unknown. He was brought both by Lord Foul, the Despiser and possibly by a little known and understood Creator. Other than the fact that Thomas Covenant was charged to bring a message to the Lords of The Land, he has no real purpose. He stumbles along on a quest to find the Staff of Law, which, according to the message, in the possession of the Lords, will postpone Lord Foul's takeover for 47 years. All along the way, when anything is asked of him, his response is "don't touch me... I'm a leper." He takes responsibility for nothing, always leaning on the crutch of his illness.
Finally, at the home of the Ramen, who serve the Ranyhyn, Covenant comes to a sudden realization that he raped Lena and that he did wrong. However, rather than taking full responsibility, Covenant still denies his complete culpability by believing that Lord Foul had something to do with the act, that it was part of Lord Foul's plan. In order to "make it up" to Lena, he sends one of the Ranyhyn to see her once a year. If only the emotional and physical repercussions of rape could be solved by a visit from a magical horse.
Beside my obvious dislike of the main character, I feel that this book resembles The Lord of the Rings very closely. Both stories have a disembodied main evil acting through agents to take over a medieval and bucolic land. There are engineered evil creatures (because, clearly, if they're not natural, they're bad) ur-viles in The Land, orcs and uruk-hai in Middle Earth. The main difference is the characterization of the individuals involved in The Quest (or The Fellowship, in LOTR). The inhabitants of The Land are respectful and considerate to a fault, making them mere caricatures of humanity, rather than fully-fleshed and realized individuals. Frodo, the hero who carries the ring, has enough strength of character to allow forgiveness of his less admirable qualities. Thomas Covenant, however, is soundly unlikable to the point that the entire novel had a negative flavor for me. I kept waiting for him to become more, but, unfortunately, it never happened.
I will read The Illearth War, supposedly one of the best installments of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.
Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever, was brought to The Land for reasons unknown. He was brought both by Lord Foul, the Despiser and possibly by a little known and understood Creator. Other than the fact that Thomas Covenant was charged to bring a message to the Lords of The Land, he has no real purpose. He stumbles along on a quest to find the Staff of Law, which, according to the message, in the possession of the Lords, will postpone Lord Foul's takeover for 47 years. All along the way, when anything is asked of him, his response is "don't touch me... I'm a leper." He takes responsibility for nothing, always leaning on the crutch of his illness.
Finally, at the home of the Ramen, who serve the Ranyhyn, Covenant comes to a sudden realization that he raped Lena and that he did wrong. However, rather than taking full responsibility, Covenant still denies his complete culpability by believing that Lord Foul had something to do with the act, that it was part of Lord Foul's plan. In order to "make it up" to Lena, he sends one of the Ranyhyn to see her once a year. If only the emotional and physical repercussions of rape could be solved by a visit from a magical horse.
Beside my obvious dislike of the main character, I feel that this book resembles The Lord of the Rings very closely. Both stories have a disembodied main evil acting through agents to take over a medieval and bucolic land. There are engineered evil creatures (because, clearly, if they're not natural, they're bad) ur-viles in The Land, orcs and uruk-hai in Middle Earth. The main difference is the characterization of the individuals involved in The Quest (or The Fellowship, in LOTR). The inhabitants of The Land are respectful and considerate to a fault, making them mere caricatures of humanity, rather than fully-fleshed and realized individuals. Frodo, the hero who carries the ring, has enough strength of character to allow forgiveness of his less admirable qualities. Thomas Covenant, however, is soundly unlikable to the point that the entire novel had a negative flavor for me. I kept waiting for him to become more, but, unfortunately, it never happened.
I will read The Illearth War, supposedly one of the best installments of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.
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