How old were you when you first read Covenant,

GSG · Post by **GSG** » Fri May 02, 2003 4:21 pm

... and do you think you were too young to appreciate it? Or maybe too old to enjoy it?

And--I guess--how old are you now?

I didn't read them until I was 19 (college) and even then I remember thinking to myself that I've crossed over into Adult Fantasy (----which sounds like a section of a Times Square video store, but I'm assuming you folks know I'm talking about Fantasy with Adult Themes as opposed to porn----).

I'd never read anything so darkly beautiful but also so painful. A friend of mine in college had read them four times before I read them once and I remember having a long conversation with him about being too young or too old to appreciate it. When he was 13--for example--he just couldn't imagine why Lena would be so upset. Upset, sure, but a lifetime's worth of upset?

Just curious.

Post by **Dag son of Dag** » Fri May 02, 2003 4:52 pm

Hmm..let`s see..I read LFB a year ago, so I was 16. Maybe a little too young (could be that I still am), but too late to change that now.

13 sounds way too young to read the Chrons! Thinking of how I was when I was that age, I don`t think I would have been able to appreciate (or even understand!) the books then. Tolkien said that he didn`t really like the fact that very young people read his books, because there`s something special about the first time you read a book that you can`t experience again. And if you`re too young when you read a book the first time, you don`t get the same experience you could have gotten. Or something like that. Made a lot of sense when he said it!

Post by **Mouseglove** » Fri May 02, 2003 5:09 pm

I was thirteen. My father had given me "The Hobbit" to read, thinking I'd like it. He told me that, if I liked it and it wasn't too hard for me to read, he had more. I loved it, and the next book he handed me was LFB. I've been a SRD fan and avid reader ever since, and at 37 am just as excited to hear about the 3rd Chronicles as I was to find out there were two more books after LFB oh those many years ago.

-Mg

Post by **fightingmyinstincts** » Fri May 02, 2003 5:45 pm

Wow, you dad handed you the book when you were thirteen? Had he read it? I don't doubt you were old enough, but even I would hesitate to hand something that dark to someone that young....

Post by **I'm Murrin** » Fri May 02, 2003 6:11 pm

I only found Covenant a few years ago, when for some reason we were forced to take one book each from the fiction section of our school library, and I liked the look of LFB. I was 15 when I read it - but it took another 6 months to get myself a copy of TIW and TPTP, and as soon as I finished those I bought the second chrons and started reading.
I guess I wasn't too young, but it seems to me you don't really appreciate the books until you finish the whole series and read them again - I'm almost 18 now, and on my third reading of the chrons, and I'm noticing a lot more in LFB than I have before.
I'd say that as long as you're mature enough, you can appreciate the chrons, although I think 13 is about the youngest you could be when you read them to really benefit.

Post by **mg420** » Fri May 02, 2003 7:58 pm

i think i was in jr. high. i am 36 now and only the 1st triology was out then. even if a person is too young to grasp many of the subtle parts of the books (not to mention the verbiage which is still sometimes challenging), the story and characters are still extremely unique and wonderful. they were one of the 1st fanatsy series for me (the first being LOTR & the Hobbit followed by The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks). i get much more out of the books now of course. i have had dreams that SDR wrote more TC books so this is literally a dream come true for me. again, i hope we don't have to wait 5+ years for them though! i guess good things come to those who wait but thats quite a wait.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri May 02, 2003 10:04 pm

My experience kind of mirrors mg420s and member251s

I asked because I'm trying to get my bibliofile cousin into more fantasy and science fiction (he was bitten by The Hobbit, but found LOTR kind of long, this was before the movie came out). I know if I say to him "This is a good book, but a little too adult for you" he's going to devour it; and I don't think he'd really appreciate it. I think that whatever I give him (his 14th birthday is coming up) he'll devour.

I gave his sister (16) a copy of The Mirror Of Her Dreams and I'm pretty sure he's gotten it in his head that it is a girlish kind of book.

I think I'm going to give him C.S. Friedman's "Black Sun Rising" and wait until he's a little older for "Lord Foul's Bane".

Post by **phoebe** » Sat May 03, 2003 1:00 am

Okay this is kind of a weird topic for me because I'm not into people putting age groups into little boxes.... But I suppose your not, maybe I just have issues.... Probably from reading Lord Fouls Bane at fourteen.... Hey now I think of it like that it could explain lots about the current state of my psyche...

Anyway as my ramblings have already revealed, I started reading Stephen Donaldson at around 14, I had been reading 'dark fantasy' for a few years before. What I like about reading is you do it at your own pace, absorb what you can, and if you don't understand something you probably wouldn't be reading it.
Like, recently my sister (13 and pretty mature for her age) has gotten very sick of my incoherence ("what the **** is a Ran.. Rany... Ranyhyn!?") and decided to pick up LFB and give it a try. I was kind of relieved when she put the book down, at around where TC thinks about his wife leaving him. She claimed it was too boring and depressing.
I wanted her to wait until she was a little older anyway, maybe so she would get more of the more subtle messages that are throughout the book.

I think acknowledging the painful is something we all have to do somewhere in our lives. When I read TCTC my Nanna called it 'my education'. How true!

Post by **Nekhrima Vain** » Sat May 03, 2003 1:04 am

It was my last year of highschool and I skipped all my classes for a whole week to read both the first and second chronicles. I was really poor so I had to go to the library and hope that someone would give them up. It was a remarkable experience. What makes SDR so remarkable is the fact that he is able to make his books so realistic. In our world of fantasy and science fiction he is able to insert the most minute of details, complete with emotion, mythology and well...unbelief. The man is simply remarkable, simply remarkable. I failed my last year of highschool and came back for a second semester, (got all A's on this second attempt!) But I found two guys, who were popular, smart and also loved SDR I read both chronicles a couple of times that year and we would always compare our views and discuss every little morsel of the Land. One guy even tried to calculate how long is the time ratio between the Land and the "real" world. I stopped reading fantasy for a good decade now. But I decided to give it another try. I went and I picked up "The Real Story" and I was slightly dissapointed, but when I read Chaos and Order, well, it was as if the flood gates of memory had opened and the same brilliance that engendered the Land and all its inhabitants was at work again, daring us to engage into one of the most dangerous of human activities..daring us into imagination. I have since picked up Lord Foul's Bane and, like looking into a highschool yearbook I was engaged into the selfsame emotive feeling of exitement..I am "over the hill" now, but this stuff is still pretty cool. If SDR ever reads this website, he should know that he is a goddamn genius.

Post by **[Syl]** » Sat May 03, 2003 2:03 am

The first time I read the chronicles was in the 7th grade, so I was about 12 or 13. I think I was too young to grasp a lot of the more complex issues, but I think I still enjoyed it (though somewhat disturbed at parts, to be sure). I remember the synaethesia and the people's devotion to the land appealed to me greatly. The giants, the bloodguard. Two of my teachers (one a devout mormon shop teacher, the other a lesbian gym and english teacher) seemed kind of surprised I was reading the books, but they encouraged me to read anyway, one even lending me The One Tree.

It wasn't until the second time I read it, the summer after high school, that I truly fell in love with the books. Of course, my life was a little rough at the time, had gone through a lot, learned a lot in between those two readings. The idea that there was a message to the books, one that appealed directly to the person I was, amazed me.

Since then, I reread the first chrons every year and a half to two years, first and second chrons together at about twice that interval. Every time I see more than I did before.

I think to a certain extent, age doesn't seem to make a difference in who reads the book or who doesn't. My best friend loves standard fantasy, yet cannot get the chrons. He's 26. I'm not sure that he has the emotional make-up to enjoy the books.

Post by **Cotton** » Sat May 03, 2003 3:04 pm

Hello Everyone

I first read LFB at age 30, I just turned 32 so it was a little over a year ago. I was invited to play Ultima Online by a good friend of mine. After I learned how to play the game, I was introduced to the part of the Lore, that is based off the TC books.

My first obstacle was to find the books. They aren't' easy to find here in Louisiana. But luck was with me, that my sister actually had the whole set, the first and second chronicles!! *Giggles* Go Sis!!

I read the first book, and though I did find it dry reading, I was hooked! I finished all six books. I am still wanting to read Gilden Fire. And cant' wait for the 3rd chronicles to be out.

Meanwhile I play Ultima Online , on the shard "Teiravon". I play a fae character, though we Rp it being one of the Elohim. She is advocate for the city of Revelstone, more a diplomat to communicate between the races.

Our city is ran by a council of Lords. The Rp doesn't' always go exactly as the books, but its as close to the books as we can get. It is a role playing environment, and everyone has their own way of playing out their roles. Its also a 2d game, so that has to come into effect too. Most of all we have a lot of fun, and it is such a wonderful way to pay contribution to the Books.

Lately we have needed more characters from the books to show up during the quest and events. Its not easy to find others that know the Lore so well. If any of you guys want to join in, and bring about a liveliness to the books, and the Lore. Please just contact me and let me know

Its fun!

I have loved browsing the forum here at Kevin's Watch. For a good while now as just a guest, there are times when I have questions about the Lore, and I come here myself to read over all of your thoughts and feelings. It helps me to understand a little more about the books.
Finally I became a member *Grins*

Post by **Waynhim_Metalhead** » Sat May 03, 2003 7:59 pm

I was 18 when i first read Thomas Covenant. I'd already read LOTR many times and The Hobbit etc. Also i'd read alot of Eddings, Terry Brooks and assorted other authors but when i read Donaldson i was blown away. Some don't like the way he describes in the finest detail but for me that makes it

Post by **Fist and Faith** » Sat May 03, 2003 8:03 pm

I was in 11th or 12th grade. I had just bought the first Pern book, and a friend said, "Here. Read this instead." Nice call on his part.

Nobody ever recommended anything I've loved so much.

Post by **DirectorDios** » Mon May 05, 2003 12:30 am

I was 19 when I read The Chronicles and have been hooked on SRD ever since. I think the one major thing I took away, personally, from reading The Chronicles was how important it is to be honest with ones self and to understand and realize what our motivations and personal prejudices are so that we can deal with them honestly and intelligently. I am 41 years old now and have read and reread Mr. Donaldson's books for the past 20 years now (wow, has it been that long?) My wife is an avid reader of romance novels, (Barbara Taylor Bradford and the like) but I was able to persuade her a few years ago to read both Mordant novels, which she said she really enjoyed at the time. I asked her a few days ago what was the best book she has ever read (and she's read a lot!) and to my very pleasant surprise, she said SRD's Mordant novels. I was floored! I mean, I know they're incredible, I just didn't know she felt the same way. SRD is a "goddamn genius" to quote an earlier post.

Post by **Worm of Despite** » Mon May 05, 2003 12:46 am

COTTON!!!

You played Ultima Online?! I played it from December 1999 to January 2003!! Atlantic shard!! Good god--the stories! I was Sage of Justice, Vice Mayor of Yew . . .then I hired an orc for a lawyer after committing a crime at the Trinsic bazaar . . .long story, but I was the catalyst for the Yew War, which resulted in orcs taking (and still "owning") Felucia Yew. So many stories!! Can't believe another UO'er is here!! I was William Smit IV. Hail and well met!

Some of my escapades:

yewcouncil.brenner.de/justice/WillTrial.html
tcoh.hypermart.net/news/arc2-2001.html (scroll down to March 25, 2001 -- I'm the one in the dark blue jester suit around the orcs)

Post by **duchess of malfi** » Mon May 05, 2003 12:59 am

I was a junior in high school -- so 15? 16? something like that.

Post by **Ryzel** » Mon May 05, 2003 8:20 am

Hmm, how old was I when I first read the Chronicles? It is so long ago that I cannot really remember when it was exactly. I would guess that I was about 16-17 at the time I read the first ones. The second ones a few years later, because they were unavailable.

Post by **Damelon** » Mon May 05, 2003 10:54 am

I was a Junior/Senior in High School - 17 to 18. My best friend recommended it to me. The Second Chronicles, I read as they came out.

Post by **fightingmyinstincts** » Mon May 05, 2003 5:54 pm

What was I? Freshman, Sophemore? Ah, those were the days...*so says the current HS senior, heh* My mom saw a bag of fantasy in the book sale room of the library for like 2 bucks...lots of repeats, lots of crap, but the first trilogy in its entireity, and my mom remembered those as being my dad's fav books of all time, so I tackled 'em...and made it partway thru IEW before I dumped it. Came back some time later and reread it 'cus I was bored, and it was somehow different for me...a few more rereads and I found out about the second chrons and shortly after that, this place, and it's like a huge thing with me now...That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

Post by **Infelice** » Mon May 05, 2003 10:44 pm

Time:1983
Place: College Bookstore
Age : 19
It was my third year at teacher's college and the 2nd Semester was winding down - had just aced an interview with the Dept Education and I was looking for something other than Child Psychology and Curriculum Guides to read.
Saw LFB sitting on the shelf - the cover looked appealing so I picked it up, read the blurb on the back cover ...sounded interesting so I bought it and took it home and read it in a week.
That was the beginning of my love affair with The Land.

How old were you when you first read Covenant,

How old were you when you first read Covenant,

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GSG

TCTC

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