The Best Books

For discussion about Stephen R. Donaldson's other works, Reed Stephens, group meetings, elohimfests, SRD sightings, and more.

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Which Is Your Favourite

The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
18
43%
The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
11
26%
Mordants Need
4
10%
The Gap
9
21%
The Man Who Stories
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 42

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Post by Avatar »

danlo wrote:LFB was the first book by SRD I ever read.
Me too. It was given to me when I was 13, by a cadaverous junky who used to work for my father, along with Cloud Warrior, book 1 of The Amtrak Wars.

I was blown away from the start, and spent the next few years really struggling to get my hands on the rest of them.

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Post by Loredoctor »

The Gap. I love sci-fi, and I love the characters.
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Post by dANdeLION »

I voted for the 1st Chrons......let's face it, SRD's writing pinnacle came when Covenant tried to pay his phone bill!
Dandelion don't tell no lies
Dandelion will make you wise
Tell me if she laughs or cries
Blow away dandelion


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I'm just a dandelion
a fate I don't deserve.


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Post by Loredoctor »

dANdeLION wrote:I voted for the 1st Chrons......let's face it, SRD's writing pinnacle came when Covenant tried to pay his phone bill!
LOL

Did you realise that when Orson Welles broadcast TCTC back in the late 70s a small country town panicked because they thought a leper was living nearby? There was mass panic! Yes, it is true! Murrin can quote me on that.
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Post by Dawngreeter »

When I first read the Chronicles I couldn't have imagined that there could have been another series by SRD that could be as good, then I read the Gap books. Having just finished the Gap I will have to say these were better. For those of you who haven't read the WHOLE series, do it, it's freakin great!
Last edited by Dawngreeter on Wed Sep 14, 2005 12:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Fist and Faith »

1st :D
All lies and jest
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest
-Paul Simon

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Post by variol son »

The Gap definately. So much raw emotion.
You do not hear, and so you cannot be redeemed.

In the name of their ancient pride and humiliation, they had made commitments with no possible outcome except bereavement.

He knew only that they had never striven to reject the boundaries of themselves.
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Post by Cail »

I started with TCTC, and as great as both Chrons are, there's certain things about them that annoy me. The goofy names. The Worm. The word "vertigo".

The Gap, hands down, is the best series of books I've read. As VS said, so much raw emotion, so unrelenting, so well written. I steer clear of a lot of sci-fi because so much of it is just childish. The Gap renewed my faith in the genre.
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Post by [Syl] »

1st
2nd
Man who
Gap
MN
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Post by Furls Fire »

2nd Chrons because of this...

Come! This is the caamora! Come and be healed! :D
And I believe in you
altho you never asked me too
I will remember you
and what life put you thru.


~fly fly little wing, fly where only angels sing~

~this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you~

...for then I could fly away and be at rest. Sweet rest, Mom. We all love and miss you.

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Post by Fist and Faith »

Yeah, it's certainly difficult to argue with that, Furls. :D That chapter is, indeed, as good as it gets! And then there's The Search, and all things Sunder.

Still, The Spoiled Plains and Lord Mhoram's Victory... Ah, my heart!!!
All lies and jest
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest
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Post by duchess of malfi »

As far as individual books go, it would probably be The Man Who Fought Alone. :D

I have always been a First Chrons girl, as Lord Mhoram's Victory probably has affected me more than anything else I have ever read, but I also love the Second Chrons. :) It's hard for me to read them, though, as Linden's past stirs up too many memories of my own past. :( And perhaps his finest writing to date might have been in Mordant -- though it took me some twenty years and slowing down to analyze it word by word in the group read to realize it. :wink: :lol:

The Gap is fantastic, but a bit too intense for me, particularly The Real Story. :faint: :faint: :faint: :faint: :faint:
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Post by CovenantJr »

Avatar wrote:The Amtrak Wars
Any good? I keep seeing those books in used book shops, but I'm deterred by them being named after a courier company.
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Post by duchess of malfi »

CovenantJr wrote:
Avatar wrote:The Amtrak Wars
Any good? I keep seeing those books in used book shops, but I'm deterred by them being named after a courier company.
Here in America, we would equate that name with our national passenger rail service. :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Post by Avatar »

Well, that does actually have a littlesomething to do with it Duchess, but I'm not gonna give it away.

Yeah Cj, I think they're awesome. If you can pick them up 2nd hand, by all means do so. (I'm on my second batch actually, some bugger that I lent them all to in one shot just up and vanished. Had to re-assemble the whole series.)

Straight sci-fi for the most part, with a touch of fantasy. Great post-apocalyptic world. Hell of a good.

6 books. (Book 6 has a very open ending, and he's been saying that he'll write another for the last 10 years or so. But still totally worth it. Read them.) :D

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Post by Old Darth »

It is a three way tie between the First Two Chronicles and the Gap series for me. Each possesses their own blend that I enjoy.
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Post by Usivius »

well, since the topic is which is my favourite, instead of which do I think is the best, I said Mordant's Need, as I just can't get enough of the story and characters and events. I think I have read it about 10 times.
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Post by The Laughing Man »

First for me, and "purposely" haven't read any of SRD's other work, because I didn't want "The Land" to bleed over into anything else, just keep it encapsulated within its wonderful self.

:arrow: My favorite Covenant story? That would be the one where I'm standing next to my (annihilated) 9th grade friend at a party, who was on his knees puking his guts out, and telling him to "be true"! hahahaha! :haha:
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Post by Cail »

I was actually the same way. I didn't read The Gap until this year. Trust me, it's nothing like The Land.
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Post by The Laughing Man »

eeeeehhh, I'll wait, thanx cail! I can't risk it! I'm not as much of a reader as I was then, and now I'm more of a work my ass off can't find time to read alot kinda guy, and now I'm back in the same boat! Waiting for the next dam book! AAAAARRRGGHH. (rererrerererereread.....) maybe after C3.... ;)

C3? The Esmer was born in Apt C3!.....oooooooo.....
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