The Gradual Interview

[Believer]

Hmm.... His latest entry about his declining book sales is kind of sad. Not in the 'he should get over it' sense, but in the 'I wish things were better for him' sense.

I'm a similar reader to SRD, in that if I find an author I like I'll hunt down every book and read it. I'm doing that with Dostoevsky, SRD, and Iain Banks. And with SRD, the things that made me love the Chrons are also present in his other works (though I have only read the first two mysteries -- or maybe second two). Although I enjoyed the Chrons the most, I certainly thought all his other books were great too.

It's interesting that even though TC has so many difficult aspects to enjoying the books, Mordant's Need (which I thought was easier to enjoy) sold less well. I can understand Gap not doing well, as it does take until about the middle of book 2 to really hit its stride, IMO... But anyway. We should try to get as many people as possible to buy the Last Chrons so that the publishers that rejected him for declining sales realize they've lost a great author.

Or just send them hate mail

[Furls Fire]

Well, I must confess, I was one of his fans that could not get thru the first Gap book. And I've only read Mordant once all the way thru. The Chrons are what I keep coming back too, and it's basically because of Covenant, that one character has touched me so much for so many reasons.

The Real Story was too, ummm, well voilent for me, I'm not one for that much bloodspilling. (Which is the main reason I can't watch Braveheart, and I couldn't go see Passion). And I loved Mordant and should probably give it another read soon.

My heart belongs to Covenant tho, and I'm so happy to being going back to The Land.

[dlbpharmd]

SRD said:

But Lester del Rey would probably respond (perhaps aptly) that I did it to myself. After all, I found out what my readers like--and then I spent 20 years refusing to provide it. Why, he might ask, *shouldn't* they reject my non-"Covenant" books?

I agree Furlsy - except to say that I've never read anything of SRD's other than Covenant. I really should give the other books a chance but don't really know where to start.

[Believer]

I was pleasantly surprised on my re-read of Mirror... There's more to it than I thought originally. And I'm about 10 years older, maybe that makes a difference too.

Gap is tough. BUT, if you can make it through book 1 and half of book 2, you get to meet some great characters who are real good guys. I put Dolph Ubikwe and Min Donner on that list. They are the good guys in the midst of all the craziness.

[Furls Fire]

It was hard after six books of Covenant...and then moving on to Mordant, which was very different. And I did enjoy Mordant, but there was no Covenant. And I don't blame him for wanting to do something different. I mean, he really can't be expected to write about Covenant all the time, he had other stories to get out. All writers do. He's an awesome writer!! And I loved the short stories and Mordant, but...there's just something about that Covenant guy...

[caamora]

I'm with you, Furls. The chrons are what keep me coming back. The Gap series was too violent for my taste and I'm trying to re-read Mordant's Need. I love SRD's short stories, though, and I find that I re-read them often, too.


BTW - I just noticed the new banner. Looks great!!!

[[Syl]]

You guys should try the Man Who books. Broken but loveable character, not too violent, and fairly easy to read (relatively speaking).

[caamora]

No bookstores that I have found carry them. I haven't checked on Amazon yet, though.

[Furls Fire]

I want to read them too I think Amazon has all of them caam

[Dragonlily]

Also www.powells.com

[[Syl]]

www.alibris.com
www.abebooks.com

And if anyone has more money than they need, I'll gladly accept this one as a gift.

[Damelon]

I don't have the extra $$, Syl.

I'm going to have to order the "Man Who" books from Amazon. I've tried to find them locally, with no success. Of course, that will be after I finish Gardens of the Moon.

[Furls Fire]

Way cool!!! signed as Reed Stephens AND Stephen R. Donaldson. That would be just awesome to have!!

[dlbpharmd]

In what order should they be read?

[Dragonlily]

I haven’t read the Gradual Interview for several days, so several things made me want to comment.

Well, the real reason may be that I'm not a pet person myself. But my meticulously-rationalized, yet spur-of-the-moment, explanation is that the whole notion of "domestication" sort of violates the spirit of Land (at least as it existed in the first "Chronicles"). Sure, ordinary survival depends to some extent on having things like herds, transportation (e.g. horses), etc.. And the people who originally ventured into the Land don't have a particularly attractive history. But once Berek got that whole "reverence for life" thing going, people probably stopped thinking of animals as potential pets.

Quite obviously he’s not a pet person. If he were, he would know that animals are family members. Or, people are members of the animal pack. It’s not an exploitation thing, as he seems to feel.

I get a kick out of the way he pokes fun at himself for rationalizing. He does it in the intro to STRANGE DREAMS, too.

Avalest: Dear Mr Donaldson,
Why at this site is your beard a link to your "private office"? If someone clicks on your beard in real life do they also get linked to your "Private office"?

Thanks for your time, Avalest.

SRD: People who click on my beard in real life usually get linked to my "Private Jab-Cross Combination." <grin> You should try it sometime.

O, can I watch!?!?

I don't care about mere details like genre, setting, or story-type: I care about the particular gifts and integrity that writer brings to his/her work.

Love the way he says this, especially “integrity”. What he says about valuing the author more than the particular story applies, of course, especially to himself.

If I accepted a small enough advance (possibly too small to live on), I could probably get published by anybody. (After all, the sales of the GAP books are still better than most of the sf out there. Bantam was only disappointed because their expectatons were so high.) So, no, I wouldn't necessarily have had difficulty, but, yes, I might have had to get a day job. Which at my age would have been "difficulty" on a whole new order of magnitude.

This I can’t understand. Is it conceivable that any college would turn down the chance to have Stephen R. Donaldson teaching their literature classes?

[Dragonlily]

In what order should they be read?

The Man Who Killed His Brother
The Man Who Risked His Partner
The Man Who Tried To Get Away
The Man Who Fought Alone

The last one is one of my favorite Donaldsons.

[variol son]

I don't care about mere details like genre, setting, or story-type: I care about the particular gifts and integrity that writer brings to his/her work.

Me too!

The only reason I read The Gap and Mordant's Need is because they were written by SRD. After finishing the (first) six Covenant books, I went on a campaign to devour the rest of his work. That's how I always read, if I really like an author that is.

Sum sui generis
Vs

[Romeo]

I feel the same way. If I really like an author, I'll read anything they write. SRD, of course, tops that list. If he retired from fantasy to write nutritional labels for milk cartons, I'd switch to that brand. heh heh.

Also on that list for me is Gregg Keyes and Carol Berg.

[Believer]

He's answering questions again...

I wonder if he will get tired of all our hypotheticals. He already stopped answering Creator questions, and then didn't like the question about what the Elohim would've done had TC and LA not been around. It seems like he really just writes stories and whatever back story is there is what he's thought of, and he doesn't spend much time thinking about what-ifs and backstory that doesn't relate to whatever story he's actually writing...

Very different from those of us who almost seem to live in the Land and want to know every nook and cranny of its history, how things work, what might have been....

Anyway, I just hope he doesn't get too upset over stuff like that, because you know he'll keep getting those hypotheticals

[dlbpharmd]

Mark A. Valco: Dear Mr. Donaldson,
Question 1) While reading the Covenant books, I admired the Bloodguard's (and Harachai's) sense of honor and their devotion to duty. At the time you were writing these books, were you contemplating the possibility of one day studying martial arts?

Question 2)I come from an English background in college, where I studied and enjoyed many of the classics. The entire Covenant trilogy was every bit as good as any literature I was forced to read. For reasons I cannot specifically explain, I loved THE ONE TREE the most. For me, it was like taking a swim in a sea rich with language and ideas. I was spellbound during the visit with Elohim and chilled by the lure of the merewives. After reaching the end where the quest for the One Tree yields no Staff of Law to use against Lord Foul, suddenly the plot of the entire book seemed a sad and ironic waste of time. Were you, perhaps, trying to say that sometime life takes us in wrong directions but the lessons we learn are still valuable and worthwhile?

Question 3 for next month)Thomas Covenant's greatest fear seems to be other's dying for his sake, while Linden's greatest fear seems to be the possession of another being's body. It's it fair to say that both of these fears made their perils worse? (It's probably fair for me to say it, but is it a point you were trying to make?)

1) I never gave a second's thought to studying the martial arts until about the time I began working on the GAP books. And when I did consider the idea, my reason were entirely personal: they had nothing to do with anything I had written, or anything I intended to write. (Some day, long after I appear to have died--because we all know I'm not *actually* going to die--I'll write an essay about "The Writer as Warrior." But don't wait up. <grin>)

2) Personally, I don't consider anything in "The One Tree" to be "an ironic waste of time"--and I certainly don't see anything "wrong" with the directions my characters took in that book. One reviewer described the ending of "The One Tree" as "a subtle victory disguised as defeat," and I agree. For example, without Findail, without Linden's possession of Covenant in Bhrathairealm, and without Vain's "damage" at the Isle of the One Tree, Covenant's victory over Lord Foul, and Linden's creation of the new Staff of Law, would never have been possible.

3) The fears that you describe for Covenant and Linden are both fears that involve concern for other people. Such fears may very well increase the peril of the characters: they certainly make life a lot more complicated. But Covenant and Linden probably wouldn't be worth reading about if they didn't care about issues larger than their own survival. God knows I would not have considered them worth writing about.

(08/01/2004)

I think this is the 2nd time that SRD has mentioned Vain's "damage" at the One Tree as being essential to the outcome of the story. I've never considered this as anything but an accidental injury, and a HUGE clue to Vain's purpose. Does anyone have any thoughts as to how this point in the story was so crucial? Also, how was Linden's possession of Covenant in Bhrathairealm so crucial to her ultimate victory?