Official Discussion Forum for the works of Stephen R. Donaldson
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Tolkien keeps getting called consolatory for some reason even though he was the guy who wrote some great and highly tragical tragedies like Túrin Turambar and Akallabêth. As far as despair goes, I find that Frodo and Sam in Mordor has a very similar tone to Covenant and Foamfollower in the Lower Land. The siege of Revelstone echoes the siege of Minas Tirith. I love all of those! I think the common emotional undertones are a big part of the reason why I adore both LotR and Thomas Covenant so much....it [the earlier part of the series] intentionally parodied the themes and archetypes established in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, subverting these motifs to address the sources and nature of despair that in part informed his consolatory fiction.
I think the Covenant books actually fit with Christian values (note I'm not talking about the American-style Fundamentalists that get rightfully lambasted particularly in The Power that Preserves) although the doctrinal details can be fairly gnostic. I'm an atheist but I find much to admire about Tolkien's values. I also think Donaldson actually defends the ideals of heroism. The hobbits weren't rapists to start with, but they weren't much of heroes either, and Covenant eventually develops into a true hero. Some of the less developed peripheral characters like Mhoram and Aragorn are heroic from start to finish.The series also represented a repudiation of much of the Christian values and romance underlying Tolkien's writing, abetted by the use of a central character that actively undermined the ideals of heroism found in his novels...
The reviewer conveniently ignores the prominent environmental values found in Tolkien. I'm wondering how much Tolkien he has actually read.Instead, Donaldson directed his epic towards addressing more contemporary and existential questions, as well as modern topical issues, such as the emerging environmental ethos...
I saw in the Gradual Interview a mention that Donaldson was in fact writing an opposite for Tennyson's Idylls of the King, and from the description provided Idylls of the King is the anti-romantic one....Donaldson continued a more modern tradition of anti-romanticism initially established by authors such as Fritz Leiber, Mervyn Peake and Michael Moorcock...
Curiously, the common view on this board seems to that the prologue was the best part, with which I agree. I thought the Ramen parts were the ones which moved the most slowly. Also, I thought it was awesome how the real world to-the-Land scenarios had constantly developed from a simple minor traffic accident to the Community of Retribution and Lord Foul in the fire to Roger on a killing spree and Lord Foul making lightnings behave very unnaturally.However, this requires over a hundred pages of exegesis, which some are bound to find tedious and slow-slogging, as well as reliance upon a device that over time became repetitive and distracting in the original novels. The good news is that if the reader is willing to persist, once the characters make the transition to The Land, the narrative quickens and attains a more assured and sustained focus.
This isn't even all of that gets revealed of the plot, sadly. I'm glad I didn't read this review before now.Thus Linden begins a long and arduous search for both her son and the Staff, aided as well as opposed by likely and unlikely foes and allies, including the Ramen and Ranyhyn, the Demondim and their spawn, and the mysterious, possibly deranged and near omnipotent character Esmer, son of Cail and the Dancers of the Sea, as well as, regardless of his father, the implacable enemy of the Haruchai.