Kevin's Watch

I was 19 years old, 3500 miles from home in Germany, on weekend guard duty in the motor pool. There was this book in the bunk house (where we were required to remain when not out on post) called the Wounded Land (yes, I read the first book of the second chronciles first). I became so captivated by the story that I took the book out on post with me (a no-no) and read it while I walked my post ( a BIG no-no). The Officer of the Guard (O.G.) walked upon me about 2 hours into my second shift. I really thought I was going to at least lose rank, possibly court marshalled for dereliction of duty- something. He took the book away from me and told me to see him at the end of my duty. I was expecting the worst, but it didn't come; my punishment was to clean up the bunk house. Relieved is not an accurate description of what I felt. After I was released from duty, I walked straight over to the PX bookstore and bought every book released in the series up to that time. I have been an ardent devotee ever since. This was about 22 years ago.

What a great story! Welcome to the Watch!

sniezel wrote:I was 19 years old, 3500 miles from home in Germany, on weekend guard duty in the motor pool. There was this book in the bunk house (where we were required to remain when not out on post) called the Wounded Land (yes, I read the first book of the second chronciles first). I became so captivated by the story that I took the book out on post with me (a no-no) and read it while I walked my post ( a BIG no-no). The Officer of the Guard (O.G.) walked upon me about 2 hours into my second shift. I really thought I was going to at least lose rank, possibly court marshalled for dereliction of duty- something. He took the book away from me and told me to see him at the end of my duty. I was expecting the worst, but it didn't come; my punishment was to clean up the bunk house. Relieved is not an accurate description of what I felt. After I was released from duty, I walked straight over to the PX bookstore and bought every book released in the series up to that time. I have been an ardent devotee ever since. This was about 22 years ago.

I wonder if the O.G read it and has visited here?

Just realised its my 20 year anniversary since i was first introduced to Thomas Covenant. My photography teacher at school loaned me the 1st chronicles, and i soon tracked down the 2nd chronicles myself. Have been hooked on Donaldson ever since.

Little did i realise how lucky i had it back then - i got to read the entire TC books in one go. None of this waiting around 2 or 3 years for the next instalment torture!!

1981. I was already a big Tolkien and Lewis fan, and had for some time been aware of these books floating round in the shops with the curious series title 'The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever'. I thought it sounded like an interesting idea, but pursued it no further. Then one day, whilst waiting for someone to arrive at the airport, I wanted something to read, so I bought LFB.

I had just been permanently thrown out of high school — not just one school but the entire district, for reasons too tedious to go into — an experience as traumatic and isolating, for a 14-year-old, as Covenant's leprosy was to him. It's not too much to say that those books gave me the courage to survive that year.

Got it Christmas '03, so I was....11, about to turn 12.

Read the first forty or so pages, but I though it was a loaf of poo, so I stopped reading it. Picked it up again around April-ish, and I think that was my first encounter with rape - other than, of course, hearing it on the news.

Have since branched out to SRD's other works, although I still love TCTC.

I must have been about thirteen years old. My father was a fantasy reader, and handed me "The Hobbit" with the warning that it would be a difficult read for me, but if I could get through it, and I liked it, he had more.

Long story short, it was, I did, I did, he did, and the 2nd adult fantasy novel I ever read was LFB. Hooked for life. What hooked me, however, wasn't TC, it wasn't the story, per se, it was the Land itself. As an adolescent, I was in search of a philosophy, and the innate honor, compassion, and dedication of the Stonedowners, the Woodhelvenin, the Lords, and the Giants (through Foamfollower, since he was the only one we met at that time) gave me an insight into what it would be like to love a land, a culture, and an ideal that much. I began to contemplate what it would be like to dedicate ones life to the service of something that eminently worthwhile. It gave me a goal that I'm still pursuing, that of finding that one thing worthy enough to serve for the rest of my life. I'm getting closer, I think, do being able to define what that thing is, but I'm not yet able to put it into word. Soon, I hope.

good story, mouseglove. Thanks for sharing.

Watching this site for awhile, and wondering why, but when I saw all the others who started up in the mid '80's, I decided to sign up. A friend in high school, freshman year (Fall 1985), suggested I read LFB for an oral book report. I trusted him, and I did so. I wish I had appreciated it appropriately, and I really wish I could remember what I reported in that Honors English class (I did get an 'A' eventually), but I have been hooked ever since.

I have never read nor watched The Lord of the Rings, I have never read any other fantasy novel other than one Terry Brooks' thing and that short story paperback of SRD that included Gilden Fire (because you have to read Gilden Fire, don't you???), and I am only reading Harry Potter because my 10 year-old son seems to enjoy it (we're starting The Prisoner of Azkaban this week), yet here I am. I have read all 7 books so many times that my wife wonders why I am reading that (blue, green, maroon, yellow) book again. What is it about TC that compels me??????

So, in short, I am looking forward to joining in the discussion - and if anyone needs a lawyer in California, I can send you a nice referral.


counselor

Attorney at Staff of Law! Has a nice "ring"! Welcome!

My dad gave me LFB for my 13th or 14th birthday back in '79- didn't even crack it open till two years later (which was strange, as I was an avid reader - but I was put off by the lurid red cover on the paperback). Next thing I know, my mother, my best friend, my mother's best friend, and just about everyone else i knew was passing the First Chronicles around - I had to purchase new copies of the trilogy because the original paperbacks just got mangled! Then we all had to wait about two years for the first book of the Second Trilogy I got first editions of each hardcover as they came out - but they're worthless now after almost 15 rereadings over more than 20 years (well, not worhless to me)

Oh, and I have a white gold wedding band as well, thanks to these books.

I'm 16 and read the books at 10 and 13 I have a friend of the family Chico who loaned me the boks I dont have a lot of money but the thoughts and feelings of tc just captivated me enough to buy the first three then i learned there was another 4 so i bought them too and they are my favorite books OF ALL TIME

Thanks for the welcome, Danlo. I enjoy many of your postings. I might have to get that Attorney at Staff of Law line posted on my desk somewhere.

For the record, I have a white gold wedding band as well. My wife has no clue why I like it so much.

I had read the first chronicles and i was jetting back from my honeymoon when I thought I needed something for the flight. On that flight i re-read Lord Fouls Bane again and was hooked into this very ambiguous fantasy world again.

Its so much more real to me than Tolkien. It hurts and bleeds so much more.

It was back in 1987. I was 13 and on my way to Blackpool Pleasure beach on a foreign exchange school trip. I'd just finished reading Lord of the Rings earlier that year but was skeptical of finding anything else as challenging in the 'fantasy' section.

I think we stopped at a motorway service station on the way. I was bored of the journey and of my efforts to speak German and decided to spend some of my rides money on a book so that I could be antisocial. A friend of mine's dad whom I respected picked LFB from the shelf and said something like 'try these, they're all right'. He was a master of extreme understatement as he described most things as 'naff'.

I devoured all 6 books of the 1st and 2nd crons over the following 3 months and they've loomed large in my conscious (and probably subconscious too!) mind ever since.

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant through the years. I have always avidly searched for great fantasy since reading The Lord of the Rings as a small boy. My life has truly been enhanced, Donaldson has required challenge in my life, a welcome growth. ...And then I pass on these great treasures to my daughter Tiffany, to share in giving the magic of the land to another, such discovery and wonder!

Robert R Sirignano

I found this link that has many people who hated book -- and Lawrence Watt - Evans has a funny story about Lester del Rey and the Chrons. I wouldn't bother commenting on the page, as the entry and comments are over a year old. BUT lots of commenters who hated TC and never got into the series

nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/006795.html

I pity the poor, literarily retarded fools...

I found the entire first and second chrons in a sci-fi fantasy collection someone was throwing away.They were new church freaks and said the chrons were the devil's work.I told them:"S#@t, I'll take them,and read the damn things and probably enjoy the whole rotted mess." I was right I did enjoy them immensely and wouldn't you know it,(according to them)my own personal soul is in dire peril of damnation!! *Blows raspberries* Yeah,right,whatever........The chrons that I found were the old first run paperbacks in real good condition,still have them 5 years later....Most of the people I knew growing up didn't read,I was the only freak of the bunch!! With the chrons I got the complete Eddings collection in HB, a screaming lot of HB of Anne Rice,the whole collection there,The swords of Shannara(Not great)series,even the Once and Future King in HB,the list goes on and on,I really made out like a bandit that day!!!!!

ringwielder wrote:Just realised its my 20 year anniversary since i was first introduced to Thomas Covenant.

That made me wonder how long it's been since I first read LFB. Nine years! I'm getting old.