Official Discussion Forum for the works of Stephen R. Donaldson
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Ars' plea: Someone make this into a series
The Ars staff picks the novels we think would make compelling TV adaptations.
ARS STAFF - 3/7/2021, 9:00 AM
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The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (1977-2013) by Stephen Donaldson
Would you watch a series about a divorced, self-loathing leper who is transported to a magical land and instantly becomes a powerful being in a fight against monumental evil, all because of the wedding band he never removed? That's the basis of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, a fantasy series that first appeared as a trilogy in the late 1970s but has now grown to 10 installments.
Our protagonist, Thomas Covenant, is about as perfect an antihero as there can be. Summoned to the Land after being knocked unconscious, Covenant is harangued by Lord Foul the Despiser, who tells him to carry a prophecy of destruction to the Council of Lords. The series unfolds from there, as Covenant reluctantly joins with the Lords to battle the host of evil that threatens the Land.
The twist is that Covenant believes he's actually unconscious and the Land is just a fever dream. When his health is restored by Earthpower and his impotence is cured, he commits an unspeakable crime against one of the Land's inhabitants. Despite this, he is accepted by the council and joins them on a quest to reclaim the Staff of Law and cleanse the Land of its existential threat. And that's just book one.
Whoever produces this will definitely need a hefty effects budget for the giants, cavewights, ranyhyn, and other creatures of the Land. But the first trilogy (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever) is excellent source material, as author Stephen Donaldson is masterful at creating a richly detailed and imperiled land of beauty and innocence, along with the perfect antihero to save it. And if the ratings are good, there's a second trilogy and an ensuing tetralogy to draw on.
-Eric Bangeman, Managing Editor [link]
The full interview is here - you can listen to it or read it.COLBERT: Without a doubt. Without a doubt. I wasn't conscious of it at the time. I remember a teacher asking a friend of mine, why does he always read science fiction and fantasy? - because I was a very poor student. I barely graduated from high school. And I had basically - I was a terrible student from the moment that they died. I just didn't care anymore. But I read almost a book a day. Like, I read constantly, and all fantasy and science fiction. And I had an enormous amount of it because my oldest two brothers, Jim and Ed, had been born in the '40s, had been reading science fiction during a real golden age during the '50s and the early '60s. And I had all of their books.
So I had boxes and boxes of books they had left behind. So I was reading deep-cut stuff like L. Sprague de Camp and A. E. van Vogt and Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore and people nobody reads anymore. And - or rather, you know, you have to be really into it to know some of these names. And they were an escape, you know? They're still an escape. I still will go back to Roger Zelazny or Stephen R. Donaldson or some of the fantasy writers of my youth to have that sort of comfort food of a alternate world to soothe me.
in an exemplary literary genre
(I mean, it is obviously, but it feels it. )This is what I found interesting. Yes, Donaldson had the third Chronicles in mind when he wrote the second. But too see that, at this early date, Ballantine was already bargaining for it ... and Donaldson was already feeling reticent about it. And a "fourth" ?!?!Now, Ballantine is launched on the second Thomas Covenant trilogy, has nearly persuaded the author to write a third and hopes for a fourth. Donaldson is not quite so sure.
drew wrote:https://youtu.be/ir9tAWHqkGg
A very well done review of the First Chronicles.
The same reviewer also does the Second and Last.
That's pretty cool. But it took only 45 years.Fantasy novel 'Lord Foul's Bane' reaches Iranian bookstores
IBNA- 'Lord Foul's Bane' (1977), a fantasy novel by American writer Stephen Reeder āDonaldson, the first book of the first trilogy of 'The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant' āseries has been published in Persian. ā
The book has been translated into Persian by Mahan Sayyarmanesh. Ketabsaray-e Tandis Publishing in Tehran has released 'Lord Foul's Bane' in 496 pages.
[link]
Iāve watched the first of these videos. Does anyone know where some of the art comes from? I recognize some but there are a couple of images of Covenant Iāve never seen before.drew wrote:https://youtu.be/ir9tAWHqkGg
A very well done review of the First Chronicles.
The same reviewer also does the Second and Last.
Some of it seems to be from the Grim Oak Press release of the first Chronicles. I think they did the first two books.dlbpharmd wrote:Does anyone know where some of the art comes from?
