Kevin's Watch

Just finished reading "the Andelain Hills" from "the Wounded Land."
I am completely overwhelmed.
I cried. I could easily have wept, had I let myself.
I can't believe I read all this nearly thirty years ago, and the impact is so much stronger now.
Perhaps, like Thomas Covenant, I was given knowledge that would only awaken in me later in time.
What really gets me is how so many people right here, right now, know exactly what I'm feeling.
I don't think I'll ever read anything as beautiful as this in all my days.
Such powerful words. Such sweet sorrow!

Yes, LZ...

Lord Zombiac wrote:What really gets me is how so many people right here, right now, know exactly what I'm feeling.

We wouldn't be here if we didn't know.
ah, to experience it all again so fresh...

quote]
We wouldn't be here if we didn't know.
ah, to experience it all again so fresh...
[/quote]

thats what i wish for the most, if i could just read lfb with a clean slate just one more time...

When you read the books as a youth, you read them through the eyes of a youth, with a youth's fresh view of the world (ours I mean) and your heart soars in joy at what you are reading. When you read them as an adult the books aquire a depth that only long experience of the sorrows of our world can give - and the result is an emotive force that can be overwhelming. As a writer yourself LZ, it is possible that an even further depth is available to you perhaps because the true 'craft' (if that is the right word) of the work will be discernable.

Lord Zombiac wrote:Just finished reading "the Andelain Hills" from "the Wounded Land."
I am completely overwhelmed.
I cried. I could easily have wept, had I let myself.
I can't believe I read all this nearly thirty years ago, and the impact is so much stronger now.
Perhaps, like Thomas Covenant, I was given knowledge that would only awaken in me later in time.
What really gets me is how so many people right here, right now, know exactly what I'm feeling.
I don't think I'll ever read anything as beautiful as this in all my days.
Such powerful words. Such sweet sorrow!

You might be right about that.. The Chronicles was the first fantasy series I ever read, almost 20 years ago now, and I have been searching vainly since then for something as good.
Perhaps there is something out there that can equal it, but I'm doubting it.
And yes, we know what you're feeling.. We've all felt our own versions of that same thing, and should we leave sufficient time before re-reading it again will feel it as strongly again.

peter wrote:When you read the books as a youth, you read them through the eyes of a youth, with a youth's fresh view of the world (ours I mean) and your heart soars in joy at what you are reading. When you read them as an adult the books aquire a depth that only long experience of the sorrows of our world can give - and the result is an emotive force that can be overwhelming. As a writer yourself LZ, it is possible that an even further depth is available to you perhaps because the true 'craft' (if that is the right word) of the work will be discernable.

Yeah, as I read this stuff I'm beginning to realize what deep seeds had been planted. This stuff had far more influence on my own writing than I'd ever realized. I think each time my fiction transcends swordplay and eerie magic and strives for meaning it is Donaldson's voice that guides me across that threshold.

ninjaboy wrote:

Lord Zombiac wrote:Just finished reading "the Andelain Hills" from "the Wounded Land."
I am completely overwhelmed.
I cried. I could easily have wept, had I let myself.
I can't believe I read all this nearly thirty years ago, and the impact is so much stronger now.
Perhaps, like Thomas Covenant, I was given knowledge that would only awaken in me later in time.
What really gets me is how so many people right here, right now, know exactly what I'm feeling.
I don't think I'll ever read anything as beautiful as this in all my days.
Such powerful words. Such sweet sorrow!

You might be right about that.. The Chronicles was the first fantasy series I ever read, almost 20 years ago now, and I have been searching vainly since then for something as good.
Perhaps there is something out there that can equal it, but I'm doubting it.
And yes, we know what you're feeling.. We've all felt our own versions of that same thing, and should we leave sufficient time before re-reading it again will feel it as strongly again.

Robert E. Howard would be my suggestion, particularly "the jewels of Gwahlur."

LZ, Is the story you reccomend a Conan story (I do love the old Conan S&S books), and do you regard Robert E Howard as on a par with Donaldson in his ability to generate feeling within the reader. If so I must give him much more attention than I have to date.

It is a Conan story. It is a great stride in character development that has great emotional impact.
It is a moving portrayal of unexpected sensitivity within the uncouth barbarian's heart. It offers redemption in a small, deeply selfless act of kindness from a character who is capable of slaughtering scores of foes, and being so untroubled by this wanton killing as to typically celebrate afterwards in taverns in the company of "dancing girls." It is an astonishingly heroic act in such a dark age.
Perhaps, in the full flower of TCTC fever I am biased, but "on a par with Donaldson" seems a remote possibility right now, even for Howard.
Also a Soloman Kane story, "Wings in the night" is astonishingly powerful, easily close to the genocide of the Giants or the "abomination" of the Clave against the Haruchai.
It is, unfortunately, tainted by Howard's racism: Here he creates his most human, sympathetic, and loving depiction of black people (rather surprising) and he spoils the whole thing with his final paragraph, in which he lauds the "white warrior" whose role is to benefit "lesser races."
I read somewhere that Robert E. Howard was one of Stephen R. Donaldson's inspirations as a writer.
This is most evident in "Lord Mhoram's Victory" from TPTP, as Conan is often pitted against impossible odds and fights his way to victory.
Also evident is "Soothtell" where vivid depictions of dark ritual evoke the grim, cultlike practices of the Stygians. In fact the barbarity depicted throughout in "the Wounded Land" is so corrupt and relentless, that many times I wonder if Donaldson was deliberately trying to outdo Howard-- he succeeds, of course.
Currently my estimation of SRD is vast. However, I only read REH after having read SRD. Up until that time I thought Conan was a marvel comics invention. I found Conan as spectacular a read as Thomas Covenant.

LZ, I have read a lot of Conan in the past and was recently considering taking up the novels again (my entire book collection was destroyed while in storage - 100's and 100's - and I have no idea which ones I have read and which I haven't.) I remember always liking the REH Conan stories over the attempts of other authors (L Sprauge de Camp had a go I believe) so your comments have galvanised me to think that perhaps now is the time. Perhaps as a return suggestion I can reccomend the 'Death Dealer' novels by James Silke based on Frank Frazzetta's drawings of Gath of Baal. These 4 prose novels present Gath as a more feral version of Conan - but again, deeply hidden (for sure) he has great heart.
Well LZ, thank God for e bay - at least I stand a chance of tracking down a few Conan books in this lifetime!

Lord Zombiac wrote: Yeah, as I read this stuff I'm beginning to realize what deep seeds had been planted. This stuff had far more influence on my own writing than I'd ever realized. I think each time my fiction transcends swordplay and eerie magic and strives for meaning it is Donaldson's voice that guides me across that threshold.

I know what you mean ... though when I go back and reread books I read in my youth, I realize that it's all there in my own writing, to some extent. I bet Donaldson would say the same thing.

What are you working on?

Lord Zombiac wrote:Just finished reading "the Andelain Hills" from "the Wounded Land."
I am completely overwhelmed.
I cried. I could easily have wept, had I let myself.
I can't believe I read all this nearly thirty years ago, and the impact is so much stronger now.
Perhaps, like Thomas Covenant, I was given knowledge that would only awaken in me later in time.
What really gets me is how so many people right here, right now, know exactly what I'm feeling.
I don't think I'll ever read anything as beautiful as this in all my days.
Such powerful words. Such sweet sorrow!

Having first read LFB and the subsequent series in the 80s, and re-read TWL just before the debut of ROTE, I share your adoration for SRD's poignant prose. The puissant theurgy of his his otherwordly creativity speaks sooth that he will indeed gain the honor as one of the greatest writers in history, pending literacy levels of future generations.
And a note regarding your location- I as well have moved to NM and love most aspects. Hope to one day move up north of ABQ.
IO

So are you in Albuquerque? (LZ is south--in Ruidoso...)

danlo wrote:So are you in Albuquerque? (LZ is south--in Ruidoso...)

Unfortunately in LC currently for engineering physics after a financial and life crash, and am annoyed by the narrow viewpoints of the academia with which I'm forced to associate. Would love to move to Rui and build power plants but I can't even raise funds to get a prototype built.

On the bright side, you have a pretty cool avatar!

Fist and Faith wrote:On the bright side, you have a pretty cool avatar!

Thankies- that's two of you now who have complimented my creation. ^_^

Lord Zombiac wrote:Just finished reading "the Andelain Hills" from "the Wounded Land."
I am completely overwhelmed.
I cried. I could easily have wept, had I let myself.
I can't believe I read all this nearly thirty years ago, and the impact is so much stronger now.
Perhaps, like Thomas Covenant, I was given knowledge that would only awaken in me later in time.
What really gets me is how so many people right here, right now, know exactly what I'm feeling.
I don't think I'll ever read anything as beautiful as this in all my days.
Such powerful words. Such sweet sorrow!

From the same chapter: Does anybody here remember what this "knowledge" bestowed by Caer-caveral was about?

"Enough," the Forestal hummed. "Even now he falters." Graceful and stately, he moved to Covenant's side. "Thomas Covenant, I will not name the thing you seek. But I will enable you to find it." He touched Covenant's forehead with his staff. A white blaze of music ran through Covenant's mind. "The knowledge is within you, though you cannot see it. But when the time has come, you will find the means to unlock my gift." As the song receded, it left nothing in its wake but a vague sense of potential.

"I will not name the thing you seek. But I will enable you to find it." Sounds like a riddle.

TheWormoftheWorld'sEnd wrote:

Lord Zombiac wrote:Just finished reading "the Andelain Hills" from "the Wounded Land."
I am completely overwhelmed.
I cried. I could easily have wept, had I let myself.
I can't believe I read all this nearly thirty years ago, and the impact is so much stronger now.
Perhaps, like Thomas Covenant, I was given knowledge that would only awaken in me later in time.
What really gets me is how so many people right here, right now, know exactly what I'm feeling.
I don't think I'll ever read anything as beautiful as this in all my days.
Such powerful words. Such sweet sorrow!

From the same chapter: Does anybody here remember what this "knowledge" bestowed by Caer-caveral was about?

"Enough," the Forestal hummed. "Even now he falters." Graceful and stately, he moved to Covenant's side. "Thomas Covenant, I will not name the thing you seek. But I will enable you to find it." He touched Covenant's forehead with his staff. A white blaze of music ran through Covenant's mind. "The knowledge is within you, though you cannot see it. But when the time has come, you will find the means to unlock my gift." As the song receded, it left nothing in its wake but a vague sense of potential.

"I will not name the thing you seek. But I will enable you to find it." Sounds like a riddle.

I thought the gift Caer-Caveral gave him was the location of the One Tree. The Elohim were able to "unlock his gift", but afterwards imposed the stasis on Covenant's mind

dmMike7 wrote:

TheWormoftheWorld'sEnd wrote:

Lord Zombiac wrote:Just finished reading "the Andelain Hills" from "the Wounded Land."
I am completely overwhelmed.
I cried. I could easily have wept, had I let myself.
I can't believe I read all this nearly thirty years ago, and the impact is so much stronger now.
Perhaps, like Thomas Covenant, I was given knowledge that would only awaken in me later in time.
What really gets me is how so many people right here, right now, know exactly what I'm feeling.
I don't think I'll ever read anything as beautiful as this in all my days.
Such powerful words. Such sweet sorrow!

From the same chapter: Does anybody here remember what this "knowledge" bestowed by Caer-caveral was about?

"Enough," the Forestal hummed. "Even now he falters." Graceful and stately, he moved to Covenant's side. "Thomas Covenant, I will not name the thing you seek. But I will enable you to find it." He touched Covenant's forehead with his staff. A white blaze of music ran through Covenant's mind. "The knowledge is within you, though you cannot see it. But when the time has come, you will find the means to unlock my gift." As the song receded, it left nothing in its wake but a vague sense of potential.

"I will not name the thing you seek. But I will enable you to find it." Sounds like a riddle.

I thought the gift Caer-Caveral gave him was the location of the One Tree. The Elohim were able to "unlock his gift", but afterwards imposed the stasis on Covenant's mind

I thought so too. But the thing that confuses me is that Mhoram's shade then announces that the thing Covenant seeks is not what it "appears to be." And that he will be forced to return to the Land.

Perhaps their advice works in sequence. Caer-Caveral gave him subconscious knowledge of the thing he seeks (even though TC doesn't know it's the One Tree yet!), and then Mhoram perplexed him with the further riddle that the thing he seeks is not what it appears to be.

Zarathustra wrote:

Lord Zombiac wrote: Yeah, as I read this stuff I'm beginning to realize what deep seeds had been planted. This stuff had far more influence on my own writing than I'd ever realized. I think each time my fiction transcends swordplay and eerie magic and strives for meaning it is Donaldson's voice that guides me across that threshold.

I know what you mean ... though when I go back and reread books I read in my youth, I realize that it's all there in my own writing, to some extent. I bet Donaldson would say the same thing.

What are you working on?

I'm working on a sequel to my novel "A War of Apes."
The sequel is called "Great Ape" and is "a true story" based on 5 years of Live Action Roleplaying.
You can read the first five chapters in "the hall of gifts."
The first chapter is nested in the thread that says "synopsis."
chapter one
chapter two
chapter three
chapter four
chapter five