Kevin's Watch

Greetings all. I've been here a while, actually, just not registered and posting and all that. Read some interesting discussion. Looking forward to participating.

A few summers ago, 2010 if I recall, I had some vacation time at my in-law's cottage on the great lakes, and there's nothing quite like some light, simple, fluffy reading to go with a few brews (non alcoholic in my case) and tunes while on the beach. Figured I'd go for some Tolkien knock-offs, the sort of fluff someone like, say, Terry Brooks or Dennis McKiernan might crank out. So I hit the used book store and snagged the first Chronicles and got started.

Well, I didn't get what I wanted, but I sure the hell wasn't disappointed. Mindless sword and sorcery? How about an intensely deep and thought provoking exploration of the human condition at its best and worst. Like my name sake, Thomas Covenant raises more questions than he answers, and it was in places like this that I found many more answers, and questions. Have not read the 2nd and last Chronicles yet, but have read most of the structured interview from Donaldson's website (recommended if you haven't already done so) Can't see how they'll measure up to the opus that was the 1st.

I tell you, I keep these things at my bedside and puruse them nightly. They can quite probobly take a place beside the greatest classics of mythology, religion and literature as sources of wisdom and inspiration, as well as a great epic fantasy tale in its own right.

I'm also big into chewing the fat about all kinds of subjects, and have grown weary of some of the other sites I troll, er I mean, post at <grin>, so I'm looking forward to being a thorn in your collective sides for some time to come.

Damn, stay out of the TC forums. All of them. Did you get Gildenfire? And go out now and get the 2nd Chrons...you'll see just how they measure up.

Oh, and go read the Gap series too. Now that is his best writing I think.



Ah, how I envy you the joy and the agony of reading it all for the first time.

--A

Mordant's Need. My all-time favorite.

Welcome! Personally I dreaded the abundant presence of rip-off fluff (magic rings rolling around, after all...) when I picked these up, what with having specifically sought for some gritty fantasy, but was very, very pleasantly surprised.

I surmise the only means to judge the 2nd chrons is to read them and see whether you'll grow to love or detest the characters. They turned me into the brainless, glaze-eyed fangirl I'm now, and after reading Gap I'll have to say SRD's works hardly ever lack depth or philosophical themes (well, there's one single book I wanted to throw out of the window but I pitied the grass below). The 2nd chrons definitely don't sit well cheek-by-cheek in the shelf with, say, Chris Paolini or Robert Jordan.

Welcome to the Watch, Running. I look forward to some new discussions. I just hope your responses are not "those who know me have no need of my name" and "I am the way and the door" and stuff like that - that gets old fast!

Welcome! Check out the chapter dissections of 1st Chronicles in the "Dissecting The Land" forum.

Welcome Running Amok! I'm surprised that moniker hasn't been used yet since this Watch board was created.

So you've only read the 1st Chronicles so far? When I first read them in 1985, I couldn't wait to go grab and devour The Wounded Land!

You will be amazed how SRD develops TC in the 2nd Chrons!

Welcome once more, Running Amok)

There are a few more places people sometimes use to introduce themselves, if you're interested - "Hello, Newbs!" topic here, other new people's threads, the General Discussion and basically all the Watch

Running Amok wrote: I'm also big into chewing the fat about all kinds of subjects, and have grown weary of some of the other sites I troll, er I mean, post at <grin>, so I'm looking forward to being a thorn in your collective sides for some time to come.

Are you really sure you've been here a while?)

Thanks all. Regarding the second chronicles, I've been under the impression that the 1st Chronicles articulate the story the way Donaldson had initially intended it be told. The 2nd Chronicles were produced at the behest of his publishers, who insisted on sequels. Now this doesn't make them bad, of course. But I am, in fact, SO enamoured with the 1st chronicles and what they had to say that I dread the prospect of any change of premise in the overall story arc. I do plan on giving them a try at some point, however.

As an aside, my copies of The Illearth War and The Power that Preserves have both been water-damaged inside a one week timespan, the first in a rain storm and the second in the bath tub ... grrrrrrr!

No way man. If anything, the 2nd chrons are more powerful than the first.

Go at once and purchase them.

--A

hi Running Amok

Avatar wrote:No way man. If anything, the 2nd chrons are more powerful than the first.

Go at once and purchase them.

--A

YES.

They're a sheer rollercoaster of action, anguish, journeys into the core of the human psyche and ideals, and some very original fantasy elements, far more intriguing than those met in the 1st chrons. Not to mention that they contain a bloody awesome cast. How can anything with characters like Pitchwife or Grimmand, et cetera, be not worth traversing through simply for their sake alone?

Personally, I had to read them twice before the multi-layered story began fully unfolding. Even more breathtaking on the third time.

Running Amok wrote:The 2nd Chronicles were produced at the behest of his publishers, who insisted on sequels.

Yes. But, also, no.

The story goes like this ...

In an interview with Death Ray, Stephen R Donaldson wrote:But these old writers from the pulp tradition, once they got their hands on a writer they wanted him to focus on what was known to be saleable, and in my case that was the Covenant books, because the first books sold so well. Lester was bound and determined that I would write more Covenant books; I was bound and determined that I would not write more Covenant books.

At this stage we had already had enough fights for him to know that he couldn't simply steamroller me into writing more Covenant books, so he tried a more subtle approach. He kept sending me the plots; you know, every couple of weeks I'd get a letter from Lester and it would be the latest version of his plot for The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.

Well, thankfully I don't remember any of the details of these plots, but I do remember that I thought they were really bad. Each one that I read seemed to me to be a worse story idea than the one before, and part of what would make them seem worse is that they would feel like just retelling the same story again with different names, you know, which would have been fine with Lester, and there were plenty of old-style science fiction and fantasy writers who were perfectly willing to crank out the same... you know, change a little bit of the scenery, change a couple of the characters, basically write the same story again. I can remember thinking: 'nobody could write this, this is dreck'. I'd have my bi-weekly laugh; then I'd throw it in the waste basket.

One day, I get a letter from Lester, filled with a story idea for The Second Chronicles, and the idea - which I've completely forgotten - was so bad that before I could stop myself I said: 'Oh no, nobody could possibly write this story, what I really ought to do is...' And it was like having a meteor shower in my head. l suddenly saw this vast narrative edifice, that would include the first Chronicles, but that would develop in a way that seemed both logical and inevitable to me from the conclusion of the first trilogy, and it would lead to the conclusion of the second trilogy, and would then reach its final climax at the end of what I immediately began referring to as The Last Chronicles. I saw this whole story arc in one intense flash.

(February 2008) [link]

And the Second Chronicles are better than the first. Nothing cheap or retread in it at all.

There, ya see?

(Uh...where'd he go?)

--A

Okay okay -

Found an absolutely PRISTINE set of 2nd Chronicles at the used bookstore when I went to replace my waterloged TIW and PTP.

Forty pages into The Wounded Land now.

Awesome.

--A

I kind of feel for you RA even as I envy your first reading of the 2nd Chrons... 2nd Chrons were beautiful, but filled with chagrin... Donaldson almost seems to enjoy breaking your heart... as I'm sure you've already observed...

Running Amok wrote:Okay okay -

Found an absolutely PRISTINE set of 2nd Chronicles at the used bookstore when I went to replace my waterloged TIW and PTP.

Forty pages into The Wounded Land now.

Good news! Please post your first impressions in Dissecting the Land forum.

dlbpharmd wrote:

Running Amok wrote:Okay okay -

Found an absolutely PRISTINE set of 2nd Chronicles at the used bookstore when I went to replace my waterloged TIW and PTP.

Forty pages into The Wounded Land now.

Good news! Please post your first impressions in Dissecting the Land forum.

Forum pimp.
...yeah, yeah.
Look who's talking.