Stephen R Donaldson On the Web

For discussion about Stephen R. Donaldson's other works, Reed Stephens, group meetings, elohimfests, SRD sightings, and more.

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Post by wayfriend »

More movie love over at moviepilot.com. But no one's putting a ring on it.
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The more I think about it, the more I think a GoT style series would be better than a movie. Or even a series of movies.

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Post by wayfriend »

I saw this this morning, and it made me happy to see that the notion is still out there.
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.

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A recent interview with Stephen Colbert confirms he's a Fan of the Land.
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.
The full interview is here - you can listen to it or read it.
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A man of distinguished taste 👌😉 in an exemplary literary genre👌
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Post by wayfriend »

I came across this old 1980 article about Donaldson in the Washington Post that I hadn't seen before.

The first trilogy had been published just three years prior, vanguard of The Year of the Fantasy. The Wounded Land had just come out. The article is a nice immersion into the milieu of the Good Ol Days. And there are one or two surprises.

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Post by Savor Dam »

Great article, although the editing and formatting are not up to usual WaPo standards. Thanks for sharing it, WF!
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Post by Avatar »

The formatting at least is probably because it's from the archive, likely been moved from site to site as they've changed it, and only the text survived, not the underlying code.

Damn, it feels dated though. :D (I mean, it is obviously, but it feels it. :D )

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Post by wayfriend »

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.
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" ?!?!
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Post by drew »

https://youtu.be/ir9tAWHqkGg

A very well done review of the First Chronicles.

The same reviewer also does the Second and Last.
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Where the hell did you spring from? :D

Nice to see you around Drew. ;)

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Post by aTOMiC »

drew wrote:https://youtu.be/ir9tAWHqkGg

A very well done review of the First Chronicles.

The same reviewer also does the Second and Last.

Watched and appreciated all the Library Ladder Donaldson reviews.

Thanks drew!
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Post by wayfriend »

Fantasy novel 'Lord Foul's Bane' reaches Iranian bookstores

IBNA- 'Lord Foul's Bane' (1977), a fantasy novel by American writer Stephen Reeder ‎Donaldson, the first book of the first trilogy of 'The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant' ‎series has been published in Persian. ‎

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.

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That's pretty cool. But it took only 45 years.
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Post by dlbpharmd »

drew wrote:https://youtu.be/ir9tAWHqkGg

A very well done review of the First Chronicles.

The same reviewer also does the Second and Last.
I’ve 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 I’ve never seen before.
Last edited by dlbpharmd on Fri Jan 14, 2022 1:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by dlbpharmd »

Furthermore, some of the art comes from KW! I recognized many images from the album. Also, I recognized art created by Frostheart. I wonder if “Bridger” had permission to use the art in his videos? I saw no attribution within them, although he may include that elsewhere.

Is “Bridger” a KW member? :?:
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Post by wayfriend »

dlbpharmd wrote:Does anyone know where some of the art comes from?
Some of it seems to be from the Grim Oak Press release of the first Chronicles. I think they did the first two books.
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Post by wayfriend »

... and there's one piece of fan art from deviantart that I recognized.

- - - - -

I listened to that review of the first Chronicles. A lot of it is okay, but man, there are some things that are so way off base that they irked me. Like: Covenant has a "severe personality disorder"; Covenant has leprosy to "drive home" how unlikable he is; Covenant is not the hero of the story; the first Chronicles should be considered a tragedy.

Still, anything that encourages people to read the Chronicles is a good thing.
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Post by samrw3 »

Well for your own sake do not listen to his review of the Third Chronicles. He rips it apart on every edge, theme, plot, wording, necessity - every point you think of he tears it apart.

I agreed with a little piece of some of his arguments. But he hates the Third Chronicles at such elevated level that even the points I agreed with I did not care for how went about hating them. He did not seem to understand, in any degree, the scope of the Third Chronicles.

One thing in his favor was at least he stayed spoiler free.
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Post by dlbpharmd »

Yeah, he rips TLC to shreds.
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