I had read Lord Foul's Bane a long long time ago. Other than the basic premise, I remembered little of the story after all this time.

Thomas Covenant lives in the modern world (well, the modern world of the late 1970s) and suffers from leprosy. One day he travels into the main town to pay a bill, where people actively try to avoid him and discourage him from coming to town. At one point, he steps off a curb and is seemingly hit by a police car. When he wakes, he is in an alternate world, known as The Land, where he is is mistaken for the mythic Berek Halfhand, an ancient lord who had defeated the eponymous villain in the long ago past. He had been summoned from his home world by the ridiculously named Drool Rockworm. Lord Foul gives Covenant a threatening message to give to the leaders of The Land. The first part of the novel focuses on Covenant’s efforts to reach the leaders and the second part of the book focuses on a select group of adventurers setting off to defeat the great evil that has befallen their world.

If the structure of the novel sounds familiar, then many other aspects of the book will too as it is definitely derivative of The Lord of the Rings. For the most part, Lord Foul is an unseen evil who returns to The Land after many years. Rockworm is very Gollum like. There’s a council that decides what action to take and a magic ring that Covenant cannot wear without great anguish. That said, the world Donaldson creates is neither as sophisticated nor as rich as Tolkien’s masterpiece; however, that is probably an unfairly high standard to compare any fantasy novel to.

As I’ve found with many fantasy novels, the writing is often overwrought, as if saying in twenty words what one could say with two somehow makes a work epic. Fantasy readers expect fat novels, but it seems sometimes that comes at the expense of tight prose.

One of the most distinct and intriguing features of the novel is how unlikable Covenant is. He is not the typical hero. Having grown bitter over the years because of his illness and the way people have treated him, he lashes out at others and commits some unexpectedly vile acts.

I enjoyed the book more than not. I appreciated that Covenant was such an unusual main character and I was interested in finding out more about the relationship between the two worlds, although the latter is not much expounded on. Because of his accident, Covenant believes the world to be in his dreams and not real, earning him the name Unbeliever. His slow acceptance of his new situation was another unique aspect of the novel.

I was on the fence as to whether or not I wanted to continue with the series. However, looking at other reviews, it seems like the consensus is that this is the weakest book and Donaldson doesn’t really hit his stride until later. Considering that, I will probably pick up Book Two, The Illearth War, at some point and see how it goes.

This is a classic fantasy novel that I first read in high school. The main character is a contemporary novelist who has been diagnosed with leprosy and is treated as an outcast from his small New England town. The events of the novel comprise his adventures in a fantasy world, where he is forced to choose between the physical and mental vigilance he has been taught as a leprosy survival skill and the necessary action to aid in saving the fantasy world from the evil that confronts it. Throughout, a big part of the theme is deciding what's real and what's not real. It's a good read, although Donaldson has a vast vocabulary that often exceeds the grasp of most readers and there are a few parts where the action feels quite slow. Still, a decent read for fantasy fans.

A hard - but must - read for any fantasy reader.

This book is not perfect. It is difficult, somewhat overwritten, and presents an incredibly unlikeable protagonist who does altogether too much navel-gazing.

Lord Foul's Bane attempts to distance itself from LotR while simultaneously drawing heavily from it (shepherds of the forests, a magic ring, a mighty stone fortress, Ravers who serve Lord Foul, and the ineluctable march toward ruin).

However, it and the rest of the books in the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant are rewarding, rich, and compelling, and I find myself drawn to them. What is belief? "Any belief that puts itself beyond doubt nurtures its own collapse." What does disease do to the soul? Where do we put our faith? Without beauty, how do we combat despair? This is a morally complex book that is more than its superficial genre earmarks. For that I come back to it over the years.

Interesting world building...

I'm a suckered for world-building, but there are a lot of hours in the lot and in the characters. I don't think the supposition that leprosy caused the protagonist to be such a jerk really holds water.

meh

I read this trilogy a long time ago & while I mostly liked it, there is a rape scene in the first book that I wish hadn't been there. It does play into the rest of the story, though. These aren't books that I would read again.

Not for me. Not exactly who it’s for, but definitely not for me.

This is one of those books that I’ve meant to read for a long time. I had friends who enjoyed this series and recommended it to me. I don’t think I would’ve liked this 40 years ago and I definitely do not like it now that I’m in my 50’s.

I can get behind anti-heroes. I can get behind redemption arcs. But, in this, Donaldson has created a character so awful, so painfully terrible, loathsome, self absorbed, and irredeemable that there is nothing Covenant can ever do to offset that. Save the world? Thanks, much appreciated, but also, by the way, f you! You giant walking talking piece of crap.

I tried. I read the first 3 books and never, ever, does Covenant get better. Good on Donaldson for somehow making money from this.

I read this book a long, long, time ago around 7th grade or so. I remember severely disliking it and I did not read the second book in the series. I remember nothing from that reading other than not liking it. I don't even remember why I didn't like it. But if I had to guess, I would presume that it was because it was unlike any of the other fantasy books I had read and loved; The Hobbit, The Sword of Shannara, Pawn of Prophecy, etc.

Here is a story with an unlovable un-hero. A man who is a leper, who is consumed with rage, who hates himself, who lashes out at everyone around him. Cowardly, bitter, unlikable.

Yet, the author has created a world full of a rich people who revere the world and all of the life in it. Who have sworn an oath of peace even as their world is threatened by an ancient evil.

Now that I'm older and I do not have to have an obvious and likable hero to enjoy a story, I was able to appreciate more about this book, but it still leaves a lot to be desired. The author's names for things are a bit generic and simple. Lord Foul, Drool, Ur-viles, etc. I think I will finish the trilogy. Partly because this series is one of those series that any self-respecting fantasy fan should probably read (kinda like Wot) as a badge of honor if nothing else, and partly because every fan of these books say that the author's genius is revealed over the next two books. I suppose we shall see.

I found the story intriguing and very creative. The protagonist -- if you can even call Thomas Covenant that -- was entirely unexpected and I thought the premise of the character was fascinating.

That said, I did not enjoy the writing at all. I found it stilted to the point of obfuscating the story at times. It felt as if someone taught the author that he should use similes to make his prose more engaging, and he just took that and ran with it. It seemed like every sentence had a "like" or "as if" phrase attached to it, and many of them made very little sense to me. Clearly he wrote with a thesaurus next to him, but it wasn't a good one, because he often uses words in ways that don't actually fit their definition (including antiquated usages of those words). I never mind having to look up words I'm not familiar with, but when I find no definition that fits the context of the author's usage, I find that bewildering. This made it a lot less enjoyable to read.