Has anybody read the new Thomas Covenant book yet?

[Walt Starr]

I love Donaldson, although it took me three readings to get past the rape in Lord Foul's Bane.

Has anybody read the new book yet?

[RandomUser]

1. There's a new one? I'm definitely not going to read it.

I read the first trilogy and the second. But I'm leery of reading anything else by this author. I really had to struggle to finish them (just to say that I did :D). But I found that his writing style really started to drag after a while. The first book was okay (very strong emotional appeal), but the actual prose got worse with each successive volume.

Maybe it's just me, but I felt he grew too verbose and his words started to suffer. It's not the length of his novels that bother me (I've read many novels over 1000pgs -- Terry Goodkind, Robert Jordan, etc.), rather it's that he stops trying to tighten his prose and cut out the dross. He's fallen in love with his words and declines to trim the excess to sharpen up the delivery. So he ends up writing at great length about nothing of consequence to the plot.

Unfortunately, this seems to be a disease that affects many otherwise good authors. They need better editors who are firmer with them about hacking away the deadwood to create a stronger structure.

I still remember slogging through all six of those Thomas Covenant books, and I'm not eager to repeat something I viewed more as a chore than enjoyment.

[Khephra]

2. Donaldson himself has said in recent interviews

that even he has problems with his writing style in the first two trilogies and pretty much for the same reasons you mention.

I'm willing to give the next four books a try (yes, four--it's not a trilogy). But I'm reading way too many unfinished series right now. I think I'll hold off until he's done with this new one and then re-read all three series.

[ismnotwasm]

3. yeah, he's intense

I'm always tempted, but I haven't read it. I have all the Thomas Covenant books, and they only got ONE reading from me, very unusual for fantasy.

[DebJ]

4. My husband just read it and loved it. I'll see if I can get him to

post here. He keeps begging me to read them, but I said that as much as I enjoy expanding my vocabulary, being forced to either skip three words on every page or stop and constantly use the dicationary is just plain annoying, so I refuse.

[lazarus]

5. I never do that

I just try to absorb the language from the context. He uses a lot of alternate obscure meanings for words.

I love his later stuff even more. Mordant's Need was great, as was the Gap series. Much tighter writing, although the Gap books were even darker than Covenant. I like dark, though.