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From: CHRIS%cit-vax@engvax.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Wounded Land series
Message-ID: <2261@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 11-Jun-85 13:47:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.2261
Posted: Tue Jun 11 13:47:09 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Jun-85 02:34:33 EDT
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Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
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From: Chris Yoder <engvax!CHRIS@cit-vax>

     How does one express superlatives enough for the Chronicles of Thomas
Covenant? There is so much going on in these books that it amazes me every time
that I reread the series. Everything that Chris Andersen says about the books I
agree with.  As creative fantasy it's a work of art in my own (not so) humble
opinion.  Sure, there are some similarities between it and LoTR, just as there
are between trees.  I find these similarities superficial, and I also find that
they aren't the kind of gross copy-cating that makes the Sword of Shannara such
an infamous book.  Personally, I belive that the Wounded Land series aren't so
much good fantasy as an exposition on ethics couched as good fantasy. 

     Thomas Covenant is a scuzwad, a jerk, an *sshole, and very, very real.  I
agree that he's not so much an anti-hero as a wimp who refuses to fight.  If
you don't hate him w/i the first 50 pages, you haven't been reading.  But why do
you hate him?  It's not because he's evil, but because he's so ineffectual.  He
cannot, dare not, believe in the Land or become a power in it becuase then he
will lose touch with the leprosy that will slowly eat away his body 'till he
dies.  All who accept and love him in the Land need him to defeat Lord Foul or
they will die.  Thomas Covenant must finally walk the thin line between his
unbelief and the love that he has not experianced in the "real" world to a
solution that he can live with.  By the end of the third book you either
(partially) understand Thomas Covenant, or you stopped reading the series 1/2
way through the first book. 

     If you read these books carefully, you will see much of human nature at
work.  You will see love, love that believes w/o confirmation, hate, doubt, bone
headed perseverance, in short the whole gauntlet of human emotion.  These books,
read deeply, are not for the faint of heart.  I believe that they are also
clasics in every sense of the word.  Read them, dig into them, enjoy them, be
disturbed by them, hate/love Thomas Covenant, but read these books (think I'll
go reread them again myself!). 

				-- Chris Yoder

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{  The opinions here are representative of Huge Aircrash (a division of GM), 
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