Book Review – Lord Foul’s Bane – Stephen Donaldson

When Vamplit Publishing offered to take on my book they likened my style to Stephen Donaldson Author of the Thomas Covenant Chronicles and others. Now I have never heard of Stephen Donaldson so that meant little to me. I have now however acquainted myself with the author’s work and stand perplexed. Does my publisher really think that I right like the creator of Thomas Covenant?

Some people do not like The Thomas Covenant Chronicles because of the self-pitying angry anti-hero. I for one do. The writing is so fluid and descriptive in ways that many authors could only envy. If the questers are following a river the prose keeps pace with the flowing waters. You feel the bite of the stinging rain and cloying grasp of the living darkness. There’s a spring in the earth that you can feel in every breath that the land takes. The land that is truly living and beautifully rendered as indeed are its varying indigenous peoples.

I was never bored reading this book, of which I have now completed the first part of the trilogy. I’ll tell you nothing of the story whatsoever. To tell you anything of the plot will tarnish it in your mind. Read it and let it polish that dulled, tarnished metal that has encased so many reader’s minds over innumerate years as you have been fed endless trite as excuses for fantasy. This is classic fantasy. Not the fuzzy teddies on a picnic but a visceral festival of extravagant prose that demands a reader’s attention. This is not the likes of Harry Potter, Twilight or any of the modern urban brigand. This is the work of a skilled raconteur, a teller of high tales and bard of lost lore and legends well remembered.

Before I knew where I was I had strayed 80 pages into the sequel just for mild curiosity. If you like your fantasy high and classic like that of Tolkien then you will enjoy this. But as for whether I write like the author or not I never dare to mount such a lofty pedestal.