Friday, December 18, 2009

Thomas Covenant post part 2

"Plot summary: Thomas Covenant is cranky because he's trapped in Lord of the Rings."

I am tempted to keep it at just that, but I won't. That is a quote that I came across online and I find it quite funny. My final verdict on Thomas Covenant is not good. I know that it is practically redundant to say something bad about the series at this point, but I will anyways. I think that Donaldson's refusal to give a clear answer as to whether or not Covenant is dreaming throughout the story is a horrible plot device. I know I said that I hoped he wasn't actually dreaming in my first post, which I meant, but at a certain point I just wanted it to be one or the other. The different scenarios lead to disparate ways of looking at the characters and plot and the like. Having both open as possibilities makes for this strange, almost schizophrenic experience or something. Like you have to consider everything that happens from two possible perspectives. I wish I could have liked these books, but unlike the LOTR and His Dark Materials, I just felt like they were so hard to care about.

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