4 ms·

Although I'm not generally into fantasy, I found "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" by Stephen Donaldson to be fantastic. I tried to start it twice and gave u

Although I'm not generally into fantasy, I found "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" by Stephen Donaldson to be fantastic. I tried to start it twice and gave up (there are some disturbing elements) but once I got into it I was hooked. Loved that the hero wasnt into being a hero and was deeply flawed. For non fiction, "Godel, Escher and Bach" is right up there, along with The Selfish Gene.

BizarroLand 2y ago
I have bought and read the entire decalogue of the Thomas covenant series. The first 2 trilogies were prime fantasy. The final quadrilogy probably deserves a re-read but it wasn't quite at the same level on the first read for me as the others. It's the only book that I can remember that has sent me scrambling for a dictionary as the sentences contained words whose meaning could not be discerned by inference. "The surquedry of the Elohim was their downfall", for instance.
- bloopernova 2y ago
  I've been reading history books lately, and my ebook feature "look up selected word in dictionary or Wikipedia" is such a useful little thing. I wish I'd had something similar in the 80s (the convenience, I know I could get a dictionary) A built-in pronunciation guide would also have been very appealing to this 80s bookworm.
- MattPalmer1086 2y ago
  Although I absolutely loved the first two chronicles, I could not get into the last chronicles at all. I read the first 1.5 books of those and gave up. Part of that is the extreme verbiage, as you point out. Really breaks the flow when you're reaching for a dictionary three times a page. I also frankly just didn't like anyone at all in the last chronicles, and stopped caring. But maybe that's just because of all the dictionary lookups!
WillAdams 2y ago
Thomas Covenant is only acceptable to readers who will accept a protagonist who rapes an innocent girl quite early in the work.
- MattPalmer1086 2y ago
  Yes, that is the disturbing element that made me stop reading twice. I pushed past that eventually and came to appreciate the story as a whole. This does not mean I or the characters in the story condone it or forgive it. Update: his other magnificent sci fi series, "The Gap" also deals with extreme abuse. His works are not comfortable, but they are great stories.

BizarroLand 2y ago

I have bought and read the entire decalogue of the Thomas covenant series. The first 2 trilogies were prime fantasy. The final quadrilogy probably deserves a re-read but it wasn't quite at the same level on the first read for me as the others. It's the only book that I can remember that has sent me scrambling for a dictionary as the sentences contained words whose meaning could not be discerned by inference. "The surquedry of the Elohim was their downfall", for instance.

bloopernova 2y ago
I've been reading history books lately, and my ebook feature "look up selected word in dictionary or Wikipedia" is such a useful little thing. I wish I'd had something similar in the 80s (the convenience, I know I could get a dictionary) A built-in pronunciation guide would also have been very appealing to this 80s bookworm.
MattPalmer1086 2y ago
Although I absolutely loved the first two chronicles, I could not get into the last chronicles at all. I read the first 1.5 books of those and gave up. Part of that is the extreme verbiage, as you point out. Really breaks the flow when you're reaching for a dictionary three times a page. I also frankly just didn't like anyone at all in the last chronicles, and stopped caring. But maybe that's just because of all the dictionary lookups!

WillAdams 2y ago

Thomas Covenant is only acceptable to readers who will accept a protagonist who rapes an innocent girl quite early in the work.

MattPalmer1086 2y ago
Yes, that is the disturbing element that made me stop reading twice. I pushed past that eventually and came to appreciate the story as a whole. This does not mean I or the characters in the story condone it or forgive it. Update: his other magnificent sci fi series, "The Gap" also deals with extreme abuse. His works are not comfortable, but they are great stories.