Let me be honest: I didn't progress past the first five chapters of the first book. It's not as if I didn't try--on four occasions spaced at least half a year apart I picked up the first book and read the first two chapters promising myself to go on, but every time I simply had to stop. The book simply wasn't worth punishing myself.

Now, this series has received a lot of adoration over the years. There are people who call it the greatest fantasy series ever--greater even than Tolkien. I can see why they might say that. Thomas Covenant is a dark and moody anti-hero, a sharp contrast from the noble Aragorns and Frodos of Tolkien's classic work.

But Covenant is a little too nasty. And, most importantly, he is a nasty little hero in a book that retains much of the cliches of other fantasy books (the villain is called Lord Foul, for God's sake!). Also, unlike Tolkien with his carefully mapped-out worlds, Covenant's movements in the fantasy realm seemed haphazard to me; I often couldn't tell if he was traveling far or near, or for how long. Finally, there was nothing in the first five chapters (and some extra) that hooked me. In Tolkien, to make yet another comparison, I began getting interested despite the extremely slow beginning when the Black Riders began sniffing out Sam and Frodo on the road. In the Wheel of Time series, I became interested when the Trollocs attack Rand's home. No similar event occurs with Thomas Covenant. Instead, we see him being mistreated by other people, then we see him talking to the deep-voiced (of course) and red-eyed (definitely!) Big Bad Guy, who scoffs at Covenant and challenges him to attack LORD FOUL (and who could have seen that one coming).

Sigh. I expect to try reading this series again some later time. Enough people whose literary tastes I respect like it for me to completely ignore their opinions, but it's hard for me to get into this series, no matter how great others say it is.

Copyright © 2001 Steven Wu