i'm turning literary critic..XD
anyway i borrowed this book from the library see, and the more i read it, the more pissed i got..there's just sumtin wrong about the book..i will go into further detail later..this book is described as "The Classic Epic Fantasy Trilogy" blah blah blah
now, this book is about a "modern" i.e. circa 70's American man who suffers from leprosy, named, as implied, Thomas Covenant. He is summoned into another world that is seemingly healthier and younger than ours, where people can "see" the health aspects of other ppl and the land..so there..of course being a fantasy, it has all the proper giants, and bad guys, and magical items, and funny language, and all that..the one thing tht sticks out like a sore thumb, is Thomas Covenant.
He's unbearable! The author did a too good job creating a true-to-life character. The justification is, a leper must take care of himself, must always be vigilant, must always be careful not to hurt himself, and must be consoled to the fact tht he can never recover...problem being, in this fantasy world called "the Land", he's so cynical and bad-tempered! but what's annoying is his mindset..when people try to help him, he sits down and shouts in his mind "leper outcast unclean!" not just once..but many many many times throughout the book!! it's pathetic! he wallows so much in self pity tht he hurts others and garners no retribution from it..just because he's the wielder of the "white gold" i.e the Land's only hope of salvation, he gets away with so much..
and here's a big problem i have..heroes in fantasy stories are supposed to at least be nobler than tht, or, if they are unwilling at first, they slowly grow into their roles, embrace their power, blah blah blah...but thomas doesn't, throughout the first book, he's a bumbling idiot stumbling through his powers..i don't have a problem with that concept, but its just wrong in a fantasy story..he's destroying the whole basis of the genre..which is y i've always thought tht modern+fantasy setting can never be consolidated..oh there have been good books where a modern guy gets sent to a fantasy world, and thats fine, but thomas covenant just brings too much of the modern world with him, his cynicism, his anger, his unbelief, his pessimism...
from the first 10 pages i started to hate him..and a book tht makes u hate the main character is a book tht is inherently flawed
I have hope, in the 2nd book some loose ends start to be tied up, but thomas still manages to piss me off with his attitude..nth's rong with it, it just doesn't belong in the fantasy genre, it should be nursing its wrongs in sum modern setting noir...until i've finished the 2nd book, i pronounce this book...
downright sucky