{"id":10844,"date":"2022-08-15T13:43:06","date_gmt":"2022-08-15T17:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/?p=10844"},"modified":"2022-08-15T21:14:06","modified_gmt":"2022-08-16T01:14:06","slug":"book-review-lord-fouls-bane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2022\/08\/book-review-lord-fouls-bane\/","title":{"rendered":"Book review: Lord Foul’s Bane"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am in the midst of another fiction-consuming binge. When I tire of listening to podcasts I fire up an audio book. Between listening to books and reading them with my Kobo e-Reader, I go through a lot of books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fantasy novel Lord Foul’s Bane<\/em> by Stephen Donaldson is the first book in the trilogy The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever<\/a>. This trilogy and two others–10 books in all–comprise the Chronicles. The first novel, the one I am reviewing here, was published in 1977, and the last one in 2013. The series is considered a classic in the fantasy genre and with so many books, the series promised many hours of audio book pleasure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more<\/span>In the Studio Oct. 14 2012<\/span><\/a><\/div>

It’s not going to happen. I couldn’t get past the first quarter of the book. My informal rule is to not review books that I haven’t finished but I am making an exception with this book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anti-heroes are commonplace now but were less so in 1977 when the novel was written. Thomas Covenant is an anti-hero’s anti-hero. His unexpected leprosy causes his young wife to leave him and take their small child with her. His life as a novelist is shattered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more<\/span>Stephen Pentak at Bonfoey<\/span><\/a><\/div>

We join him in the midst of maudlin self-pity and growing hatred for his neighbors. One of Thomas’ strong characteristics is a hair-trigger temper, which the author uses to justify many of Thomas’ actions. Self-pity and gamma assholeness are major themes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the midst of Fear and Loathing in gamma land, Thomas is magically transported to a fantasy kingdom where–wait for it–he discovers he is immensely important to everyone’s future and might be a figure out of myth or legend. Gee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more<\/span>Cleveland Museum of Art Staff Exhibition<\/span><\/a><\/div>

A beautiful young woman helps him get oriented and hints at his immense importance. She promises additional help and he rewards her by raping her<\/em>. Her beauty, health, and innocence trigger his temper, you see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I noticed that this book has a lot of bad reviews because of this one incident. I plowed on but abandoned it after confirming that this author is not for me. Covenant is a coward and a rapist, which is bad enough, but the author uses self-pity and anger to drive the action and justify it. Maybe the character develops over the course of the series, and maybe the writer’s style and psychological insights mature as well, but 100 pages is already too much time wasted that I can never get back. Horrid book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am in the midst of another fiction-consuming binge. When I tire of listening to podcasts I fire up an audio book. Between listening to books and reading them with my Kobo e-Reader, I go through a lot of books. The fantasy novel Lord Foul’s Bane by Stephen Donaldson is the first book in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":10848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[108,332,46,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-grumpy-review","category-reviews","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/lfb.jpg?fit=899%2C1386&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11281,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2022\/09\/book-review-ink-black-heart\/","url_meta":{"origin":10844,"position":0},"title":"Book review: Ink Black Heart","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"September 27, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently listened to the audio version of the detective novel The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith. Galbraith is the pen name used by J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame. This novel is the 6th and latest in this series for adults. In these novels, Galbraith chronicles the adventures\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/jkr.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/jkr.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/jkr.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/jkr.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10120,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2022\/04\/review-the-remembrance-of-earths-past-series\/","url_meta":{"origin":10844,"position":1},"title":"Review: The Remembrance of Earth’s Past series","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"April 5, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently finished the science-fiction trilogy The Remembrance of Earth's Past, by Chinese author Cixin Liu. The first and most well know book in the series is The Three-Body Problem. The team that produced The Game of Thrones is making a Netflix series about the trilogy so you'll probably learn\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/cixin-cover.jpg?fit=417%2C630&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5773,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2016\/02\/book-review-heorot-series-vol-1-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":10844,"position":2},"title":"Book review: Heorot Series vol. 1 & 2","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"February 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I listened to the two books in the Heorot series, The Legacy of Heorot, and Beowulf's Children on my Audible app. The books were written by the team of Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steve Barnes. \u00a0The first book was written in 1987, the second in 1995. Although I go\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"51VHVMntd9L._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/51VHVMntd9L._SX326_BO1204203200_.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6416,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2016\/10\/what-i-am-reading-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":10844,"position":3},"title":"What I am reading","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"October 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I am a voracious reader. \u00a0Since I got acclimated to my Kindle (actually the Kindle app on my iPad mini), I think I am reading more than ever, which I didn't think possible. \u00a0Add my Audible app to the mix and my day is spent reading (or listening) to books\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bio"","block_context":{"text":"Bio","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/bio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11270,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2022\/09\/book-review-ill-will\/","url_meta":{"origin":10844,"position":4},"title":"Book review: Ill Will","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"September 22, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently read Dan Chaon's 2017 thriller, Ill Will. This is my first book by this author, which reinforces my resolve to ignore online reviews. Can it be that they're all fake? These days I've replaced my Kindle Oasis with a Kobo Libre 2. I reviewed the Kindle and I'll\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/ill-will.jpg?fit=500%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9338,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2021\/03\/review-killing-commendatore\/","url_meta":{"origin":10844,"position":5},"title":"Review: Killing Commendatore","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"March 21, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I became familiar with the Japanese author Haruki Murakami during my current fiction-gorging phase. How could I have been unfamiliar with such a gifted author? It's not an excuse but I go through long periods during which I don't read fiction. Murakami's style is first-person intimate heightened with surrealism; all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "aesthetics"","block_context":{"text":"aesthetics","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/aesthetics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Mara.jpg?fit=474%2C315&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Gw6F-2OU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10844"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10855,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10844\/revisions\/10855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}