alb (02/26/83)
Inside poop from our local bookstore: White Gold Wielder is scheduled for release on 29 April.
jmc (02/27/83)
Thats interesting; the B. Daltons bookstore in Providence said that it would be out on March 1st.
revc (04/04/83)
WHITE GOLD WIELDER by Stephen R. Donaldson I have just finished it and my response is a request for MORE. I feel the series is improving. The people are real to me and their reactions to the various crisis is consistent with their "personalities". A previous submission to the net complained that the book and the ending where too negative and depressing. The whole series takes that stand, but (unlike some of the new books from the Great Masters) the ending is consistant within the frame work of the series, and to me was a positive statement in regards to the emotional growth of Thomas Coventant. I liked WHITE GOLD WIELDER enough that I went back and re-read THE WOUNDED LAND and next weeked I'll be re-read THE ONE TREE. All I want now is a 3rd trilogy. Bob Van Cleef ARPA revc@NOSC Usenet "...floyd!cmc12!philabs!sdcsvax!nosc!revc
jj (04/05/83)
I can't quite agree with the idea expressed elsewhere in these pages that Covenant "matures". I think that it's a bit surprising that Donaldson's road to maturation is represented as compelete acceptance of one's own triviality, and acceptance of the futility of struggle. While the end of the book did demonstrate that acceptance is only half the job (one must use acceptance to transform the energy involved as well), the tone of the entire book was one of acceptance, degradation, gradual destruction of all the character's most important moral and physical concepts, and finally, surrender. While I certainly don't represent all of the readership (or even most of it, I suspect) I have a great deal of trouble, both emotionally and logically dealing with the idea that one must be "destroyed" before reaching one's destiny. <As you may deduce, I'm not a born again Christian.> It's been a while since I read the first set of books, but I seem to remember an actual healing of Covenant (in spirit, at least) during the first trilogy. In the second set, Covenant is continuously degraded and destroyed, to the point that he is even more psychologically wounded than he started out. Somehow, that seems like too negative a statement.<grr, snap! hiss*> Has anyone else noticed the equivelence between "The Land" and the Judeo-Christian afterlife? <I am aware of the significant differences between the Jewish and Christian interpretation, but I refer to the concept, rather than the detail.> 1) The people who go to the land, whether called or not, are always unconcious, and their lives are endangered. 2) There are three major brands of beings in the land: a) The "heavenly" beings. (Findail<I think I have the right name there>, etc.-the people who try to detain Vain, and put Covenant into the catatonic state) b) The deamondrim. The place of these beings is clear. c) The residents of "The Land" as we knew it in the first book (with the exception of the Deamondrim) who are the 'uncommitted pagans' of Dante, the unenightened people in Limbo, or whatever, who can sometimes, through a maturation process, aspire to (and maybe reach) a higher <energy, if not theological> place. Supporting this idea is the strong neutrality of most of the residents of "The Land", where evil and good are balanced, etc. The one difference that I suspect is significant is the strength of the neutral agencies, i.e. the Staff of Law, the White Gold, Covenant (now), the Forrestal, and so on. What I suspect will happen (and BOY is this wild extrapolation) is that neutrality, as represented by the White Gold, the Staff of Law, Covenant, and Linden Avery <eventually>, will conspire, interact, and/or otherwise bring about the combining of good and evil into THE BALANCE. Come to think of it, the middle book of most trilogies is the depressing one, where the problems, and risks become evident, but before the solution is clear (or possible, or brought about). Perhaps we should attribute the utterly defeatist attitude of the second trilogy to the fact that each set of books can be considered one section of a trilogy, and that a resolution to Foul, the Elohim, etc, is on the way? Thoughts of import to the net, random comments to rabbit!jj, and flaming and religious prostylitizing to /dev/null. rabbit!<boy am I sick of funny sayings in the address>jj
dann (04/06/83)
Thoughts about White Gold Wielder After finishing WGW, my primary impression was that WGW is yet another The Power that Preserves, but not as well done. My basic impression was that, so what, in three thousand years, Linden Avery is going to have to go back to the LAND and do it AGAIN. Lord Foul was diminished but not banished again. (Does this surprise anyone?) I think Donaldson got tired and couldn't think of a decent ending so he wrote a slick and simple copout ending. It seems so futile. In the first trilogy, Covenant went through all this anguish, etc, and three thousand years later, *everything* is gone. No wards left by the Lords, nothing. It's hard to believe that no Lords equivalent to Kevin's talent arose in the course of those three thousand years. If Donaldson had wanted to write a new trilogy, I wish he had taken the time to think up a new mythos, and leave the land alone. In terms of the plot, it seemed to be just another case of "We're on a quest, so let's spend the entire book traveling and getting attacked by grues." The writing style, as usual, is horrendously overwritten and loses effectiveness due to it. Grouse, grouse, dann
jjm (04/07/83)
I just finished WGW last night and was greatly disappointed by the ending. I thought that Thomas Covenant deserved a better fate than that, didn't you? Jim McParland American Bell - Holmdel hou5e!jjm
kalash (04/07/83)
#R:noscvax:-12900:ucbmonet:22600001:000:163 ucbmonet!kalash Apr 6 09:39:00 1983 Then you will be happy to know that the rumor is he is writing another trilogy. I have no idea what it is about, but it is said not to be about the Land. Joe
bratman (04/08/83)
It seems that some people are destined to offer negative criticism to any literature, even if it is immensely popular (as Donaldson's books have been). In addition to hearing about works he considers "horrendously overwritten" and "loses effectiveness", I wonder if dann could include some works he considers very well-written and effective. Then perhaps a few of us good have a few laughs. Degrouse, degrouse, steve
student (04/11/83)
Stephen Donaldson wil be autographing his books, i.e. WGW, at the University of New Mexico bookstore on Wednesday April 13. Join in on the fun. That's in Albuquerque NM for those who don't know where UNM is. Sincerely; Greg Hennessy; ..ucbvax!unmvax!nmtvax!student
bj (04/12/83)
It seems that some people are destined to offer negative criticism
to any literature, even if it is immensely popular (as Donaldson's books
have been).
Just because something is popular does not prevent it from being trash.
The books which top the mass market paperback best seller lists are
often trash. Remember -- you are dealing with the American public.
[Please do not conclude that I dislike Donaldson's books or any other
specific book you like.]
B.J.
Herbison-BJ@Yale
decvax!yale-comix!herbison-bjbch (04/21/83)
Now that the inital discussion of Donaldson's White Gold Wielder has died down, I would like to start it up again on a more positive note. I, for one, was absolutely transfixed by the book and somewhat blown away by the ending. It makes me wonder whether those who chose to review the book on the net read the same thing I did. I am inclined to doubt it. People who don't like the Donaldson books (sheesh, if they don't like them how come they read six of them!) tend to compare them to Tolkien's Middle Earth books. This is a little like comparing apples to oranges. Tolkien's books are a marvelous epic tale, I agree, with wonderful poetry, an epic quest and a struggle between "good" and "evil" where "good" (whew!) is predestined to triumph. Not so with Donaldson. On the surface he has all of these things (maybe) but his "good" does not have innocence, his "evil" is a much more complicated concept, his quest not quite so direct and there is no triumph in the end. Why? My take is that while Tolkien is going for entertainment -- a good yarn to tell to children of all ages -- Donaldson is going for the gut. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant are not so much an epic fantasy as an excur- sion through Donaldson's (and ultimately our own) psyche. Covenant *is* the land, and the land *is* Covenant in a bond that makes Arthur's attachment to Camelot seem purely allegorical. His leprosy is its sickness and the strength of Lord Foul is directly related to the degree to which Covenant "despises" himself. The trilogies, then, are both allegories of a personal growth and throwing away of preconceptions of what is "important" and "moral" in order to confront the real enemies of life. The struggle that takes place is not a pleasant one, and it takes Covenant places where Tolkien's heroes dare not go (one can scarcely imagine Frodo raping a female hobbit in a surge if primal emotion!) but it is no less a legitimate struggle. The end, which seemed to dissapoint alot of people, is to me transcendant. Covenant finally realizes who he is and what his relation to Lord Foul is (they are one in the same.) Linden Avery is released from her burdens and heals Covenant/The Land in the way that was impossible for Covenant himself. No, Foul cannot be destroyed...he is as necessary for The Land's survival as the demondim, the elohim, the croyen, the stone and the wood. The Law is restored, but as a living law rather than the law of runes and wood that *failed* in the first place. What more could one ask? I could go on for a while and I fear I have abbreviated my argument to the point of nonsense. Let me conclude with a question: Why does Donaldson use recognizable roots for the names of things in the Land? (demondim, elohim, waynhim, Gilden, Vain, etc.) It seems to me that is the key to much of what he is doing. Byron Howes UNC - Chapel Hill