Julia’s review of The Wounded Land (The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, #1) > Likes and Comments

I'd argue that Donaldson is writing the opposite of character-driven fiction.

It's narrative-driven fiction where the characters are mere puppets on strings simply acting out whatever the author decides he needs them to do in any given moment.

Hence the incoherency, as the characters do not have an organic, grounded, motivational framework.

Graeme wrote: "I'd argue that Donaldson is writing the opposite of character-driven fiction.

It's narrative-driven fiction where the characters are mere puppets on strings simply acting out whatever the author d..."

I agree 100%, especially in terms of the first series, where each book has a definitive quest/battle the characters must complete. However, this second series seems to be lacking an actual plot for the characters to fulfill, and we spend so much more time on Thomas Covenant's inner world -- which essentially amounts to "I'm a leper :(". I think the "sun bad" element that this series circles around is meant to be a tediously surface-level allegory for leprosy, so the Land this time around has far less dimension separate from Covenant and completely circles around him.

So I think Donaldson is attempting in this second go to write a more character-driven story than the previous 3 books, which were plot-driven -- he's just terrible at it. 😮‍💨

Not saying the plot was much more worthwhile in the previous books -- the way your reviews pointed out the incoherence of Lord Foul's plans always made me laugh lol

Julia wrote: "-- he's just terrible at it. 😮‍💨..."

Ouch!

Smirk.

Geez, Julia, ... you're inviting me to think more about this series, and I must admit to being intrigued.

I think this series is really deep ... for all the wrong reasons, and quite possibly without any intention from the author.

I agree with you about the narrative arc in the first three books, but I can't really comment about the rest, as ... petered out in book #4 ... and my first read was more than half a lifetime ago...

... and ... oh, crap... I'm interested again.

[... lines up pins to stick into own eyes ...]

Who knew, that reading could be masochistic?

Graeme wrote: "Geez, Julia, ... you're inviting me to think more about this series, and I must admit to being intrigued.

I think this series is really deep ... for all the wrong reasons, and quite possibly witho..."

Haha, I also think there's a lot going on in this series, though so much of it feels completely unplanned... There was a moment in Book 3 where I truly thought we were going somewhere thematically interesting with Covenant that would call into question the "Chosen One" archetype, but nope. This second series Covenant is even worse because he's just decisively the hero now -- all the characters bend to his will by acknowledging his superior power, a dynamic which was mostly avoided for much of the first 3 books -- so I can't even have any optimism that anything interesting will be done with him. I wouldn't recommend this series to anyone but I agree, it's rife for analysis far more interesting than the book itself.

Julia wrote: "I wouldn't recommend this series to anyone but I agree, it's rife for analysis far more interesting than the book itself...."

Indeed. That said, I found my analysis revealing some very dark truths about our culture... kinda depressing, but perhaps worthy of revisiting to complete.