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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jolt" data-source="post: 9795182" data-attributes="member: 18142">The first Xanth book, 'A Spell for Chameleon' didn't have much sexualized content and I think the publishers used the basis of that book (pun-based humorous fantasy) as a calling card for the entire series which seemed to get more and more sexualized as it went on.As for Donaldson, I read an interview with him 10+ years ago where he talked a little about the Covenant series.  I only remember bits of it and I haven't been able to find it again.  Apparently, he got the idea from his father who was a doctor who studied leprosy (in Pakistan I think) and he had seen some of the leprosariums in the US.  He liked the idea of someone so powerless being giving tremendous power, and still being powerless.As for the rape scene, I recall him being a touch defensive about it.  The GoT books were really big at the time and he seemed to feel those types of scenes were far more explicit and seemed to occur (as he put it) every other chapter and no one seemed to care.  He felt his scene was important as it drove home to the reader (and Covenant himself) that while the idea of being cured of leprosy might seem like a great thing, in reality it wasn't and it informs Covenant's denial of the world he finds himself in - earning the moniker 'the Unbeliever'.  Covenant is broken, but he doesn't dare abandon his own brokenness.Another weird thing about the series is that, at least in the first two books, Covenant is (almost) irrelevant to the plot.  He's important thematically, but plotwise he does virtually nothing.  He's largely just led around serving as the Point of View character.  It isn't until the final book of the first series that he consciously abandons his disbelief and takes direct action.I remember being confused by the book even when I was finally able to read the whole thing.  At the end of it, Covenant is back on regular earth (still with leprosy) and very little seemed to have resolved.  I didn't know it was trilogy at the time - it was just a book my older brother had.  It was another 4 years or so before I got to read the others.</blockquote>

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