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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Apok" data-source="post: 661767" data-attributes="member: 1969">Okay, time for an update...After reading the first book of the Thomas Covenant series, my overall reaction was "meh."I really didn't care much for the main character, finding him somewhat whiny and ineffectual.  I also didn't like the fact that Donaldson is seemingly emulating Tolkien in his descriptions of the world and in the way the various cultures are explained and differentiated.  Overall, it seemed to be rather boring and I just couldn't get over the many parallels to LotR.  Don't think I'm going to pick up the rest of that series.Although I haven't finished yet, the Book of the New Sun shows a great deal of promise.  I like the fact that the setting is, apparently, Earth only many millenia in the future and things have fallen into decay.  I only wish that Wolfe would provide some kind of map or even an abbreviated history of Urth, since it gets damn frustrating when you see tantalizing hints of Earth's past but they are never fully realized or explained.  Also, Wolfe seems to delight in using antequated terminology to name certain things in the books, but they are rarely if ever explained.  While not a major issue, it does make visualising the world of Urth extremely difficult at times.  The last issue I have with the book is that the concept of the past, the present, and dreams seem to flow together at times.  Just as an example, at the end of "The Shadow of the Torturer,"  Severian apparently becomes separated from Dorcas and the performers.  This fact is not clearly explained, however, until midway through the second book.  One minute, they are walking out of the massive gate of Nessus and alot of last-minute confusion occurs (Wolfe's writing style isn't always terribly clear, almost as though he doesn't like to explain things clearly and enjoys confusion).  By the opening of "The Claw of the Concilitator," he's in some town with Jonas doing an execution.  No explanation is given as to why he is there, how he got there or where the rest of his companions are.  Other than that, it's an excellent series and I can't wait to finish it.</blockquote>

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