Donaldson creates one of the most real characters in fantasy literature. He's not so much a hero or anti-hero, but a person. Yes, a person you probably won't like at first, but put into a land you will love. It is definitely a story for mature readers, and not one for those who just want an escape. While not as blatantly philosophical as the Dune novels, it definitely deals with those sorts of issues. Personally -- though I do enjoy just a fun read -- I wish there were more novels of this sort in the genre. It's the type of novel you could actually do a legitimate study of in a post-secondary school, quite unlike the vast majority of novels in Fantasy and Sci Fi literature

Two years after a run in I had with a fallen nun and the c-word, I had a near run in with our school's new vice-principal (not the man, thankfully, who'd given me the strap), Mr. G---.

Our school was trying to teach us study skills before we reached high school, so we wouldn't waste our spare periods playing video games or flirting with girls or role playing or whatever else kids did to waste time in the eighties. They created a course called "Study Hall" and put our VP in charge.

It was a nightmare.

And I was going to be late with my big book review. We could write a review of any book we wanted. It was supposed to be a plot summary and nothing more (at least, that's the way I remember it), just to prove we were reading, but I had procrastinated and procrastinated, and there was no way it would be done in time.

On the Sunday I was planning to write the review of Dragonflight; Dragonriders of Pern, after a torturously boring morning as an altar boy (don't ask), I spent all my time fighting the evil wizard Vaxenstaff with my friends Mark and Jeff, and I never got around to it. D&D was always more important than school (and so it has proven over the course of my life since it taught me how to think, but that is another story), and I put the review out of my mind while Malachii, my half-elf fighter/magic-user, made his way through a castle full of traps and monsters.

Anyway, I was only halfway through McCaffrey, but I needed a book report by Monday before lunch, and I had no idea what to do. Then it hit me.

At the beginning of Stephen R. Donaldson's The Illearth War was an encapsulation of Lord Foul's Bane, and I copied the opening -- called "What came (went?) before" -- word for word. I went to sleep knowing that I was covered and covered by the words of a pro, no less.

Back then, I imagined that Donaldson wrote "What came before" himself (although it was more likely that a P.R. person for the book company wrote it); still, I was sure I was in great shape for the next day, and there was no way I'd get caught. Mr. G--- didn't read fantasy, and he certainly read nothing as contemporary and cool as Thomas Covenant, so I was looking at a great grade if I didn't get caught for cheating.

And I didn't get caught.

Nope. I got away with the cheating -- and I got 67%.

67%!

I decided right then that I would someday meet Mr. Donaldson and give him sh*t for my poor grade, plagiarism be damned. I'm not nearly as angry anymore, and since those probably weren't his words there is not much I can say, but I still hope to meet him and pass on my moment of cheating idiocy.

His work, or the P.R. person's work, should have been better than a 67%. At least that's what I told myself at the time. I wonder what Mr. G--- was thinking. Maybe it was that bad after all. Or maybe he guessed I was cheating and was too lazy to look into it.

I guess I'll never know.

Regardless, Lord Foul's Bane will always have a place in my pantheon of great books, if only because it is as huge a part of my personal back story as Lady Chatterly's Lover.

The world in this book is very interesting, and the characters other than the protagonist are interesting. However, the protagonist is just such a bad, frustrating person that I found myself hoping he would die. Not even all the bad circumstances of his disease and divorce of his wife and seclusion really made me feel for him at all. I don't think it will be a book I recommend to anyone but very devote fantasy fans.

This trilogy is simply fantastic!
If you like Tolkein then you will love this. This is one of those books that you just cannot put down (and so are the other 5 in the series!) Enjoy!