Anxious Anticipation - Lord Foul's Bane

Many, many moons ago - back in 1977, to be precise-ish - in the continuous hunt for the next great Epic Fantasy, I was fortunate enough to be one of the first to encounter The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, and the amazing debut novel that was Lord Foul's Bane!

 

Like the great J.R.R. Tolkien himself, I was wary of those stories of Faerie that involved travel of one form or another between the realm of reality and the perilous land, but found that I had little to worry about in this manifestation of that genre. Stephen R. Donaldson handles this transition with skill and aplomb, and the result is breath-taking!

 

 

 

Right from the start, I fell in love with The Land and its inhabitants, whether good, evil, or just filling the scenery. From Thomas Covenant - the conflicted, leprosy-inflicted hero who bears a stark resemblance to Berek Half-hand, who himself bears a striking resemblance to Beren Erchamion - through the Bloodguard, the enigmatic defenders of The Land and its inhabitants, as well as the Viles, Urviles, Ravers, Cavewights, Humans, and the Giants - one of my all-time favourite fantasy races - not to mention Lord Foul himself, Donaldson fills his creation with convincing characters and peoples, and describes his world in such beautiful detail he makes you want to be there. I read the entire series - Lord Foul's Bane, The Illearth War and The Power That Preserves - and read them again, and, like The Lord of the Rings and The Sword of Shannara, kept them close at hand for many years.

 

And then I moved to London. And then I moved to Canada. And, sadly, most of my beloved book collection remained back home in South Shields, where much of them became victims of age, bad storage, and the depredations of friends and family.

 

So I was thrilled when Grim Oak Press ( https://grimoakpress.com/ ) said they were publishing a limited, newly illustrated edition of the original Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant trilogy, and signed up as soon as I could to get one of the limited copies. Grim Oak had already published both lettered and limited illustrated editions of The Sword of Shannara, which I was pained to learn I'd missed out on, so was pleased I hadn't missed out of Covenant.

 

So now I am waiting in anxious anticipation on the April publication date. I have heard nothing but good things about the Grim Oak Press editions, and cannot wait to delve back into The Land and revisit one of the best fantasy worlds ever created.

Happy New Hobbitry to 2013!!

So - I went to see the Peter Jackson version of The Hobbit : An Unexpected Journey a few days ago, and have to say that, overall, I am very impressed and highly pleased with the result.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I have been a HUGE Tolkien fan for the best part of forty (yes - forty!) years, and I always approach these film versions with a critical eye toward the poetic license they will undoubtedly take.   They did it with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and some of that did not work as well as it should have done.  And, having read or listened to many of the preambles leading up to The Hobbit, I knew there were going to be aspects of the adaptation I would not like or find difficult to accept.  And there are, but, overall, the package seems to have worked so far!

 

Yes - I wasn`t too keen on the inclusion and representation of Radaghast the Brown, and the reincarnation of Azog the Terrible, alive and well and masquerading as The Pale Orc!  Not really necessary to the storyline.  However, the inclusion of the The White Council meeting helped build the link between The Hobbit and LOTR, as did the appearance of many of the cast members from LOTR in the introduction.

 

But, for me, the biggest pleasers are the majestic representations of the Middle Earth kingdoms, countries and vales, along with the creatures that Tolkien populated his world with.  The additional time provided to the director and producers by stretching the relatively small book into three three-hour films allows them to lavish more time to display these lands and creatures in even greater detail than in the LOTR films, and makes the journey even more worthwhile.

 

Of course, what they fill out with scenery makes the plot even thinner and more tenuous, hence the need to fill the gaps with parts of the Untold Stories and pure fabrications, such as the meetings of The White Council, the trip of Radaghast and his Rhosgobel Rabbits to Dol Guldur, the fabrication of the Morgul Blade of Angmar, and the resurrection of Azog.  But, to a student of JRR such as myself, seeing some of these things included gladdens me, but others detract from the tale, and are more of a distraction.  But, as I already said, all-in-all, I find the whole package very entertaining and very enjoyable, and not only am I looking forward to Part 2, I am also looking forward to seeing Part 1 again!

 

Ah, yess, my Preciousss, I want to see that nasty little Hobbitses again!

And I hope you see it too, if you haven't already!