Stephen R. Donaldson
Author of Lord Foul's Bane
About the Author
Stephen Donaldson, 1947 - Novelist Stephen Donaldson was born on May 13, 1947 in Cleveland, Ohio to James R. Donaldson, a medical missionary, and Mary Ruth Reeder, a prosthetist. His father was an orthopedic surgeon that worked with lepers in India. He lived in India between the ages of three to show more sixteen and while listening to one of his father's lectures on leprosy, he conceived the legendary Thomas Covenant. Donaldson attended the College of Wooster, Ohio and graduated in 1968. Afterwards, he spent two years being a conscientious objector doing hospital work in Akron and then attended Kent University where he received an M.A. in English. Donaldson's publishing debut was with "Lord Foul's Bane" (1977), which was the first book in the fantasy trilogy entitled The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever. It was named best novel of the year by the British Fantasy Society and received the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, in 1979. He followed with the sequel series The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, also set in The Land, starting with "Daughter of Regals," and then the Mordant's Need series with "The Mirror of Her Dreams" and "A Man Rides Through." Donaldson is also the author of the Gap Into series of science fiction adventure that began with "The Real Story" and followed with "Forbidden Knowledge," "A Dark and Hungry God Arises," and "Chaos and Order." In addition to the awards he received for his first novel/series, Donaldson has also received the Balrog Fantasy Award for Best Novel for "The Wounded Land" in 1981 and for "The One Tree" in 1983, the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Novel for "The One Tree" in 1983, the Balrog Fantasy Award for Best Collection for "Daughter of Regals and Other Tales" in 1985, and the Science Fiction Book Club Award for Best Book of the Year for "The Mirror of Her Dreams" in 1988 and "A Man Rides Through" in 1989. He also received The College of Wooster Distinguished Alumni Award in 1989, the WIN/WIN Popular Fiction Readers Choice Award for Favorite Fantasy Author in 1991, the Atlanta Fantasy Fair Award for Outstanding Achievement in 1992 and the President's Award, The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts in 1997. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Credit Petra Hegger
Series
Works by Stephen R. Donaldson
The First AND Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (Lord Foul's Bane, The Illearth War, The Power That Preserves,… (1990) 23 copies
The Fantasy & Science Fiction Book of Unicorns, Volume 2 — Contributor — 14 copies
The Gap Series: The Real Story, Forbidden Knowledge, A Dark and Hungry God Arises, Chaos and Order, This Day All Gods… (1996) 4 copies
2002 3 copies
Gap Into - Vision, Conflict and Madness (The Real Story, Forbidden Knowledge, Chaos and Order) 2 copies
World Tales 1 copy
The Gap Into Conflict 1 copy
Pitchwife's Battle 1 copy
The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant Books Two and Three (The One Tree and White Gold Welder) (1982) 1 copy
Heut Sterben Alle Götter 1 copy
Verbotenes Wissen 1 copy
1996 1 copy
Associated Works
Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, Volume 1 (2007) — Introduction, some editions — 477 copies, 14 reviews
A Very Large Array: New Mexico Science Fiction and Fantasy (1987) — Contributor — 32 copies, 2 reviews
Last Drink Bird Head : A Flash Fiction Anthology for Charity (2009) — Contributor — 31 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Donaldson, Stephen Reeder
- Other names
- Stephens, Reed
Donaldson, Stephen - Birthdate
- 1947-05-13
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Cleveland, Ohio, USA
- Places of residence
- India
Akron, Ohio, USA
New Jersey, USA
Corrales, New Mexico, USA
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA - Education
- The College of Wooster (B.A. | English | 1968)
Kent State University (MA|English|1971) - Occupations
- fantasy writer
- Organizations
- American Contract Bridge League
International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts
Contributing Editor, The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts - Awards and honors
- John W. Campbell Award (1979)
The College of Wooster Distinguished Alumni Award (1989)
WIN/WIN Popular Fiction Readers Choice Award for Favorite Fantasy Author (1991)
Atlanta Fantasy Fair Award for Outstanding Achievement (1992)
President's Award, The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (1997) - Agent
- Howard Morhaim (Howard Morhaim Literary Agency)
- Short biography
- Born in 1947 in Cleveland, Ohio, Stephen R. Donaldson lived in India (where his father was a medical missionary) until 1963. He graduated from the College of Wooster (Ohio) in 1968, served two years as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, doing hospital work in Akron, then attended Kent State University, where he received his M.A. in English in 1971.After dropping out of his Ph.D. program and moving to New Jersey in order to write fiction, Donaldson made his publishing debut with the first "Covenant" trilogy in 1977. That enabled him to move to a healthier climate. He now lives in New Mexico.The novels for which he is best known have received a number of awards. However, the achievements of which he is most proud are the ones that seemed the most unlikely. In 1993 he received a Doctor of Literature degree from the College of Wooster, and in 1994 he gained a black belt in Shotokan karate from Sensei Mike Heister and Anshin Personal Defense.After completing the five-book, seven-year Gap sequence of science fiction novels, Donaldson spent quite some time "on vacation." However, he has now returned to work. His most recent book prior to The Man Who Fought Alone was a second collection of short fiction, Reave the Just and Other Tales. He is currently hard at work on "The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant".
Members
Reviews
Derivative from Tolkien, at least in this first entry. It start with Covenant, a best seller author, with a wife and a baby son, living in the real world. He hasn't written anything for a long time, so his wife leaves with their child to visit some relatives, so Covenant can have some quiet and start writing something. He gets inspired and writes non stop with no regard of a strange feeling in his fingers and toes. The next day his wife has to take him to the hospital because she smells something weird that comes from him. The doctor tells him that he has leprosy. His wife with their child leaves him. Anonymously the neighbours pay for his groceries and electric bills so he doesn't appear around town. To get back a little of his personhood Thomas Covenant goes to pay his own bills, a police car hits him and he wakes up in another world where a creature name Drool has summoned him with a magic staff. Then he gets transported into another place where a more terrifying and evil entity gives him an apocalyptic message to send to the Lords of that land. He then wakes up in the edge of a peak and meets Lena, a little girl, who mistakes him with Berek, a saviour of the world thousands of years ago. She shows him aliantha, a berry that can fill your hunger, or hurtloam, mud that can heal your injuries, and tells him the earth has power of health and life. She introduces him with her family. Thomas Covenant thinks he's dreaming, or even hallucinating. Something that his doctor said keeps him from believing that anything in this world is real: "Most people depend heavily on their sense of touch. In fact, their whole structure of responses to reality is organized around their touch. They may doubt their eyes and ears, but when they touch something they know it's real." Him being a leper thinks he's dreaming because he doesn't have a sense of touch in his world. Then he tells Lena's family about the message of Lord Foul, and terror and despair starts to spread throughout the village. Then Covenant realised that he isn't impotent anymore and asks Lena to take him somewhere desolate, he starts by asking her how the people in this world get married, as she's telling him he gets more frustrated and angry and hits her in the face and rapes her. Lena doesn't tell her parents, but she dissapears, and Lena's mother, who studied (without finishing) one of the seven wards, with the Lords of the land, starts taking him upon his quest, and then it becomes The Fellowship of the Ring more or less. But I liked it, even though the protagonist is very whinny and snarky, and he nevers stops believing he is dreaming. It made the story pretty interesting. Donaldson's prose is very purple sometimes, and it's something to get use to. Sometimes is pretty bad, though.… (more)
The second book in the Great God's War series really picks up. The first book was setting the stage, this book is involving us deeply in the characters. The War Within is true on so many levels in this book - personal, between Belleger and Amika, between those countries and the mystery enemy, between the prince and princess, etc. The characters are great and there's enough action to keep this one moving, even while we can see the main event, the external invasion, coming in the next book. So much excellent writing, I'm looking forward to the next book.… (more)
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 95
- Also by
- 21
- Members
- 51,420
- Popularity
- #296
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 524
- ISBNs
- 593
- Languages
- 14
- Favorited
- 134
Не знам дали Абъркромби като цяло ме развали за всякакви други фентъзита, като ми показа колко добри могат да бъдат всъщност и че не е нужно да са безмозъчни, писани на конвейр еднакви историйки подобни на рпг игра в която героя почва 1 ниво и вдига левъл с всеки том, но...
Та тая книга е детска, наивна и като цяло изключително неинтересна. Честно казано учудвам се че написах 3 абзаца ревю, толкова ми е meh… (more)