Stephen Donaldson:
Book II of The Chronicles of Thomas Convenant, Unbeliever
After scant days in his “ real ” world, Thomas Covenant finds himself again summoned to the Land.
There, forty bitter years have passed, while Lord Foul, immortal enemy of the Land, moves to fulfill his prophecy of doom. The Council of Lords find their spells useless, now that Foul the Despiser holds the Illearth Stone, ancient source of evil power.
At last High Lord Elena turns in desperation to Covenant and the legendary white gold magic of his ring. . .
The Grim Oak Press signed/limited first edition
Stephen Donaldson’s The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever is an epic fantasy trilogy first published in 1977. Its titular main character, Thomas Covenant, is from a 20th century town in our world. He’s a leper, and eventually he’s going to lose his limbs, his sight, and the feeling in his nerves. His wife has divorced him and the townspeople have gone so far as to home deliver his groceries so he doesn’t come near them. Just when it seems things couldn’t get any worse, he’s then kidnapped by magical means and transported to the mythical world of the Land. There, his possession of a white-gold wedding band results in him being seen by the ruling authority, the Council of Lords, as the only man who can save the Land from destruction by the evil Lord Foul.
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant is infamous for one polarising scene: Shortly after his arrival in the Land, Covenant befriends a beautiful young girl. Overcome by the Land’s rejuvenation of his leprosy-deadened nerves and believing he is trapped in a hallucination, he rapes her. From this early point in the trilogy, it is clear that Thomas Covenant is anything but a typical hero.
Also not to be missed is the 'Mordant’s Need' duology and if you are really up to the challenge his SF epic - 'The Gap’ series.
We’ve always preferred the UK artwork for the Covenant series, simply stunning.
He called himself Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever because he dared not believe in the strange alternate world in which he suddenly found himself.
Yet the Land tempted him. He had been sick; now he seemed better than ever before. Through no fault of his own, he had been outcast, unclean, a pariah. Now he was regarded as a reincarnation of the Land's greatest hero--Berek Halfhand--armed with the mystic power of White Gold. That power alone could protect the Lords of the Land from the ancient evil of Despiser, Lord Foul. Only...Covenant had no idea of how the power could be used!
Thus begins one of the most remarkable epic fantasies ever written…
The Grim Oak Press signed/limited first edition
In the far future, gap drives faster-than-light deep space travel, but sometimes this afflicts some with irreparable brain damage. A Zone Implant can turn such a person into a zombie, to protect his shipmates, but it's highly illegal.
Ensign Morn Hyland works for the United Mining Company, which is in charge of law enforcement throughout known space. She lives aboard a police ship, together with most of her family; their job is to chase down pirates and other illegals who prey on the weak, or smuggle goods into forbidden space. Her life is nothing out of the ordinary - until she falls in with the pirate Captain Nick Succorso. All of a sudden, the young, strong, beautiful police officer appears to be falling in love - well, lust at least - with the murdering pirate, or so it appears to the folk at the space station's bar.
But the real story was quite different ...
Stephen R. Donaldson has written some of the most distinctive short fiction of recent decades. This generous collection brings together much of the best of that shorter work and provides an ideal showcase for its author’s depth, versatility, and consummate literary artistry.
Included here are eleven stories and novellas that run the gamut from horror (“The Conqueror Worm”) to high fantasy (“Daughter of Regals”), from contemporary spiritual drama (“Unworthy of the Angel”) to action-oriented SF (“Animal Lover”), together with such uncategorizable gems as “The Killing Stroke,” with its unique combination of magic and martial arts, and “The Woman Who Loved Pigs,” an astonishing account of personal transformation and long-delayed revenge.
Dust jacket by Jon Foster
Trade: fully cloth bound hardcover edition
Limited: numbered copy, bound in leather, signed by author
Book III of The Chronicles of Thomas Convenant, Unbeliever
Twice Thomas Covenant has been wrenched out of his bitter life of isolation and scorn to find himself the reluctant instrument of conflict between good and evil in that magical world known as the Land. Again he returns; but now, realizing his responsibility for the Land’s survival, and in angry atonement for having been the cause of so much of its anguish and peril, he will no longer be manipulated. He is prepared to make his own stand against Lord Foul the Despiser, to use—if only he can discover how—the power that is his alone, feared beyond all other by Foul and his minions.
In the cliffside citadel of Revelstone, the Council of Lords is under siege by the seemingly limitless armies raised by Foul’s malignant magic—creatures of hideous form and spirit against whom High Lord Mhoram and his exhausted cohorts must constantly revise their own magic and force of arms. Meanwhile, across the Land, Covenant makes his tortuous way to the Despiser’s stronghold—the keep known as
Foul’s Creche—accompanied by his great friend Saltheart Foamfollower, the Giant whose magnificent strength and resolution are reinforced by his own cause for revenge.
But it is Covenant alone who must meet Foul in final combat, not only to assure survival for the Land but also to achieve salvation for himself in his life beyond it . . . thus bringing to a close Stephen R. Donaldson’s magnificent epic fantasy, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever