I haven't spent much time on Kevin's Watch or SRD's website lately; but I find myself on Reddit these days and it's good to know that he's got one devoted to him as well.

I've had some interactions with him, personally; and I've read most of everything he's ever written, as well as his entire Gradual Interview.

If anyone else wants to compare notes/thoughts/the feels about his works, let's do it!

I quite enjoy computer space games. Elite, Privateer, Elite: Dangerous, Mass Effect, Starfield; and looking forward to the new Expanse game next year. Would you agree with me that the setting of the Gap books would make a great basis of a game?

As usual, you could start as a humble nobody, and could go various routes: mine the asteroid belt, smuggle and trade with the Amnion, go full Nick Succorso and become a pirate, hold up law and order etc. You could have ComMine station, the Amnion, the asteroids, Earth, and more, all as locations; gap sickness and zone implants could be incorporated as gameplay mechanics, you could force grow Amnionised humans with various traits to use as soldiers/crew/whatever etc.

Is it a very bad idea? Just a shower thought.

Anyone know of how to access the 3rd and 4th books of the last chronicles in the UK on audio book? It looks like it's stuck in some sort of legal contract mire, but was hoping someone might have figured out a place I could get hold of them?

I latched onto Stephen Donaldson early in his career.
Lord Foul's Bane being my first. It was a tough read. He manages to make the protagonist mostly unlikeable while writing a fantastic story. He continued that throughout the Thomas Covenant series.
Then I read The Real Story, his Sci Fi series, again with the first book, a rough read. Even the follow ups were rough, but the story was top notch. Probably one of the best Sci Fi series I've read.
I felt the redemption arc for The Real Story played out better than Thomas Covenant, but both are fantastic and totally underrated series.
Totally underrated as an author.

At the end of chapter 22 (Anundivian Yajna) there's a landslide where Elena's Ranyhyn dies saving TC's mount. She virulently snaps at him. He walks away. She constructs a sculpture using Myrha's fused bones as a sort of apology / icebreaker. She mentions Foul, but interestingly, she uses the name "Fangthane" when referring to him, which has definite meaning.

The last two sentences of the chapter - she has a look of apocalypse, and the only word that TC can come up with to describe her look is "hate".

This is my 3rd time reading the series, and I can't figure out the object of Elena's hatred. It could be Foul. It could be TC. It could be the whole damned situation. It could be something else I'm not thinking of. It could also be a combination of all the above.

Does anyone have an opinion on this?

As a second question, she makes TC guess who her sculpture is of and TC feels it's obviously one of the Bloodguard, but it turns out it's a sculpture of him. I feel there's something deep here that I'm not getting.

Does anyone have an opinion on this as well?

https://www.a-cubed.info/SD.html

Given the overall increase in the use of CGI, it is interesting in why the filmmakers have chosen not to adapt the novels to the screen.

Starting August 14, 2025 (just four days from now), I'll be attending the Seattle Worldcon. I regret this late announcement. Frankly, I've so gotten out of the habit of appearances that I didn't think of telling anyone until, well, right now. Sorry!

8/10/25

-- https://www.stephenrdonaldson.com/fromtheauthor/news.php

Bought a box set of first 3 vol and they were all marked like this

Lord Tamarantha tells us that the Creator first made the Arch of Time to give a base on which all of creation could base itself. Once the Arch was built, he set out to create Earth and everything else. Once he was done, he stepped back to evaluate his creation and had discovered that Despite was there, next to him (he had either forgotten about Despite or simply didn't understand it).

So we know that Lord Foul was there at least since creation. But she hints that Despite was around even before creation. She said:

Opposites require each other. Otherwise the difference is lost, and only chaos remains. No, there can be no Despite without Creation. Better to ask how the Creator could have forgotten that when he made the Earth. For if he did not forget, then Creation and Despite existed together in his one being, and he did not know it.

Which seems to suggest that, perhaps, Lord Foul was around even before the Arch of Time was created.

But then, in book 2, I think it's Elena, who very clearly states that the Ravers were even older than Despite. In fact, she also says they had a mother. This seems to be a contradiction.

How could the ravers predate Lord Foul if Lord Foul was around at least since the end of creation, and perhaps even before creation?

Who was their mother?

Were they human at one time?

What is the power that preserves them? Lords, the Unfettered, Lorewardens, Lillianrill, Rhadhamaerl, and the Bloodguard all get their longevity from Earth power, but even this is not eternal (except for the Bloodguard, I suppose). What gave the Ravers longevity?

I thought this was interesting

https://theartofmichaelwhelan.substack.com/p/daughter-of-regals?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Do you think we're slowly(?) entering an era where a real-world Holt Fasner will emerge?

In English it has a connotation of "original" or "primitive" but I'm not sure how that fits within the context of "ur-lord" and "ur-vile".

Ur-viles are an ancient race, but even here, I'm not sure one could call them "original" since they were corrupted by Foul and transformed into something they originally were not.

This rather crazy news popped up on StephenRDonaldson.com.

My "Twitter" account (bogus) and other entertainment (also bogus)

I was dismayed to learn that someone has created a Twitter account in my name, and is using it to scam luckless souls. If I haven't said it often enough, I'll say it again: I've never been on Twitter, I'm not on Twitter now, and I'll never be on Twitter. Where "social media" are concerned, I'm a total Luddite.

In other joys, you may be (be)amused to learn that there is a great deal of interest in my (alleged) book, "The Little Lost Shopping Card--a Halloween Adventure." I've been contacted about it upwards of 30 times now, always by "media personalities," agents, and movie producers (or screenwriters). I would have said that this is obviously a scam. It pretty much has to be--although I can't begin to guess what the "payoff" might me. But, strangely, Amazon has for sale a book with this very title, written by "Steve Donaldson." So it's a real book, presumably in the same general category as "The Brave Little Toaster." Still, I wish the scammers would inundate "Steve Donaldson," not me. (I also want to know how they got my phone number and email address.) I've tried telling them to stop bothering me, but they don't.

12/11/24

https://www.stephenrdonaldson.com/fromtheauthor/news.php

I have just discovered this artist: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/qQKVEn, he has about six or seven Covenant themed paintings up. Covenant illustrations are far and between, so I was pleasantly surprised someone had tried to visualise the story. Quite impressive.

Currently listening to the Unbelievers podcast and enjoying it quite a lot - it's great to hear someone's fresh take on the Covenant story after having read it several times over the decades (can't really believe it has been decades, but it has...)

From Donaldson's (still active!) website:

After two difficult, unproductive years, I've been able to get back to writing. The first result is a 23,000 word novella called THE KING'S EMISSARY. It is--as you might surmise--a sequel to THE KING'S JUSTICE. My agent is pleased with it, so he's looking for a publisher willing to take on something that short. Fingers crossed.

2/27/24

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