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    Having worked in bookstores for the last four years, I have been overwhelmed by the disheartening fact that it is well nigh impossible for anyone to read all the books they possibly want to. I'm a relatively fast reader, averaging about a book a week. Even at this rate, it would still take me over 2,800 years to read every single title at Elliott Bay Books. Granted not every single title is going to be one you want to read, let alone pick up (UNIX reference manual anyone?) but you get the idea. Basically, I've come to the sad conclusion that I can no longer read books for the second time since there are so many I haven't read yet for the first time.

    Suffice to say that there are always exceptions, my case in point being The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson. This highly original fantasy trilogy was first published in 1979, but it wasn't until 1981 when I was in the 7th grade that I discovered the books for myself. Having recently devoured The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia and The Sword of Shannara, I was reading anything and everything in sight at my local Waldens that looked even remotely cool. Thus I was snared by the beautiful and striking covers painted by Darrell K. Sweet and I bought the entire three book set in one fell swoop. Unfortunately, my adolescent enthusiasm was no match for the incredibly complex and mature themes at work, and in disgust I stopped reading the series only two-thirds of the way through the first book. Luckily, I picked it up again a couple years later, quickly became engrossed and finished the entire trilogy in a few days.

    A brief summary cannot possibly serve justice to this richly detailed series, but here goes. Thomas Covenant is a happy and successful author with a loving wife and young son until he is diagnosed with leprosy. His life disintegrates around him, leaving him divorced from his wife, shunned by the community and constricted by the bounds of self-loathing and strict discipline that is the leper's law of survival. Covenant is knocked unconscious in an accident and awakens in a strange and different world. The Land is a place of Earthpower where magic regenerates his long dead nerves and he is hailed as Berek Halfhand reincarnated, the Land's greatest hero. Because of this recognition and the legendary power of his white gold wedding ring, Covenant is unwillingly drawn into the conflict between the faithful Lords of Revelstone, sworn defenders of the Land, and their age-old enemy, Lord Foul the Despiser. Fearing for his sanity and his life, Covenant refuses to accept the existence of the vibrant world around him and assumes the title of ur-Lord and Unbeliever. Thus begins an epic tale of good versus evil centered upon the most vehement anti-hero to come along since Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné.