Stratofanatic's Emporium

So, among the awesome things that happened to me during the Kalamazoo conference last May was that I had to chance to Dr. Dimitra Fimi. We got to talking, and she invited me to contribute some entries on Stephen R. Donaldson for The Literary Encyclopedia  ( https://www.litencyc.com ). Well, the official go-ahead just came a few days ago. I'll be writing one short entry (~2000 words) on Stephen R. Donaldson and another short entry of the same length on The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever . I'm quite pleased and grateful for the opportunity.

A lot of times when you encounter a truly original book, it's something you either love or hate -- generally, there's not much middle ground. For me, when I read Paul Hoffman's The Left Hand of God trilogy, it was definitely love -- one of the most captivating pieces of epic fantasy I've read in a while. In a sense, my reaction surprises me. What's original about Hoffman is not so much his plot as his style , which strikes me as specifically postmodern, filled with pastiche and metafiction and oddly self-conscious author-narrator moments (although thank the gods Hoffman doesn't step out onto the stage himself), things I typically hate about postmodern novels.***  Anyhow, The Left Hand of God struck me as so innovative that I immediately sought out all the reviews I could find on it. Apparently my reaction of mooncalf love-eyes was not shared by a majority of critics -- the official reviewers were atrociously harsh (including one head-scratching com...