Meh

I suppose in the great vastness of sf readers out there, there must be quite a few people who have read the works of Stephen Donaldson and come out feeling fairly indifferent to him but they may take a bit of finding. His work does tend to generate strong opinion. I thought I'd read Daughter of Regals - a collection of short stories from around the same time as the first Thomas Covenant books. I was curious to see if his short work had the same characteristics as the novels. They do. There is no doubt in my mind that the guy has huge writing talent, but there is just something off in the attitudes that permeate it all. It even comes through in the little introductions to the stories, so I presume that it is something intrinsic to the author. Then there is that often repeated complaint that you would just like to give the characters a good slapping to knock some sense into them. I guess it shows that you are engaging with them otherwise they wouldn't be so frustrating. But it can't be good for the blood pressure.