An Interview With Stephen Donaldson

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In an age where ‘epic’ has become a byword for tedious, unoriginal sagas of preposterous length, Stephen Donaldson stands out as an original voice with something to say, an author for whom the work, and not merely the world, is key. Not here Hobbits and simple good versus evil, but instead characters of incredible complexity, tales replete with moral ambiguity of the kind that strikes right at the very heart of what is right and what is wrong and questions asked of almost every aspect of human nature.

Read Stephen Donaldson’s Fact File, here.

Donaldson, however, is adamant that such themes are purely a function of his storytelling – storytelling being the aspect of his craft he considers vital above all else – and not the direct authorial opinion they may appear to be upon first reading. In conversation, however, Donaldson is deliberate and purposeful, taking time to form carefully measured answers. It seems hard to believe that their isn’t at least a little intent behind the vivid messages of the man’s work. Here Death Ray attempts to discover the truth…

Death Ray: With Runes of the Earth in 2004 and now Fatal Revenant, you’re returning to The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant twenty years after the last instalment in the series. Why the decision to continue now?

Stephen Donaldson: When I wrote the original Chronicles, I had no intention of writing any more Covenant books, and in fact I had an active intention to not write more Covenant books.

I was discovered by Lester Del Rey, who was one of the old time US science fiction writers, and Lester had a really good eye for new talent – and I say this not because he discovered me, but because he discovered Tim Powers. He picked up Tim Powers at the same time as he picked up Lord Foul’s Bane, the first of the Covenant books, and I have tremendous respect for Tim powers, so I know Lester had a good eye for talent.

But these old writers from the pulp tradition, you know once they got their hands on a writer they wanted him to focus on what was known to be saleable and in my case that was the Covenant books, because the first books sold so well. Lester was bound and determined that I would write more Covenant books; I was bound and determined that I would not write more Covenant books.

At this stage we had already had enough fights that he knew that he couldn’t simply steam roller me into writing more Covenant books so he tried a more subtle approach. He kept sending me the plots for “The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant” – you know, every couple of weeks I’d get a letter from Lester and it would be the latest version of his plot for The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.

Well, thankfully I don’t remember any of the details of these plots but I do remember that I thought they were really bad. Each one that I read seemed to me to be a worse story idea than the one before and part of what would make them seem worse is that they would feel like just telling the same story again with different names, you know, which would have been fine with Lester and there were plenty of old-style science fiction and fantasy writers who were perfectly willing to crank out the same… you know, change a little bit of the scenery, change a couple of the characters, basically write the same story again. I can remember thinking: ‘nobody could write this, this is dreck’. I’d have my bi-weekly laugh; I’d throw it in the waste basket.

One day, I get a letter from Lester, filled with a story idea for The Second Chronicles, and the idea – which I’ve completely forgotten – was so bad that before I could stop myself, I said: ‘oh no, nobody could possibly write this story, what I really ought to do is…’. And it was like having a meteor shower in my head. I suddenly saw this vast narrative edifice, that would include the first Chronicles, but that would develop in a way that seemed both logical and inevitable to me from the conclusion of the first trilogy and it would lead to the conclusion of the second trilogy and would then reach its final climax at the end of what I immediately began referring to as The Last Chronicles. I saw this whole story arc in one intense flash.

DR: Okay, so The Second Chronicles followed almost immediately, but The Last Chronicles have waited until now…

SD: Well, I was young in those days and vigorous and terribly excited about being published. I was so excited it was almost a form of ecstasy. And, so, since I saw this vast narrative edifice, I just plunged right in. I started working on The Second Chronicles. That was a very educational experience for me in many ways, one of which was – Lester and I had terrible fights about The Second Chronicles – but struggling my way through the various challenges that the story presented convinced me that I simply wasn’t a good enough writer to write The Last Chronicles, because I knew the story, I could see how difficult it was going to be and I knew that I was already struggling in The Second Chronicles. When I go back and re-read The Second Chronicles I can see that the author is struggling – of course, I have inside information, so that helps, but still, it’s something I wish weren’t there. If I had waited a while before I wrote The Second Chronicles and given myself time to mature a bit more, they might have been better. I’m not saying that they’re bad, but I wish they were better.

So after finishing The Second Chronicles, I knew I had to find some way to become a better writer before I ever tried to tackle The Last Chronicles. The only way I know of to become a better writer is to write different things, push myself in different directions: try mystery novels, try science fiction, try short stories, try anything that comes to me that is not more of the same; try gentle – with The Mirror of Her Dreams and A Man Rides Through I was striving for a kind of a fairy-tale feel that was very different than the archetypal grimness of the Covenant Chronicles.

So, I got busy trying to become a better writer while doing all these other stories that I thought were very exciting. And in a certain period I kind of forgot – I didn’t forget the story, but I forget the ambition of writing The Last Chronicles. For years I just felt I’ll never write it and, well, I’ll be okay if I leave it where it is.

But a few years ago, round about the turn into 2000, it occurred to me that there was a reason why I had not returned to The Last Chronicles and it was a reason I hadn’t wanted to admit to myself before: I was afraid of them. I was afraid it was going to be too great a challenge for my narrative skills, no matter how great my narrative skills might become because it just seemed staggeringly difficult.

Well, I wasn’t getting any younger and I’d reached the point in life where fear seems to me to be a really bad reason not to do something – I’m not talking about jumping off buildings; I’m afraid of jumping off buildings and I’m not going to go jump off buildings – but being afraid of writing a particular story no longer seems like a good enough reason to not write it. So I decided it was time to face my fear, face the risk of failing with the story and go ahead.

(Continued on page 2…)

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For a summary of Stephen’s books, click here.
Other Links: Stephen Donaldson’s Website | Death Ray Magazine