| Stephen R Donaldson | Contributor: Amfo | Posted: 04/12/07 | 17:46 |
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page 1 of 5 PLEASE NOTE: The following interview is an edited transcription of a VOIP conversation SFFR had with Stephen R Donaldson. While most answers are essentially verbatim, some words have been added for clarity. The order of the questions has also been altered to group topics more logically. Any misinterpretation or added nuance in this interview is entirely the fault of SFFR. In a world where every time you visit a bookstore there are half a dozen new authors on the shelves, and sites like SFFR struggle to churn enough reviews to even keep up with the market, it's hard to believe that once upon a time there was very little fantasy available to the common reader. While SF enjoyed its Golden Age, fantasy fans had little to do except re-read Lord of the Rings for the nine hundredth time, or wade through dense allegorical or philosophical or big-R Romantic texts like Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy. Then, along came Stephen R Donaldson. Undeterred by no fewer than 47 rejections, he pushed on through to launch his first trilogy in 1977 - The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever - in three hardcover editions at once, thanks to brand new publisher Del Rey. Since the late 1970s, Donaldson has slowly - slowly by his own admission - published 22 books straddling three genres: high fantasy, hard SF and mystery. Naturally, when SFFR spoke to Donaldson from his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, it's his fantasy and SF work that interests us most. It's been a busy year for Donaldson, with a rerelease of his Mordant's Need two-book fantasy as a single novel, as well as the publication of the much anticipated second novel in the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Fatal Revenant joins the growing Covenant canon, and I began the interview asking Donaldson how he feels about how the production of the book has finally turned out. Donaldson books have always had these fairly classic fantasy covers, with adventurers and wizards and such. But the reissue of Mordant's Need and the two new Covenant books have very minimalist covers. What's behind the new direction?
Actually there are lots of different covers, depending on where you buy the book. Those classic covers are still available here in the US along with the newer covers.
Del Rey was the first publisher of the Covenant books, but Harper-Collins had them recently but they've slowly been dumping my back catalogue and Gollancz has been picking them up as the rights expire. I think with the new Covenant books coming out, Gollancz is trying to build and brand a back catalogue of my stuff. I actually prefer these new covers because I think with the classic art, it always seems to truncate my imagination. Whoever they put on the cover, he always looks a bit wrong. The character lacks a numinosity, he's always too tall or not tall enough, or too grim. I guess it's because when I write I don't see specific details, I don't have a picture of the character in my head. So what's your understanding of the new, minimalist covers?
Well one thing you need to know is that I have very little say in how the book actually looks. Publishers send me proofs and concepts for me to look at and they hope I'll smile, but if I don't smile they tend to go ahead and do it anyway.
I said I think the covers work for Fatal Revenant but I'm not as convinced by the Mordant's Need cover. There's ivy or something around an indistinct central circle you can only see if you tip it into the right light, and it looks to me very much like a young adult book, something for girls. Maybe Gollancz sees Mordant's Need as having a new appeal there.
That's possible, but I don't think you could say the same for the Covenant books. I guess it's all about a uniform package thing, about building a brand.
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