Donaldson must have a soul blighted with darkness and self loathing. Many of his characters certainly do. The most vile, odious, and despicable of his characters is the anti-hero Thomas Covenant, a self absorbed, narcissistic leper filled with self loathing. Fairly early in the book Covenant rapes a child. The account is short, but detailed. Only a reprobate would stoop to using the details of rape to propel his career as an author. The main impetus of the book thereafter seems to be for the reader to hate Covenant for an absolutely worthless hero who refuses to do any good to anyone. He has a magical ring of power (how derivative), but he refuses to use it to help save the land. He has to be impelled, for hundreds of pages, by better characters to ever do anything of worth. Whenever Covenant actually accomplishes anything worthy of note, it is inadvertant, or forced without his volition. I kept hoping for a terrible death for Covenant as I read this book and each subsequent book.