Reave the Just: and Other Tales Book

Stephen Donaldson is best known for immense and doom-laden genre sagas, in particular his debut fantasy epic The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever and the sf "Gap" sequence. His first book of short stories Daughter of Regals (1984) was uneven--muddied by an early weakness for unwieldy language. Reave the Just is a far stronger collection, with five powerful pieces, two adequate ones and just one dud. Donaldson's fantasies show a scarifying intensity of moral concern and complication. The title character Reave works towards justice through deep pain, not least to himself. Elsewhere we find the agonies of a sympathetic and even pious vampire who's denied the easy option of feeding on animals; a Dark Lord who reasonably protests that his researches into black magic have harmed no one and shouldn't attract persecution from self-righteous White mages; an exploration of the peculiar honour of ninja-style warriors; and another wizard who helps a filthy idiot girl towards beauty and self-reliance for very bad reasons indeed. Effective and sometimes harrowing tales, clearly told: Donaldson has abandoned the oversized thesaurus he once relied on, and now writes with a quieter conviction that hits hard. --David LangfordRead More