Alright, I thought it meant Doubting Thomas at first, too, but it doesn't. In fact, if you haven't read it, it's an epic fantasy like Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, only less epic. Overall, I was both impressed and disappointed.

Unlike most epic fantasy, he creates a new world with new races and cultures. However, in LOTR, Tolkein made his races more fascinating by developing them, balancing them; humans are power-hungry and short-lived while the elves are noble and immortal. Donaldson doesn't establish any significant differences between his races.

However, I was impressed by his writing. Unlike most metaphor-happy writers like Koontz and Bradbury, who love them so much that they put them places they shouldn't be, Donaldson sounds totally natural as if that's the way he talks. Nothing sounds forced. It rolls off the tongue.

There were two stories, one weak and one strong. First, there's the our-world Covenant and the fantasy Covenant. The our-world story was compelling because it was so original and it worked so well. However, the fantasy story where they tried to get the staff of law from Drool was slow and not very exciting or even dramatic. A wise man said, "Omit needless words from a sentence, sentences from a paragraph, paragraphs from a scene, scenes from a chapter, chapters from a book, books from a series, and series from the shelf." There are plenty of scenes Donaldson could have either skipped or shortened. He has chapters of travel where nothing happens, and if something does happen, it's either insignificant or pointless. The book is slower because of it.

In summary, I liked his protagonist and his writing, but I thought the fantasy story was slightly weak. However, I realize that this was Donaldson's debut as a writer. Therefore, I am starting his next book in the series, The Illearth War, with hopes that he improves.