The acclaimed author of the Thomas Covenant Chronicles launches a powerful new trilogy about a prince’s desperate quest for a sorcerous library to save his people.Fire. Wind. Pestilence. Earthquake. Drought. Lightning. These are the six Decimates, wielded by sorcerers for both good and evil. But a seventh Decimate exists—the most devastating one of all…For centuries, the realms of Belleger and … all…
For centuries, the realms of Belleger and Amika have been at war, with sorcerers from both sides harnessing the Decimates to rain blood and pain upon their enemy. But somehow, in some way, the Amikans have discovered and invoked a seventh Decimate, one that strips all lesser sorcery of its power. And now the Bellegerins stand defenseless.
Prince Bifalt, eldest son of the Bellegerin King, would like to see the world wiped free of sorcerers. But it is he who is charged with finding the repository of all of their knowledge, to locate the book of the seventh Decimate—and reverse the fate of his land.
All hope rests with Prince Bifalt. But the legendary library, which may or may not exist, lies beyond an unforgiving desert and treacherous mountains—and beyond the borders of his own experience. Wracked by hunger and fatigue, sacrificing loyal men along the way, Prince Bifalt will discover that there is a game being played by those far more powerful than he could ever imagine. And that he is nothing but a pawn…
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Seventh Decimate is a new book by Stephen R. Donaldson and is the first book in the Great God’s War series. I am a longtime fan of his Thomas Covenant series so I was looking forward to reading this book. It can be read as a standalone but it is open-ended for the next book and it is clear that the story doesn’t end here. There is violence, this is a story about war after all.
The book blurb adequately describes the storyline so I’m not going to repeat all of that info here. The author does a good job of describing the countries and what is going on between them. This is not fast paced with a lot of action. It is worth reading but you have to be willing to stick with it. I plan on reading the next book once it is published, but I’m not going to rush to read it like I did when the next Thomas Covenant book came out.
Well written but sometimes writing seems padded. Does not compare well to Thomas the Unbeliever, which was hard to put down
No where near as good as his other books. Weak “hero”.
Second in series is better but character development is excellent and it is in all Mr. Donaldson’s books (read all of them!! – I’m a fan)
It is hard to understand this is from the same author that wrote the Thomas Covenant series. It needs much better editing as well as review by the author
Not one of Stephen R. Donaldson’s best. Mediocre characters, plot and action.
I was disappointed in this book. It just does not stand up to his Thomas Covenant series in writing quality, story, interesting characters and other aspects of good writing. I read it and was mildly entertained, but am not interested in reading the second book.
I am a massive fan of Donaldson and have been for nearly 40 years but this book disappointed me so much. I’ve never read anything by him where the depth of character wasn’t incredible. Here they are shallow cardboard cut outs and even worse the story is a predictable yarn, written many times by many authors. So sad.
I wanted to love this book because I have been a decades-long fan of Donaldson’s writing, but while it was good, and I do want to continue with what will be a new series, I did not love it the way I greedily embraced the Thomas Covenant books. I think the issue is that the main character, while complex and struggling (which is Donaldon’s forte), he did not show any real change or development during the arc of this book. Maybe it is slow growing and will show in successive stories, but I was frustrated with the anger responses that start the book and are still the go to responses by the end of the book. That said, the character is interesting, the world is filled with opportunities for exploration, and the slow building of a complex story just makes me rub my hands with glee.