Lord Foul's Bane — Stephen R. Donaldson

THOMAS COVENANT, UR-LORD

He called himself Covenant the Unbeliever, because he dared not believe in this strange alternate world on which he suddenly found himself. The magic of the Land could not be real. Loremasters could not draw fire from wood that never burned, nor force stone to flow freely under their fingers. Yet they did. Hurtloam could not regenerate ruined nerves. Yet, miraculously, it did.

The Land tempted him. He had been sick; now he seemed better than ever before. Through no fault of his own, he had been outcast, unclean, a pariah. Now he was regarded as a reincarnation of the Land's greatest hero -- Berek Halfhand--armed with the mystic power of White Gold. That power alone could protect the Lords of the Land from the ancient evil of the Despiser, Lord Foul. Only ... Covenant had no idea of how the power could be used!

Thus begins one of the strangest epic fantasies ever written...