Customer Reviews

The Illearth War: The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Book Two

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

It's obvious that Donaldson was cutting his teeth, so to speak, while writing Lord Foul's Bane. To be certain, that book had periods of brilliance, such as the occurrences in Andelain, but all in all it was probably the weakest book in the series. (That doesn't mean it isn't good - just that the rest of the books are incredible.)

In The Illearth War Covenant is called back to the Land for a second time, and his image of a reluctant hero is burnished in our mind even more than it was in the previous book, for while he was being summoned he was also on the phone with his ex-wife, Joan. The woman who left him for fear of his leprosy, the woman with whom he was still in love, the woman who was telling him, right then, that she missed and needed him. So he protests his summoning vehemently, but to no avail. As the new High Lord Elena indicates, they have no knowledge of how to send a person back once a summons is complete.

The Council of Lords has some new faces on it. It's been forty years since Covenant has been to the Land, and seven years (seven "Land" years) remain until the fulfillment of Foul's ominous prophecy from Lord Foul's Bane. The Lords are desperate. While they regained the Staff of Law and found High Lord Kevin's Second Ward at the end of Lord Foul's Bane, they have learned very little. The language, they find, is difficult to penetrate, and they find themselves unequal to the task of mastering the lore. Due to their sense of overwhelming failure and inadequacy, and other baleful events, they make the decision to summon Covenant.

There is another addition to Revelstone: Hile Troy. He is a character from the "real world", someone who has read (or had read to him) Covenant's best selling novel. This is, perhaps, Donaldson's way of telling us that Covenant's experiences most definitely is not a dream (which Covenant is still convincing himself of). He's also blind, and unlike Covenant - who maintains fierce unbelief - Troy believes in the Land with a passion that precludes life.

Many readers interpret Troy's character as what Covenant *should* be. If Hile Troy had a white gold ring, his passion, his love for the land (for it allowed him to see again - and besides, everyone, even the readers, fall in love with the Land) would lead him directly to a confrontation to Foul. Unfortunately, not understanding the dilemmas of power, he would likely experience a resounding defeat. What people don't understand about Covenant, and Troy's character is supposed to help them understand this, is that Covenant's stubborn unbelief exists for a reason. In Lord Foul's Bane, Donaldson meticulously discussed the rigors of leprosy, what it meant to be a leper, what it meant to *survive* as a leper. And though bitter and angry at life and everything around him - or perhaps because of his bitterness - Covenant made the decision to live. And living entails never, ever letting your guard drop for one second. Because if you do, you can bump into something, not realize that you're bleeding internally, and die of hemorrhaging; gangrene can set in; and much more. So Covenant's unbelief, while incredibly frustrating, is completely understandable. He needs to believe that the Land isn't real, because if he gives in to it, then when he wakes up from his dream (for it may be a dream), his guard may drop, and he could die.

So it's unfortunate that people don't recognize Troy for what he is, and see him for exactly the opposite of what Donaldson intended.

Other reviewers have said this is the best book in the series. I love this book, as it introduces some extremely intriguing relationships and concepts (Elena and Amok, the latter of which is the key to High Lord Kevin's Seventh Ward - talk about heightened anticipation), and the devastating fear that Foul has mastered the Illearth Stone to such a degree that he can cut chips off of it and give it to his servants (Ravers).

The battle of Garrotting Deep (yes, similar in placement and scope to the epic Battle of Helm's Deep in The Two Towers) shows that Donaldson, like Tolkien before him, can write both of beauty and of beauty's absence in the heart of darkness of war. He is quite adept at handling battle scenes.

Many second books suffer from the so-called sophomore slump. Not this one. I don't think Donaldson is capable of writing such a book, as The One Tree (the second book in The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant) is arguably the most intriguing of the series, and within that book in particular are the seeds for the Last Chronicles, which everyone - and I mean everyone - should read.

This is Donaldson's best book -- the best of the Covenant series and better than any other fantasy written in the past 20 years. It's that good. Continuing the story from Lord Foul's Bane, the reluctant anti-hero leper Thomas Covenant returns to the mysterious Land, where he is again called upon to save it even as he must deny its existence to try and maintain his sanity. Of course, there is the added twist that he doesn't even know how to use the awesome power of the white gold wedding band at his wrist, even if he wanted to. Meanwhile, in the "real world," life is getting even tougher for Covenant. The forces of evil are at work in both worlds, with a titanic war splitting the Land and threatening to destroy it utterly. It's rare these days for a fantasy to be truly fantastic. Too often, hacks like David Eddings or Terry Brooks simply recycle plots from their earlier days and write hack and slash 'em pulp novels that are read one day and mind-flushed the next.

Donaldson's novels sear themselves into your brain, so that you remember them for years, decades after you last read them. The characters -- Foamfollower, the Bloodguard, Lord Mhoram, Lena -- each is deep and rich with emotional scars and a quiet strength and courage. Covenant in comparison can't help but appear bad, yet somehow, through his travels in the Land, he slowly, slowly manages to find his humanity again that had been stripped away by leprosy and VSE. If you haven't read the Covenant series, do yourself a favor and go read Lord Foul's Bane, then the Illearth War and the rest of the books. They are the treasure of modern fantasy.

4 1/2 stars.

Having reread Lord of the Rings in anticipation of the films last year, I recently also paid a visit to another fantasy series that I enjoyed while in middle school: Thomas Covenant. Nearly 20 years later, I appreciate the books more. The themes are very adult and while I enjoyed the books as a child because Donaldson creates a great fantasy-world that will interest and draw in readers of all ages, I am better able to understand what Donaldson was trying to accomplish now that I'm older.

The Illearth War is probably the best book in the series. The quick maturation of Donaldson's writing style makes this book a much better read than the first installment. In fact, after rereading the series, I think that Donaldson knew that his second book was put together better than the first to the extent that he made it so that reading the first book really isn't necessary. There is enough back-story revealed in the first few chapters so that any reader could grasp most of what happened in the first book, as it happened, without having to read it.

In my review of the Lord Foul's bane, I was preoccupied with detailing the many similarities between the Thomas Covenant series and Lord of the Rings and, thankfully, there is much less of this in Illearth War. Obviously, the basic principles of the story are retained, but the only new thing added that seems LOTR-related is that this second novel in the TC series is a war novel (with a side story of two major characters being led by a strange guide in search of something), and thus the general structure of Illearth War is copied from The Two Towers. But Dondaldson is more his own voice here, and that is a welcome change. The psyche and personality of Thomas Covenant is fleshed out much more fully here than in LFB; ironically, since Covenant has a far less prominent role as a character here than in LFB. This is accomplished by two foils for Covenant: the Lord Morham (a good man by which we can see how Covenant may have turned out had he been born to the land), and the character of Hile Troy, a blind man who is from Covenant's world (a man who is in nearly every sense the opposite of Covenant).

Aside from some highly unlikely military tactics on the part of Lord Foul's army (I have no idea why an immense invading army would ever chase the much smaller defending army across a continent to do battle on the smaller army's terms; the larger invaders could simply set about their business of destruction and occupation and force the defenders to come to them), there is nothing about this novel that bothered me the way some small things about the predecessor did. This is a richly detailed, yet taut and economical fantasy novel -- certainly one of the best that I've ever read. Even Lord Foul is made more menacing by eliminating him from the dialogue: the reader gets to see the effects of Foul's evil rather than experience it from his mouth [a mistake Donaldson made in the first novel, IMO, was to give Foul too much to say. How do you characterize pure evil? The more Foul said, the less evil he seemed, and the more he appeared to be like the standard chortling, pontificating villain that we've seen a million times in novels and film; the type where the hero makes his escape while the self-satisfied villain goes into exhaustive detail about the various ways in which he is going to torture and kill the hero].

The novel is dark stuff, and sometimes emotionally draining. But the life put into these characters makes their every decision and action one to linger over and abosrb before moving on. If you're not hooked on the Thomas Covenant series after reading Illearth War, nothing else in either of the two series will likely do it for you.

This story continues immediately after Thomas Covenant's return to the "real" world after the events of Lord Foul's Bane. His guilt and self-torment due to his shortcomings (both percieved and real) and crimes committed during his adventures in the Land is only magnified when, after a couple of weeks, he is again inexplicably returned to the Land, where forty years have passed. Once again, the Land is facing a crisis in the war against Lord Foul, and the Lords have summoned Covenant to the Land to try to convince him to use his wild magic to aid them.

Covenant is, again tormented by the fact that he believes the Land to be nothing more than an escape from reality for his wounded and grieving mind and spirit. He cannot accept that the Land may be real and deserving of his aid. He knows that he will eventually have to "wake up", and if he gives in to his dreams, his existence defined by loneliness and leprosy will be unbearable.

Stephen R. Donaldson, once again, does a magnificent job of creating a lush, wondrous world peopled with unforgettable characters. The most interesting character in the book is Hile Troy, a blind man from the "real" world who, through his uncanny tactical skill and leadership, has risen to command the Warward, the army of the Lords. Unlike Covenant, Troy has accepted the Land as reality and is striving to aid the Land to the best of his ability. Troy considers Covenant a coward because of his reluctance to aid the Land. But Troy can no more comprehend Covenant's inner conflict any more than the native people of the Land.

There are many other well-drawn characters introduced here, including High Lord Elena, Lords Hyrim and Verement, and the inscrutable and mysterious Amok. Also, more flesh is added to the characters of Bannor of the Bloodguard and Lord Mhoram, returning characters from the first book.

It's tough to talk about the plot too much without risking revealing too much to those who have not read it. But this book is a much more complex plot than the fairly straightforward quest in the first book. The different subplots of the military conflict between the Warward and Lord Foul's army and High Lord Elena's (and Covenant's) quest to gain new power to fight Lord Foul are both compelling and well-written. But, perhaps the most gripping part of the book are the two chapters dealing with the efforts of the Lords to give aid to the Giants, who have mysteriously dropped out of sight just when the Land needs their aid the most.

This book is both a continuation of and an improvement on the story told in Lord Foul's Bane. It's just as full of obscure words, though, which does make the reading of it a little difficult. Donaldson is truly a master of epic fantasy.

I was convinced to sample the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever upon reading the reviews on Amazon. Many debated the merit of the trilogy due to the tragic and conflicted soul of the protagonist, Covenant himself. He was described as an anti-hero. Having read books one and two of these Chronicles, it was not Covenant who alienated me, but instead the writing of Stephen Donaldson.

I enjoyed the first book in a qualified way. It was not a quick and exciting read, but I felt it had its merit. One could feel for the plight of Thomas Covenant (being a leper and learning to survive as a leper only to be thrust into a world where his leprosy appeared healed - sure it would be great if it were true but it is quite natural someone in his position would be reluctant to accept it). The world was complex but well-developed. The flaws (as I judge them) that I will point out shortly about The Illearth War (Book 2) were present in Lord Foul's Bane (Book 1) but they were more forgivable for some reason. Anyway, there was merit enough in the first book to make me plod through the second.

I mention that it is Stephen Donaldson's writing that drives me away. It does so in several ways. First, his is a very dense writing style. He uses words that the common person does not. I am not suggesting he is putting on airs or trying to be high-minded, I assume he is just that way. I believe the words flow naturally from him. It must be a weird experience to have a conversation with the man! Allow me to share a very simple example from The Illearth War: "Their nostrils distended at the vapory breath of dawn or dusk. Their eyes roamed searchingly over the sunward crags, the valleys occasionally bedizened with azure tarns, the hoary glaciers crouching in the highest cols, the snow-fed streams... Their wide foreheads and flat cheeks and confident poise betrayed no heart upsurge, no visceral excitement. Yet there was something clear and passionate in their alacrity..." (page 421). You could find innumerable examples of such lofty prose throughout. I am sure it is just the way he writes. I just do not find it enjoyable. It is so dense and dry. There is no poetry to it even when the passages are descriptive. It is like a highly technical and labored experience. The words are so precise the life is sucked from the narrative. Again, at least that is my humble opinion. I do not mind slow or difficult reads when there is a payoff. This one maximized the difficulty but minimized the payoff.

Second, he has created a world with its own terms. I suppose this is realistic in its way (although everyone speaks English most of the time anyway). He gives us a brief glossary, but I would prefer my reads to do without one. I have no idea what he is talking about when he uses the fictitious expressions. It may make an exciting adventure for some readers but it just turned me off. Who wants to work that hard to learn about a place that doesn't exist? At least the fantasy words could have had some common root with our language. Then things could have been somewhat intuitive. Instead it was just gibberish to me. And it played such a vital part throughout his works. To not appreciate this literary device makes his work hard to enjoy.

Third, he builds ever so slowly to a climax. Then the climax occurs and is gone and you feel like you must have missed something. "Oh, so that's it," I was left thinking. It was a long journey (a painful one at times, certainly a slow one), and then the payoff is not very rewarding.

Fourth, the bad guys seem awfully powerful. I couldn't help wondering why they just didn't sweep all the good guys away. They seem as though there is nothing that can stop them. But then the good "lords" display similar power. The magical powers just seem too present and too readily available for us common folk to relate to the struggle. I couldn't find a reality to the war that was raging. I didn't understand most of the magical beings. They were not developed very fully.

I certainly credit Donaldson for his imagination. He brings depth to the characters. He seems to have created a world with a great degree of internal consistency. I commend him for his talent, but if you are like me you won't much appreciate it.

These books remind me of Gene Wolfe and his works that compose The Book of the New Sun. That work was more science fiction, but the protagonist also had darker issues to be dealt with. Both worlds were difficult for me to identify with. Both used expressions that made no sense to me. They were both slow and deep reads. If you like this Covenant series, I whole-heartedly recommend Wolfe's series to you (and vice versa). My life would be no worse off had I missed both experiences. I am going to skip The Power that Preserves (book 3) and just hope it all works out.

I read the first Thomas Covenant Book at a very dark time in my life. I have just finished the second book some years later.
I felt just like Covenant who returns to The Land some forty years later and has to catch up on what's going on. I was glad to see that he hadn't lost his sense of realism and careful evaluation. I know that many call this pessimism, but I call it keeping it real.
My wife and I are both big fans of The Lord of the Rings and Narnia. This series is neither of those. In those stories the hero or heroes know what they are there for and the task at hand, but not so with Covenant. In fact, there are many points in the book where Covenant doesn't know nor cares about what is expected of him. He only seems to act out of self-preservation and frustration. Many are the times when the reader is yelling at the book so as to make Covenant, at the very least, attempt to help. By the way, my wife cannot stand such dark and brewding novels. The Last Battle (Narnia) is dark enough for her.
The battle scenes are great and you are totally swept along, but it is a long and winding road that takes you there.
In short, Thomas Covenant doesn't know what he's doing, but he is still in there trying. However, the toughest enemy seems to be himself.

The first trilogy of "Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever" was Donaldson's initial opus and launched him to immediate consideration of public & critics.

Donaldson's proposal is quite risky.
The main character is a sick man unable to compromise with the fantastic universe that deploys before him. The reader will certainly not identify with Covenant's sour & bitter personality.
Nevertheless a powerful story is constructed over this implausible pillar!

"The Illearth War" is the second volume of the trilogy and I strongly recommend reading the first volume before start reading this one. It is true that the author provides a two page summary of what happened before, nevertheless The Land scenery & characters is too complex to be understood with that intro only, and the reader risk to get confused and even bored.

The tale is as follows: after a very short return to our own world, Thomas is recalled to the Land. There forty years has elapsed since Covenant's departure.
The summoner this time is Lord Elena, new elected High Lord, young & energetic and determined to save the Land from Lord Foul's designs.

From this starting point three main & parallel stories evolve.
One line follows the adventures of a group of Lords and Bloodguard in an urgent quest to find what happened to the Giants that are silent and out of touch with the Lords.
The second follow Lord Mhoram, Warmark (Supreme Commander) Hile Troy and the Warward (Lord's Army) in a forced march to confront Lord Foul's ghastly army.
The third line follows Lord Elena and Thomas in search of the seventh Ward of Kevin's Lore.

These three lines will merge at book's end in a high voltage finale!

This second volume of the saga introduces new interesting characters.
One is Hille Troy who has many points in common with Covenant: he has been summoned from our world, he is a blind-born person and in the Land he gains vision (as Thomas recovers from leprosy). Other traits are just the opposite, Hille believes the Land is real and he is ready to face whatever risk to save it.
Elena is the other remarkable new personae, fervent defender of the Land and essentially feminine, confers a different touch to the whole story.

It is great book that may be enjoyed by fantasy fans and general public as well! But remember read Book one first!
Reviewed by Max Yofre.

Disturbed by the intrusion of the Land into his sterile and predictable world, Thomas Covenant wrestles with the question of its validity and reality. It was just a dream, a delusional episode meant to destroy his defense against the disease so tentatively arrested within him. Yet, a disturbing encounter in a nightclub and the out-of-the-blue call from his ex-wife drive Covenant back to the Land, or was he again summoned, as the Land would have him believe?

"The Illearth War", the second in the "First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant Unbeliever", was a masterpiece of fantasy writing. Stephen R. Donaldson's voice and craft are impeccable, the depth to the characters, to the twisted chain of events Covenant so wreaks havoc upon are so water tight and touching. To not fall in love with the land, and grow to loath Foul and his Ravers is unimaginable. The three dimensionality of the characters and of their plight is amazing, a truly polished gem amid the rubble.

The characters are immensely deep and engrossing. Elena, Mhoram, Bannor, Hile Troy, all of them are so well developed you can envision them as living souls by their mere mention. However, as before, Thomas Covenant refuses to believe. It is his inaction, his impotency for action that drives much of this tale. On one hand, I found such gut wrenching sympathy for him, and on the other such a loathing for his inaction in the light of the beautiful Land and people he so harmed. I longed to switch places and do what he could not...

Adding to the dilemma is Warmark Hile Troy. Troy claims to hail from "reality," a claim the Unbeliever cannot accept, for if it proves true, it proves the Lands existence; and he cannot accept that because it cries out in conviction of his crimes against so many. Despite my frustration with Covenant's action, and further his inaction, this was a marvelous story and I beseech you to read it!

Thomas Covenant is crumbling inside under the stress of tortures no human can withstand. Did he just return from a fantasy world in which he saved the day by using the magic power hidden in his wedding ring, or has the leprosy which has destroyed him as a man and barred him from society driven him mad? A second trip to the magical Land doesn't help his mental state at all, especially when he meets fellow Earthman Hile Troy, to whom the Land has given sight for his blinded eyes and employment for his military genius. Troy cannot understand how Covenant can ignore the Land's need, but the Lords, masters of wood and stone lore as well as the secrets of war and Earthpower, understand Covenant's fear of power and committment. As Troy commands the Land's army, Covenant and the High Lord Elena search for a secret power locked away an age ago as too dangerous, while Covenant still insists he is trapped in a hallucination. And what if he is? Even in a dream, should you try to do the right thing?

Personally, I did not enjoy this book. However, I cannot take away from the fact that Donaldson is a wonderful writer. Unlike many sci fi/fantasy writers he does not assume his audience is stupid. He has beautiful imagery, his usage of the English language is masterful and several steps above most any other writer in this genre, and his characters are well defined without pandering. BUT, despite all of this, I dare to characterize his Thomas Covenant novels in one word--bleak. Unlike many fanstasy novels where despite hardship, sorrow, and adversity the reader is left with at least some small hope that everything will turn out if not well, at least all right, Donaldson leaves no such illusions. The main character, Thomas, is bitter, angry, and is marked by both a world-weariness and a refusal to adapt or even accept the world he has been thrown into. Characters you become invested in are ruthlessly battered, bruised, then killed off. This is not a novel you read, cheer lustily in your head for, then put down with sense of joy or resolution. Instead, this is almost a painful and almost frustrating read as at every turn when you wish for the characters to step up and make things better they simply do not, or cannot. If you're looking for a fun, enlightening, or entertaining book this series is most certainly not it, but if you are looking for a complex anti-hero and a book unlike any other, this is it.