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290 of 319 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Can lightning strike a third time? Yes! Donaldson is charmed., October 15, 2004
This review is from: The Runes of the Earth (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Book 1) (Hardcover)
First, let me say: Bravo! Well done, Mr. Donaldson!
Next, I want to direct my comments to those readers who have never read any of the Covenant books, but are contemplating reading this book. Your main concern, undoubtedly, is, "How can I possibly enter a complex series at book seven? Won't I be so incredibly lost that it won't make any sense for me to buy this book and see what all the fuss is about Covenant?" Both questions are easily answered. Donaldson has taken extraordinary care to construct the beginning of this book in such a way that if you are entering the Covenant series at this late point, by the time you get to page 200, all that went before will be explained, and you'll (almost) feel as if you have read the first six books. He does this primarily in two ways. First, he has written a "What Has Gone Before" prelude, which succinctly wraps up the essential plots and dilemmas of the first six books into about eight pages. It is *superbly* done. Second, from almost the very beginning of the book itself, he meticulously and purposefully takes the reader back to prior events in the last two trilogies, while at the same time moving the story forward with the tremendous urgency of his past works. While someone like myself (who is probably more familiar with these books than I should be), can see what's happening as plainly as I can see that Shaquille O'Neal is a very large man, people less familiar with the work will not feel burdened or bludgeoned by what is, essentially, catching readers up. For reader like me, this will likely feel somewhat tedious as we know all of the legends of the Land. But for readers who are unfamiliar with the legends, you will find them to be like a drink from the source of a mountain spring. The stories and legends of the Land are as tantalizing, exciting, and wondrous as the story itself.
So - new readers to Covenant, feel safe. Whereas you couldn't jump into Book 7 of Jordan's Wheel of Time series, you can jump into the seventh book of this series. You will not be disappointed.
And now to the book. There is a wonderfully written 77-page "Prologue", which details the events that take place in the "real world", the events which lead to Linden and, perhaps others, to be conveyed to The Land. I read this in astonishment. I've read everything that Donaldson has ever written, and this was his best piece of writing. It was like reading Henry James. His descriptions were immaculately clear, the kind of descriptions that distinguish good writing from bad; the kind of descriptive writing that allows the reader to touch, feel, hear, see, and smell; the kind of writing that separates truly great writing from mediocre writing (which, sadly, accounts for about 90% of what's being published today, regardless of genre).
When we arrive in The Land, the threat is less clear than it was in the previous Chronicles. In the first, Lord Foul laid it out to Covenant in no uncertain terms - he was going to destroy The Land, destroy The Lords, and he stopped just short at telling him how he was going to do it, so great was his confidence. Foul's approach was distinctly Hitlerian, his tactics a blitzkrieg in every way. In the second, his attack was more insidious and subtle, but still devastating. Here he attacked nature, Earthpower; the Sunbane was a blight that all could see and feel, and the millions of readers who had fallen in love with the stunning beauty and tangible health of The Land in the First Chronicles couldn't help but to weep at the devastation. In the Last Chronicles, the threat is palpable, it is significant, and it is devastating (not to mention terribly creative). The difference is, the threat isn't only Foul. As we delve deeper into the book, and learn some of the secrets therein, we come to realize that The Land has more than one enemy, with perhaps a different agenda than Foul, and only one true defender with any estimable might: Linden Avery, The Chosen.
It is a testament to Donaldson's mastery of The Land that an entire book can be written in a series titled, "The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant", and not have Thomas Covenant in the book for more than ten seconds, and still have that book turn out to be a revelation. In other reviews of sequels, I have been critical, stating that they don't make sense - they don't follow logically from the prior book, or series. (For example, anything by Goodkind; The Mallorean by Eddings; Shannara.) I can't be similarly critical of Donaldson. His sequels follow a perfect logic flow. The Sunbane was *absolutely* what Foul would have done after spending three and half millennia licking his wounds, and while we don't know Foul's full intentions yet, the events that occur within The Runes of the Earth are exactly what they should be, considering the events of the First and Second Chronicles. Donaldson is not writing this to make money, although he is certain to make truckloads of it. He's writing this because he had a vision of how to complete the "Covenant cycle", and waited twenty-one (agonizing!) years to publish Runes because he needed to grow as a writer. Reading Runes, I understand him completely. This book placed demands on him as a writer that he has never encountered before, and the growth during the intervening years served him well.
The result is a book to be savored, reread, and added to the canon of great fantasy. If the First Chronicles were the War and Peace of fantasy literature, I wonder how this will be judged. It is superior - superior to something that is already recognized as one of the most important works of fantasy of all time.
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26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A welcome return to the Land, October 20, 2004
This review is from: The Runes of the Earth (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Book 1) (Hardcover)
For fans of Donaldson, the writing in this book should hold no surprises. The main character is full of turmoil, her power doesn't come without great risks, the world is at stake, and the chances are slim. Fans of Donaldson wouldn't have it any other way.
One complaint is that the book starts off quite slowly. I assume that most of the fans who say this do so because they're used to reading Donaldson's books one after another without long waits in between, and so the books don't really have to stand alone (after all, the last time anyone had to wait for a Covenant book was more than 20 years ago). Donaldson writes huge epics; that's his stated goal, and so the books aren't really MEANT to stand alone. People who have read the Chronicles, the Gap Cycle, the Man Who Mysteries, and Mordant's Need should not be surprised when Donaldson takes his time in the first book setting everything up for the events in the rest of the series. As it is, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and I can see that everything he has set up is certainly going to have exciting results during the rest of the series!
The books will only get better from here on out, so be patient and I can guarantee the Last Chronicles will be a worthy finale for the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.
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175 of 228 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
First book in the new series doesn't live up to expectations, October 18, 2004
This review is from: The Runes of the Earth (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Book 1) (Hardcover)
Let me start by saying that I disagree that this would be a good book for readers new to the Covenant series to start with. It's true that Donaldson does a good job of explaining events from the prior books as he goes along, for the benefit of readers who may have forgotten various details over the years, but these explanations would act as spoilers of the six prior books for new readers. It would be much better for new readers to start with Lord Foul's Bane and read the first two series through first, rather than to start with this book and find that the first two trilogies have been ruined for them.
The Runes of the Earth lacks both the scope and the imaginative detail that Donaldson's writing displayed, in particular, in the second Covenant trilogy. The action is confined to a relatively small part of The Land (and to one small area of the "real" world), and takes place over a very brief timespan from the point of view of Linden Avery, the main character.
There are of course some new concepts introduced, and a new threat from Lord Foul. But too much of Runes merely recycles old themes and characters and peoples from the first two series. In the second Chronicles, Donaldson was not merely content to rehash the first trilogy. Instead, he brought us Elohim and Sandgorgons, venom and Sunbane, Bhrathrair and the Clave - and Linden herself. Runes offers nothing comparable to the shock which The Wounded Land presented to readers familiar with The Land.
Even the new characters are too dependent on the prior series. Linden's son, Covenant's son, even Cail's son and Sunder's and Hollian's son. Why not somebody brand new? 7,000 years after the first trilogy, we are still seeing Stonedowners, Haruchai, and Ramen. Do no new peoples ever arise from or migrate into The Land?
Before the publication of JRR Tolkien's Silmarillion, many readers of the Lord of the Rings trilogy feared that exploring Middle Earth's past too thoroughly would destroy the "impression of depth" that was such a compelling facet of that series. A similar effect may be at work here. By tearing away the scenery and showing what really happened with Cail, the merwives, Kastenessen, the ur-viles, the Ranyhyn, etc., Donaldson may be answering 20 years worth of accumulated fan questions, but what is he leaving for the reader to wonder about?
Runes is too dependent upon Linden, the only significant point of view character. The second trilogy gave us Linden as a counter to Covenant, as the first had given us Troy and Mhoram, but in Runes Linden must stand alone. This is problematic in several other ways besides imbalance. First of all, Linden is not nearly as compelling a character as Covenant. She is not a leper, she is not responsible for Elena's misdeeds, etc. Also, there is no longer any real reason that Linden cannot use a combination of Wild Magic and the Law to achieve basically anything. Unlike Covenant, she is unhampered by leprosy, lack of health sense, etc. And her character had already been thoroughly explored in the second trilogy, and her paralyzing refusal to act no longer applies.
So Donaldson has to contrive reasons to keep Linden from simply winning the day with White Gold or Law, and those reasons seem just that, contrived.
So does the conflict between Linden and the Haruchai as represented by Stave, a carbon copy of Cail. The Haruchai are committing their usual fatal mistake, oversimplistic certainty. As usual, they recognize that they have erred in the past, but they are unable to see that how they always err is to be too certain that they will not err again. This offers nothing new to readers of the first two series. Linden futilely attempts to argue Stave and the Haruchai out of one specific stance without addressing their meta-flaw, that they just can't admit they might be wrong.
Certain plot elements seem half-baked. A supposed added motivation for Linden to oppose Foul is that he has kidnapped her son. But surely, if the fate of the world rests in your hands, saying that the fates of the world plus that of your son rest in your hands doesn't really ratchet up the stakes any. The my-child is-in-danger device seems melodramatic as well, as if this series should be subtitled, "This time, it's personal." Is Linden Dirty Harry or Charles Bronson? Of course not. So why go down this road?
Another annoying and unconvincing device is that of madness on the part of a key character. His madness causes this knowledgeable but unreliable character to drop cryptic hints for Linden and the others to try to puzzle out rather than to just say what's on his mind. This is of course highly convenient for an author who wants to carefully ration out information to his readers, but for just that reason it is obvious that it is authorial cheating. Donaldson readers have already been through this with Adept Havelock - they deserve better than this redux.
Donaldson may simply have run out of things to say. The fact that he continues to repeat himself with his anti-absolutist stance regarding the Haruchai tends to suggest as much. He has already explored the ideas of power equaling guilt, its absence equaling freedom, and the danger of certainty. If this third trilogy is going to have a new theme, its first entry does nothing to suggest what that theme might be.
Runes is very much a 2004 book, in that it follows the current epic fantasy trend of merely being one chapter in a longer work with a single ending. In this respect is suffers by comparison to its predecessors such as The Illearth War and The One Tree, which were complete novels in and of themselves as well as being parts of larger works.
The bottom line for die-hard Donaldson readers is that of course Runes is a must-read. Though it is a somewhat unworthy follower to the two previous series, it is certainly not an irrelevant abomination such as the later Ringworld books of Niven. But it will be bound to disappoint many who go in with high expectations, hence the two stars. Let us hope that its successor books contain less setup, and that some of the new characters are allowed to develop. The new series badly needs, if not its version of Foamfollower or Pitchwife or Mhoram or Elena, at least a Sunder.
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