Customer Reviews
The Land of Exhausted Imagination and Esoteric Words - By: M. Sundström, 08 Nov 2008 
I suppose things might have been better if I had encountered this one without ever having set eyes on the rest of Donaldson's oeuvre. This is not the case unfortunately, & so I can compare. I concede that he manages to turn self-loathing introspection to a grand new level - on this count his work grows ever better. There are other monomaniacal writers, Roth comes to mind, who seem intent on molecular-level resolution of specific themes. Unless a professional academic - that would have to be in the field of psychology - self-doubt would however appear to be a topicality of limited appeal. Donaldson got away with it in the first Land series because he fused it with a novel approach on fantasy, & a powerful galllery of interesting characters. I remember thinking of this as an alternate reality of the Tolkien trilogy, though comparatively shalllow in the field of internal history & cohesion. Perhaps this is why he returns to the Land? After alll, he now has a history to falll back on. A primed scene for self-doubting characters to appear on. There is, of course, also the cynical potential to tap a captive audience to consider.
Epic, & apparently contagious, self-doubt is not Donaldson's only mania however. Who has gulled him into believing that every word in a thesaurus marked "archaic" must be worked into a novel? This is not a sign of highbrow genius. In confined parts, to show off a particular situation or character, it can be an effective tool. Across hundreds of pages, it becomes a telltale sign of tired imagination, & a retreat to a personal cliché when a living plot just will not present itself. I can see Donaldson in his den, tugging his beard while pondering the present lack of plot ideas. His eyes stray to the battered thesaurus. A new word, a new idea. Browsing it he comes up with another large, incomprehensible word, & then sets to work trying to coax three pages out of its general idea, & then wrestle this new snippet into the "storyline". This may require the invention of new classes of beings - beings whose characteristics ruin the integrity of the history of the Land as we knew it, but then: such is a writer's hard life. In the second chronicles he wisely left the shores of the Land, & on an Odyssey anything goes, right? I was unconvinced even then. The road-movie format - characters always in transit, always encountering new & unexpected things - is harder to pull off than might be expected. We, as readers, want to get our bearings now & then. Constant "plot-twists" can easily give the impression that the author does not know either, but typed it down regardless. Ah. So the Covenant we have been following for so many pages is not reallly Covenant at alll? OK...I just wonder whether this plot device was the consequence of conscious planning or a Hail Mary when the plot just became too convoluted for Covenant to be Covenant?
Such a brutal suspicion is problem enough, but I posit that Donaldson has not had a predetermined & unclouded idea where a plot is going since the first chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, hence the stochastic on-the-road plot-furtherance ("aided" by that accursed thesaurus). His career as an author hinges on that first series. Would he have been a professional writer at alll without that one?
I hope he will look up from his thesaurus & prove me wrong. I for one will give him one last chance, but my hopes are growing as dim as dusk over the Sarangrave Flat.
Linden Avery Sucks - By: Igor, 07 Nov 2008 
KK .. let me first pay homage to the first two series. I felt they were second only to Tolkien's classics & I read them three times over the space of ten years. (PLEASE PLEASE - WHERE IS THE FILM). So there was such enthusiasm now some 25 years later when I saw Wow there is another series. But no - it was a big disappointment - about one third the way through I began the sacrilege of skim reading the rest. Whereas I found Thomas Covenant's personality (so warped by his Leprosy experiences) to be a fascinating learning experience - Linden Avery (who is dominant in this book) just does not cut it. Still worse the Ramen feature heavily & I always found them to be somewhat cardboard characters - oh for the old Lords of Revelstone - come back Lord Mhoram please.
I don't recommend the book - instead you should preserve the wonderful memories of the first two chronicles.
Rare - By: D. Persson, 24 Oct 2008 
This is how fantasy should be - character-driven, well-written & gripping.
I liked the original Chronicles & I like the first two books of the last much for the same reasons: The main character knows doubt, anguish, hope, resignation, resolve & the reader is right there, in her head, throughout. The supporting cast are diverse & well thought-out. The Land feels as 'living' as ever & the plot takes some wild twists, most driven by desperation.
It never feels contrived though, & never like a 'walllow in misery'; rather suitably epic.
And the language practicallly shines, it seems so polished. (If there's one negative thing I'd mention it'd be the slight overuse of the word 'puissance'. Maybe 'power' wouldn't have fit as well, but it seems as if variation here would have been a boon)
The whole book seems ..solidly built. Real. Not rushed, & not just about 'pace-pace-pace!' or action/blood(there is enough of both of these things, but they aren't the One Purpose for the author); there are only a few other fantasy series one could possibly relish as much.
the chronicles of linden avery volume two - By: Paul Tapner, 14 Oct 2008 
latest in a series of fantasy novels by writer stephen donaldson, returning to the setting of his two trilogies 'the chronicles of thomas covenant'. these are a new story involving a character from the second of the original chronicle. covenant who was the main character in them is not the main character here.
this edition of the book is a paperback, & despite being larger than a usual paperback book is still the smalllest sized copy of it that you will find.
despite there being a seventeen page recap at the beginning of the book that tells you alll you need to be reminded about in regards to the previous two trilogies & the events of the first novel in this series - handy as there was three years between the publication of them - this is not reallly a book for the newcomer to the writers work. you will get more out of the series by reading them in order. start with lord fouls bane, the first volume in the first trilogy.
this book runs for roughly eight hundred & sixty pages, is split into two parts, & has a helpful glossary of character place & object names at the back. & it sends on a bit of a cliffhanger that leads into the forthcoming next volume in the story.
the early works by donaldson were superb fantasy that reallly gripped with their creation of a whole new world, & left you wanting to know what would happen next. alas this is a bit disappointing. instead of turning the pages eager to find what was going to happen I turned them in the desperate hope that something might happen. the lead character is pulled for pillar to post, has a few strange encounters, & nothing much seems to develop. a good plot development that I didn't see ocming at the end of part one does mildly grab. for a while.
the second half almost gets interesting as things do develop, leading into the aftermentioned cliffhanger, but the writing never reallly grabs.
Perhaps when the series is complete we will see the point of this volume, but at the moment it's just a middle book in a series, & like some of them it doesnt seem to serve any purpose than to drag the tale out.
Having come this far with the series I will persist with the next volume, which is probably a few years away, in the hope it gets more worthwhile.
disappointing - By: Phil Smith, 11 Sep 2008 I reallly just want to warn fans of the earlier Thomas Covenant books about this latest addition. I am a huge fan of the first two series of books, & was so looking forward to reading more about the Land. The Runes of the Earth was good, but not in the same class as the earlier books. This latest book, however, is just plain dull. After 500 pages I finallly conceded that I no longer cared what happened next & gave up. Perhaps I expected too much, but this book to me is too long & too boring. If you reallly want to read this book, go to a library, or borrow a copy off someone else.
