The Runes of the Earth (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Book 1)

Rating:
Summary: The Covenant series continues
Review: As good as I had hoped for (with one small caveat, mentioned below)

Anyone who enjoyed the previous books in the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant should relish the opportunity to refresh old memories with this latest Donaldson work. The book begins with a short synopsis of what has taken place previously. This story line and structure remain much the same as the preceding series; with the slow build up, constant self-doubts and self-incriminations by (in this case) the heroine of the novel, and finally resolve and determination directed towards the conflict at hand.

In short, I loved the novel; it got better and better as it went along and it came to the point where I found it hard to put down.

And yet... and yet, (and I just have to mention this) the work has, what I feel to be a flaw: a flaw of commission, if you would... let me explain.

Have you ever had a picture that you thought was beautiful; then one day you notice some colors or patterns that represent, to you, a previously unseen object. i.e. A "bear in the picture" and now you can't look at that picture without seeing the "bear". Well that is what happened to me in this book. The "flaw" in this case is the word "percipience"; I noticed it many times in the first half of the book and then I started to count the number of times it appeared from page 250 until the end. A total of 23 times. Roget's thesaurus list 36 different alternatives for the word "percipience". I just find it hard to believe the author, proof readers or editors didn't pick up on this rather amateurish mistake. But then maybe it was deliberate. Who knows! In any event, it became hard not to cringe when I came upon one of the repetitious uses of this word. (Sorry, I just had to get that off my mind.)

Notwithstanding, aside from my little "rant" above, it was a great read; a fine continuation of the Thomas Covenant Chronicles and I can hardly wait for the next installment. Highly recommended for Covenant fans. 4 and 1/2 stars





Rating:
Summary: Of course I had to read this new book
Review: Having read the other Covenant books and loved them, I, of course had to get The Runes of the Earth. Maybe Donaldson waited so long to continue the story because he feared living up to the old series. Unfortunately, this book is not nearly as great as the old series. I know that inevitably readers will compare the books and not look at Runes in its own right, but that is just how it is. It has been a while since I read the old series, probably more than awhile (24 years ago is when I read Lord Fouls' Bane)but this book seems like it has a whole lot of talk and not nearly enough action. Anyway, it is good enough to keep me reading and I will get the next books in the series too, because the Land is just too good to read about even if it does not live up to the old series.

Rating:
Summary: Over-written, Under-thought
Review: I liked the first 2 trilogies very much. Sure, the whining of TC got irritating at times, but the story was great, and the land was wonderful.

Well, the whining is back, but the story is missing. Very little happens until the very last quarter of the book, and the cliff-hanger at the end feels like nothing more than a sales gimmick for the next volume.

Especially irksome to me was the completely illogical and pointless time-travel thing.

I will not give up on the series yet, but it seems to be heading the same direction as Jordan's series, and that is sad.

Rating:
Summary: Oh man!
Review: It pains me to say this, but this book just doesn't measure up to the earlier two series (which, except for the very inferior THE ONE TREE, are among my favorite books of all time). It might be that Mr. Stephenson has gone to the well once too often. So much of the first books seemed to wonderfully daring and inventive. But everything clever in this latest book is something taken from an earlier book. Yes, it's great to see these characters again, like visiting with old friends. But without the power of the earlier novels, this latest one would be almost a complete bust. (Mr. Donaldson, if you're reading this, I'm sorry! For the record, you changed my life before.)

Rating:
Summary: A pleasant but unecessary sequel (some spoilers)
Review: Just about everyone who has posted a review here has stated what a HUGE fan they are of SRD and the First and Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever...and I count myself among their ranks.

However, I know I'm not the only one who feels that this latest rehash somewhat diminishes the previous books in that it is clearly first a foremost a commercial venture. Don't get me wrong, I don't blame SRD for cashing in on a valuable franchise...but it shows.

Imagine Tolkien writing a sequal to Lord of the Rings (and I do believe that the first three books by SRD are on par with Tolkien's work) where we get to meet the great great great grandson of Frodo who is called upon to destroy a new and poweful talisman created by Sauron, who incidently has returned to Mordor to set up shop AGAIN. In the meantime, we get to see the decendants of Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas duke it out on the battlefields again...I know I'm not the only one who cringes at the thought of such a book being written, but that's exactly what SRD has done with the Runes of the Earth.

The second trilogy was weaker than the first, but a least the second trilogy broke new ground. We were introduced to a new protagonist - Linden Avery, a new menace - The Sunbane, and were taken away from the Land for a fair amount of time.

What SRD has done in this book is to essentially try to blend the first six books in to a new alloy (white gold may be a poweful alloy, but this book sure isn't). By combining the beauty of the Land with the Sunbane we get "Kevin's Dirt". By combining the Council of Lords with the Clave we get "The Masters". And make no mistake, in the next three books, by combining the protagonists Thomas Covenent and Linden Avery we're going to get "Jerimiah" (you heard it here first!).

Nevertheless, I loved the previous books (as a teenager) and reading about the Land again has been quite enjoyable, as was seeing the old cast of characters. However, the plot is stretched VERY VERY thin. How many times does Lord Foul have to return to the land to destroy the Arch of Time...a new theme would be MOST welcome (as an aside, as an adult I find the name "Lord Foul" inanely childish). And the plot device by which the power of the Illerth Stone returns to the land makes me want to scream! Is SRD so bereft of ideas that he had to reach back to the second book to find an enemy!?

In the end I will purchase and read all of the subsequent books. Nevertheless it's clear to me that this well has essentially run dry...



Rating:
Summary: glad I read it - Really a 3.5 stars
Review: Rating System:
1 star = abysmal; some books deserve to be forgotten
2 star = poor; a total waste of time
3 star = good; worth the effort
4 star = very good; what writing should be
5 star = fantastic; must own it and share it with others

STORY: Linden Avery, is thrust back into The Land in an effort to rescue her son and help once again save the Land from destruction

MY FEEDBACK:
1. I liked how the book has a nice summary of the previous six books. Though his stories are deep and involved to the point where a summary cannot do them justice, it was still nice to get some reminders of "what has come before" (as the chapter is so titled)

2. Linden as the main protagonist is believable and as expected with Donaldson's characters, not always likeable though we feel for her at the same time.

3. The rest of the cast is complex and interesting as usual. What shines is how he depicts how the Land has changed and how the races who live there have changed over the hundreds of years that have passed since Linden was last in the Land.

4. What I felt dragged the story terribly is that every second we have to jump into Linden's thoughts instead of move the story along. Especially in the first 100 pages I just kept screaming because after the umpteenth time I already get it that she is deeply and emotionally involved with Thomas Covenant and those feelings drive the rest of her. The constant stoppage to the story to pause for Linden's thoughts did not end even to last several pages. Darn!

5. For me the story didn't take off till page 325. We finally get the bigger picture of what tasks/quests lie ahead for her and her companions and they start to do something about it. Thus, you need to stick with the book past this to let the story finally move along at a more regular pace.

OVERALL: Donaldson is a gifted writed and his imagery is fantastic. If he would have pulled back and not spent so much of the book sharing every single thought of Linden's I would have rated it higher. Nice intro to what is to come as far at the series plot, but I just hope he picks up the pace in the upcoming books.


Rating:
Summary: Weak Characters
Review: This book is a terrible disappointment. I could hardly get through it.

The main problem is one of characterization. Linden Avery is simply not interesting enough to carry a novel on her own, and the supporting characters who pop up here and there are mostly retreads from the first two Covenant trilogies. With Covenant, Donaldson made you care. The author has failed to do that here. I found myself indifferent to the fate of everyone involved in this story, a fact which would have sunk a book with a much stronger plot than this one possesses. The first part of the book, which takes place in this world, is the best segment of the novel; once we get to the Land, it becomes a confusion of ur-viles, Ramen, and a ridiculous character whose actions are completely determined by his heredity: i.e., if his mother really hated a particular race, he's obliged to beat up anyone of that race if he's around them for more than about five minutes. Silly.

Donaldson could, and should, have done better by his fans and by Covenant.

Rating:
Summary: It's Linden people! The most sympathetic character ever.
Review: This was well worth the wait - a little slow? Sure, but both trilogies also were slow off the mark. But this is Linden Avery, Donaldson's most sympathetic and of course empathetic female creation. And she doesn't disappoint again - holding true to herself and holding herself true in the heart of every fan. And naturally we have THE WRITING. "Exigency" makes a happy return to us - along with many other Donaldson favorites. I cannot wait until the book appears where Linden will enter Andelain. Her meeting with her own dead is sure to be one of the highlights of this new series. The only reason I don't give ths 5-stars is because it's not perfect literature - it is pretty high grade fantasy though - with the return of one of the most real characters written in the genre. Go Linden!

Rating:
Summary: For Donaldson Die-Hards Only
Review: Unlike many readers (as gauged by the reviews posted here on Amazon), I have not read the prior Thomas Covenant series of books . Instead, as I had done with Robin Hobb's excellent "Fool's Errand", I had hoped to read the first book from the new series and then, while awaiting book 2, read the first (2) series.

Unfortunately, for me, that will not occur. Nor will a sojourn into book two (through a purported four) of this series.

I found the primary protagonist (Lianden) unempathetic (perhaps even pathetic) and, worse, the author's general writing ponderous and... lacking.

I, admittedly, can't attest to how this book stacks up to its predecessors. I can only state that compared to its contemporaries that I have read (Steven Erikson, Robin Hobb, George RR Martin, Robert Jordan, to name a few), I found that it didn't stack up well at all.

Rating:
Summary: the runes of the earth
Review: when will the next book be out. donaldson is again on the mark when it comes to thomas covenant I have all his covenant books all hard back all first edition if I could I would give ten stars