The Runes of the Earth

The Runes of the Earth is Stephen Donaldson’s continuation of the Thomas Covenant saga, a six-book series completed in the early 80s. After twenty years, he has returned to the series. Over three thousand years have passed in the Land, and ten have passed on Earth for Linden Avery, who will now continue Thomas’s quest to protect the Land.

With so much time between the books readers are apt to forget details, but Stephen Donaldson does a good job of refresh the reader’s memory through the narrative. Stories are recounted within the context of the current situation, and they serve to remind the reader of important details. There is also a glossary at the end that I found quite useful after well more than 20 years of having read the previous books.

The Land is under threat from Lord Foul again, and the efforts of its inhabitants are inadequate to do anything. Linden, bearing Thomas’s white gold, returns to the land and must understand the threat and address it. It is further complicated since her son, Jeremiah, was kidnapped on Earth, and born to the Land. For the first half of the book, Linden seems to wander and just allow things to happen to her; she is indecisive and seems confused. Her doubts and inabilities reminded me very much of Thomas Covenant.

Jeremiah was taken by Roger Covenant, Thomas’s brother, to the Land. Roger, is somehow serving Lord Foul across the worlds and wants the white gold, he makes a play for it on Earth, then takes Jeremiah and the conflict to the Land.

Once in the Land, Linden realizes that she is willing to sacrifice the Land for the safety and rescue of her son, this knowledge complicates her abilities in the land as they foster distrust among its citizens. So, like many of Stephen Donaldson’s characters, she is deeply conflicted and full of doubts.

Her companions include Stave, a Haruchai, Liand, a local stonedowner, Anele, a man from the past, and a few Ramen. These characters are interesting and complex in a way that Stephen is fond of, and each have their own coflicts. His world is rich, it feels very normal, and still has unusual properties such as the healthsense that make it special.

The book ends as a cliff-hanger. I was disappointed in this. I’ve always felt that it is too often used as a device to push the next book, and Stephen doesn’t need any contrivances. I will read the next book in the series because I enjoy his writing and the world he is sharing. I suspect this comes from the publisher not from the author. With the length of his books, I have really appreciate a break between the volumes without feeling I’m compelled into the next book, his abilities will draw me there, anyway. However, he managed a cliff-hanger that does him credit with unexpected, yet very rational results in the context of the story.

My last point: read the books in order! They strongly build on each other. If this review didn’t make much sense, you haven’t read the previous books.

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http://books.randolphking.com/?p=754 ( )

One day I'm going to kick this nasty Thomas Covenant habit. Sadly I'm a completionist. I blame the video games. ( )

Gave up on this. Far too boring. What a shame, after the first two series of books were superb. ( )

The Land from Linden's Point of View.

Although White Gold Wielder had pretty much conclusively ended Thomas' involvement with the Land, and seemed like a good stopping point for the tale, marketing and money exert massive pressures and so SD has succombed to the lure of extending a finished series - hopefully he really means 'last' this time. However as the master talent that he is, even this offering is way better than the average fantasy out there.

10 years further on - ie about 3000 Land years, Lord Foul has managed to recover from the final defeat that Thomas inflicted on him - although this shouldn't have been possible. And is once again trying to pull someone from the Real world across so they can break the Arch of Time for him, and free him to ravage the universe. The someone he chooses is the ever weak and accessible Joan Covenant. This time however she is being cared fro by Linden who is also caring for Jerimiah - the youngest of those harmed in Foul's previous attempt at gaining the White Gold. When Roger Covenant starts showing an interest (never previous expressed) in his mother and father's history, Linden realises something is about to happen. Again.

In the land, once again everything has changed - this allows SD to play with the fundamental concepts again. Sunbane has gone forever, but the brightness of the earthpower is smothered under a yellow smog - Kevin's Dirt. The Villagers are totally ignorant of earthpower kept so byt he Haurauchi - now called Masters! Becasue in their eyes earthpower was responsible for their loss of honour. One of Linden's first tasks will be to persued the Masters that she - a potent wielder of earthpower is not a threat to them. In this cause she teams up with a innocent villager Liand, and a madman (also earthpowerful) Aneale. Together they meet the Raman, quest (again) for the lost Staff of Law.

It is pure typical Donaldson all the way through 700 pages of dense descriptive and immaginative prose. If you don't like any of his other works you won't like this, but to fans of Thomas Covenant and the Land it is another wonderful installment. New beings are described and old threads followed up upon. I personalyl hate Time Travel as a plot device, but so far it's seems to handled in a sensible manner, both in it's causes and it's possabilities. Of course trhe langauge is difficult. I'm sufficiently well read that Donaldson seldom uses a word I don't know or can't interpret from context, but I would say in tRotE he does so more than in any of his previous works - and not just the brillianc eof the colours smells and sounds of Earthpower, but the very cruicial integrety of beings thoughts and emotions.

The other downside - he finishes on a massive cliffhanger. Very disappointing for it is not his usual style which normally encompasses endings superbly.

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I enjoyed this book for the second time. I'd read it a while ago. When Fatal Revenant came out, I decided I'd better revisit Runes before heading on to Fatal Revenant. I think I enjoyed Runes because after reading six books that capitalized on the acerbic, hopeless Thomas Covenant, I was ready to focus on Linden Avery. She is a far more likable character. Although I also like Thomas Covenant, he was beginning to wear on me.I'm glad that Donaldson highlighted and expanded upon Linden Avery's character! I also enjoyed the character of Esmer. His conflict is quite interesting and I found his background really surprising. Finally, I can't wait to get my hands on Fatal Revenant!! This is one of my all-time favorite book series. ( )