The awesomeness of this book almost makes up for the tortuousness of the first book, and part of the 2nd book. Donaldson is an expert at writing about suffering. Every character in these books suffers from start to almost finish. A couple get lucky and make it to the end still alive, heavily scarred. I've seen this kind of plot structure in story arcs in comic books. Just completely beat the hell out of the heroes, make it seem like there's absolutely no way the good guys can win, and then they do. Except that Donaldson makes it so painful, that in the end you don't know if they really did win, considering how broken and damaged they are now. And unlike comic books, these heroes don't come back.

I guess, it's kind of original in fantasy novels, so I appreciate that, just not sure I want to read more of it. I hated Covenant almost the entire time. When one of his companions was someone who he had wronged and they loved him, I was delighted by thinking that he would suffer for it. Then I realized that he loves suffering and was always looking for a reason to be even more negative, so that ruined it for me.

BUT this still got 4 stars. What I loved, corrupted giants, friendly giants, ancient artifacts of power, huge sieges of ancient strongholds, lots and lots of magic, the deep history of the land, and of course, finally some good news for the good guys. About that good news, a couple people have talked about the "victory chapter". I loved it, but it seems like the key to it was "the oath of peace", which always seemed kind of lame to me. Like, "our whole world is being destroyed and everyone is being killed, but we better be nice and make sure we don't hurt the bad guys too much, unless we absolutely have to." Again, it almost became like a superhero trope, "we don't kill villains". ( )

Mixed feelings abound about this last in the initial trilogy for Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever - some think this was the best of the first three books, others the worst. I suppose I'm somewhere in the middle. I still found it a good book, but feel as though Donaldson's narrative wanes throughout the book, until the last hundred pages or so. It must be hard to sustain a narrative over so many pages and continue to bring something new to the story, and I felt the strain of it through the middle. Nonetheless, I still think that Donaldson's world-building and creativity are above the field, as so many of these adventure McGuffins are so much Tolkein detritus. I won't get into the story, as so many of you already know that Covenant doesn't believe but does, as he accidentally succeeds in saving a world he can't place in either his mind or in another dimension of reality.

Recommended!!!!
4 bones!!!! ( )

The best book of the trilogy, for sure. I liked this series OK, but it certainly does feel dated. Covenant is an interesting character, though. I am still planning to read the next trilogy, and I'm curious about whether Donaldson's writing style changes over the years. ( )

Forced myself to finish all three as they were insanely popular at the time (late 1970s) but seriously disliked everything about them and unloaded them at a used bookstore soon after. ( )

The best book of the trilogy, for sure. I liked this series OK, but it certainly does feel dated. Covenant is an interesting character, though. I am still planning to read the next trilogy, and I'm curious about whether Donaldson's writing style changes over the years. ( )