The Demondim are made beings. Because they are made beings, they have a certain weakness: if they can be put together, they can be taken apart. The Harrow, by luck or by skill, has found their Achilles heel. He, and no other, has found the secret of unbinding them. Their structure has a keystone, i...

I agree Ussusimiel! The Insequent feel like characters belonging to another book series and fantasy world setting that somehow got dropped into the story. But they do have an interesting potential. I think a good story could be told about them, under other circumstances.

I mean, just the way he undid the Demondim, which we are told are absolute masters of magic and full of power, a threat that not even the Old Lords could deal with before they sent Kevin into despair, threatens my belief in the internal logic of even the earlier books. But why? That's the entire po...

I also recall something mentioned about how the Insequents magics were related to the wild magic. But so far we havent got a real explanation as to exactly how. Wild magic seem to be more of an instinctive ability to use power. It is not studied and learned, at least not this far into the story. Cae...

On the wherabouts of the land of the Insequent: ´After a trek of many days,´ he said ´we at last left behind our high peaks and biting snows, and found a fertile lowland lush with crops and waters, a region in which we deemed that even a slothful and unstriving people would flourish. Fow a time we e...

Atrium, are you sure SheWho is as powerful as Lord Foul? I dn't remember reading that. I was positive i had read that, either in the gradual interwiew or in AATE. Now you made me a little insecure. Anyone else remember? It seems reasonable enough though. Assuming that the Clave is right on this she...

Yes Ananda, they have their own homeland somewhere. But now they interact heavily with the Land. And apparently also played a part in Bereks ascension, retconned. But in between Berek and now they seem to have been content to watch the whole place blow to bits from afar.

The Insequent are interesting, i can understand why people take a liking to them. In contrast to many (most) other secondary characters in the LC Donaldson actually gives them strong and credible personalities. They have cool powers and are the only good guys (the elohim i dont count as good guys at...

Depends on the definition of "save". In the sense of letting me get past some of my major hangups with the story itself, things i found hard to swallow like time travel, SWMNBN, Insequent, the total lack of dynamic history in the land in 3000 years, these i think a very strong climax that ...

I guess i can - reluctantly - agree with the sentiment that "any TC is better than no TC at all". My fear is that there will be too much retconning that risks to falsify and spoil my image of the earlier series. The time travel theme could easily have done this. Hopefully we are finished w...

Brilliant work! Did u send one to the author himself ?

Im keeping up my re-reading too. Just finished TWL. Im struck by how much i like Linden in this book. She feels totally credible, a real, complex person thrown into a fantasy world would probably react just like she does in this book. Or as Covenant in the first books. Whatever gripes people have wi...

I went back and read selected parts of WGW for a comparison. Its interesting to see how the prose has changed. In WGW its pretty sharp. Trimmed, i would say. Even though Donaldson does some trademark linguistical acrobatics and plays with rare words, it doesnt get in the way of the reading experienc...

Murrin: But didnt the Mahdoubt extract of him a promise to let Linden decide for herself? Iolanthe: He could, and that made him dangerous to them, sure. But he still had that knowledge in AATE, and they left him in peace. Their strategic choice in that particular battle, of fighting three powerful i...

The Ardent failed what he agreed to do (to be honest I don't understand what he failed. I didn't think he agreed to keep the Harrow alive) and so was "lost". I just reread that part of the book and im glad someone else share my incomprehension. So the Ardent falls into madness because he ...

This thread actually caused me to re-read, as i noticed i had forgotten so much about the plot. Re-reading is more pleasant. But the book strikes me as chatty. Much repetition and a lot of unnecesary text. I dont really see a strong editor at work here. Where there no one there to tell the author to...

ussusimiel: I agree completely. The new characters feel sketchy. Roger is supposed to be the main antagonist here? I still, after three books, havent got an emotionally satisfactory explanation as to why he hates his father so bitterly. In my mind the best part of the last chronicles were the hike b...

I lost hope after forcing myself through AAE. Up until then i was on the fence. Really, what was all that about? Dungeon crawl, pointless. The worst trip to Mount Thunder yet. The Bane, totally uninteresting and out of place. The desecration of Elenas soul, hard to believe. The killing off of severa...

If you listen to Amok in TIW the Firelions could be sent as far as Fouls Creche by the Power of Command, so theyre not necessarily tied to the mountain top. Where did they manifest themselves to Berek? Ive always liked the Firelions, another part of the mystery and wonder of the Land. Alas, that mys...

I read an interesting essay about writing by Stephen King the other day that made me think of AATE and its problems. Unfortunately the esay is in swedish so i cant directly quote, but he writes that his take on writing has always been that action always has to have precedence over character descript...