Is there anything left to say?

Book 4 of the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

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Nerdanel
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Post by Nerdanel »

To make things clear, I don't think we need sequels. I'm just disappointed that SRD didn't follow on his promise for a more conclusive ending. Based on his words I was thinking that he would blow up the setting for real and then the happy ending would be for those who escaped to another universe. That would have been a daring twist and would have made foreshadowing of Linden's escape from Covenant's burning house in the prologue. Covenant's house would work well as a metaphor for the Land, and it felt like the house being all rotten inside and then getting destroyed by Lord Foul's lightning should have been meaningful. And not in the sense that there's some damage that gets repaired offscreen, because that doesn't make for a sensible metaphor.

I'm really wondering how we got from such a great prologue to such a horrible epilogue.
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ussusimiel
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Post by ussusimiel »

Hi Nerdanel :wave:
Nerdanel wrote:I'm really wondering how we got from such a great prologue to such a horrible epilogue.
For those (like myself) who were very disappointed by the whole of the LCs, the thread: is probably the best attempt at an explanation that we came up with. As we saw it, the movement of the story to overt allegory strained the nature of SRD's usually excellent storytelling abilities to the detriment of the later books.

u.
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Linna Heartbooger
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Post by Linna Heartbooger »

Nerdanel! a KW oldbie from "back in the day"! :wave: Greetings!

(sorry for off-topic discussion.....)
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Rabs
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Post by Rabs »

I don't really want any more sequels. I would like a book or trilogy about Giants, though. Love the Giants.
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Hashi Lebwohl
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Post by Hashi Lebwohl »

There is a lot that could be done there. The Giants have such a rich history that telling some of their stories would be a wonderful read.
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Savor Dam
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Post by Savor Dam »

If you fancy fan fiction about SRD's Giants, you might want to read Guilt or The Long Journey of the Lost, both by the Watcher known as Frostheart Grueburn.
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slickthomas
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Post by slickthomas »

The only really hanging thread that bugs me is the whole unexplained Creator situation. I wish we could get an explanation from SRD but I know his not going outside of the text policy so it is probably hopeless.
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Post by wayfriend »

What's the Creator situation that you find unexplained? (Not that there aren't any.)
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Mighara Sovmadhi
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Post by Mighara Sovmadhi »

I'm going to be charitable to SRD here and accept that the story of the Despiser, Covenant, and the Land is over. Given the Despiser's nature, this means there will be no ultimate evil over the Land and its Earth, as long as the restored Arch endures.

However, due to the quasi-subjective/idealistic/mystic substance of the Land's world, it's possible other people could have worlds to which they could go from the "real" one.

One thing that's never very well explained is the "they're like words" description of Jeremiah's doors/constructs. But this hints at an enormous dimension of power in the direction of a greater multiplicity of realms. I know the Platonic account of the Land makes the Land into a higher plane of existence as much as or more than it makes it into a parallel existence, but anyway let's just go with the idea that there could be some other domain created as was the Land's.

I like the Insequent a lot so I figure a Jeremiah-door would lead one of them from the Land's world to the other place. If it had any bearing on the previous characters as such, maybe we'd find the world inside Roger, in order for there to be another Despiser figure. Then we could get a deeper resolution to Roger... But would there be much point to such a thing? Would it be difficult for us to figure out? With the Arch already having been broken, it seems like it'd be hard for there to be a build-up to a scene of greater cataclysm. Unless there were a reprise of the "deeper purpose" but then again that's supposed to only be possible when all things are mutable as a result of the Worm's influence.

OTOH if the story were about a being from the Land being summoned to the real world, to deal with our world from the perspective of the Land, that might be something worth investigating... Although to some degree the entire problem of the Despiser is just that, he is trying to set himself free from his status as an archetype and become a motive of people in the real world (like the Community of Retribution).
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