Roynish, you should seriously check out the Dissecting The Land section for further in-depth discussion of The Wounded Land (and the other books, of course). Rest assured that there are more than just "a few other devotees" of TWL.
Personally, The Illearth War and The One Tree rank as my favorites; however, I would agree that in a lot of ways, TWL is the best of the Chronicles books (thus far).
- TWL has, I think, the most compelling, best-written opening scene of all the books -- aside from the opening of Lord Foul's Bane. Both opening scenes just dazzle me with the virtuosity of the writing. Covenant walking into town to pay his phone bill. Linden moving into her new apartment. Simple scenes that SRD enriches with so much drama and pathos. Well, I can tell you that I accepted Linden Avery as the protagonist right away; it didn't trouble me that TC himself did not "open" the Second Chronicles. As far as I was concerned, Linden was every bit as compelling a character as Covenant was.
- When I first read the blurb "4000 years had passed in the Land..." for The Wounded Land, I think that was a jaw-dropping moment for me. The long passage of time was one of the coolest things about reading TWL: things were so familiar, yet so alien as well.
- The Sunbane, of course, was an awesome, ingenious creation. Dragonlily in one of her chapter dissections said that "the Sunbane is one of the most intelligent, thoroughly-realized magical systems I have ever read."
- In TWL, Donaldson (via Covenant) also gives us one of the best lines ever: "There’s only one way to hurt a man who’s lost everything. Give him back something broken." If I may quote Dragonlily again:
Well, there's a lot more that can be (and needs to be) said about such a great novel as The Wounded Land, and I could ramble all day about it...but I have to go right now, so discuss away while I'm away!This is the kind of insight that makes me wonder what Donaldson had to suffer to know so much. Then I remember he was raised surrounded by people who had suffered so much, and by their doctor who probably suffered along with them. Did he know someone wise enough to tell him this, when he was a child? None of my business to ask, I know, but the question demands out. Where did he learn such knowledge of humanity? Was it taught, or realized?