Favorite Chronicles books in order

[amanibhavam]

I tend to regard the two Chronicles as two books - just as the Lord of the Rings is really one entity divided into six books, not a "trilogy" - especially as I have an omnibus edition of the Second Chrons that can be conveniently read from beginning to end:)

Oh, and I cannot choose. The Runes still feels a bit alien and weird, so the jury is still out on that, but I have no doubt it will fall into its place in the big picture.

[largo]

I find it difficult to compare individual books across chronicles. I can compare one of the chronicles to the other, or (say) The Illearth War to The Power that Preserves, but not The Illearth War to the One Tree. So here goes:

Chronicles

1. The Second Chronicles
2. The First Chronicles

Individual Titles

The Second Chronlices

1. The One Tree
2. The Wounded Land
3. White Gold Weilder

The First Chronicles

1. The Illearth War
2. The Power that Preserves
3. Lord Foul's Bane

[The Dreaming]

1) The Wounded Land (How do you hurt a man who has lost everything, give him back something broken)

I swear, if only every fantasy writer had the pure cahones Donaldson has. To so completely reverse the elements of the first trilogy and recast them as he did shows more courage (and financial masochism) than any other writer living. It would be like Rowling writing a second Harry Potter series depicting a squib child of Harry growing up in America.

He could easily have just sat back and kept writing book after book of the exact same thing (a la Jordan) and made a fortune. Instead we got The Wounded Land, and Mordant's Need, and The Gap.

It's also a rare sight to see a writer who so gleefully trades accessibility for raw narrative power. (I can't tell you how many people I have tried to introduce to Covenant who just can't get through LFB.)

I am also forced to say that Fatal Revenant does it again. The fact that the Eighth book in a series can surprise me so completely so consistently, and bring me so much glee, is simply remarkable.

If Donaldson had just a little less courage he could easily have the stature of King.

[Avatar]

1) The Wounded Land (How do you hurt a man who has lost everything, give him back something broken)

Could not agree more. The implications of that line resonate throughout the whole book.

The only other comparable moment to TWL for me was in Runes,

Spoiler

when Kevins Watch was destroyed basically immediately. It didn't mean much to Linden, but it was a real kick in the guts for me.

--A

[emotional leper]

1) The Wounded Land (How do you hurt a man who has lost everything, give him back something broken)

Could not agree more. The implications of that line resonate throughout the whole book.

The only other comparable moment to TWL for me was in Runes,

Spoiler

when Kevins Watch was destroyed basically immediately. It didn't mean much to Linden, but it was a real kick in the guts for me.

--A

Second that.

Also, in response to the Dreamlord's post: Everyone I have tried to get into TCTC other than my Friend Josh never got further than chapter 7.

[Tjol]

1. The Illearth War. The tragedy of warfare fully embodied. You can only get a better sense of it from reading actual history or The Iliad. Elena's undisciplined power and the falling through of the best intentions.

2. The Wounded Land. The corruption of not simply the physical world as in the first chronicles, but the metaphysical world now as well. From the first cottage he TC comes upon through the bleeding of the Haruchai. Seareach healed.

3. The Power that Preserves. Everyone sacrafices and suffers for the unwilling hero until the guilt finally forces heroism. Mhoram discovering the secret of the desecration and how to control it, fight to preserve more than to destroy. Foamfollower cleansed in the lava.

4. The White Gold Weilder. Final battles, eventually against death itself and only then after every possible sacrafice is it possible to halt Lord Foul's ambitions.

5. Runes of the Earth. Mostly a prequel, but to what looks to be an interesting tale, about the damage of deliberate ignorance, about restoring forgotten traditions? It'll be a few years until I'll know where this tale leads.

6. The One Tree. Everyone's fighting their internal battles on individual scale that if any one of them fails as an individual, they will cause the downfall of all the others.

7. Lord Foul's Bane. An introduction to the land. An immediate violation of the land... and then finding a way to do what has to be done.

[Farsailer]

Pretty hard, but I'll take a shot.

1. The Wounded Land - the picture of the devastated Land
2. The Power That Preserves - the sacrifices made
3. The Illearth War - the war and the bargain at the end
4. Runes of the Earth - the altered Land
5. White Gold Wielder - apotheosis
6. Lord Foul's Bane the table setter
7. The One Tree - Seadreamer, Nom and the fall of the Haruchai

[iQuestor]

It's also a rare sight to see a writer who so gleefully trades accessibility for raw narrative power. (I can't tell you how many people I have tried to introduce to Covenant who just can't get through LFB.)

god. me too. And I have tried. There was this waitress at the dinner we had for Donaldson at ElohimFest '07 and I talked it up to her for something like two full hours, and then... Oh. Wait. That turned out to be something completely different. Nevermind.

[dlbpharmd]

It's also a rare sight to see a writer who so gleefully trades accessibility for raw narrative power. (I can't tell you how many people I have tried to introduce to Covenant who just can't get through LFB.)

god. me too. And I have tried. There was this waitress at the dinner we had for Donaldson at ElohimFest '07 and I talked it up to her for something like two full hours, and then... Oh. Wait. That turned out to be something completely different. Nevermind.

I was there. It was painful to watch.

[The Dreaming]

It's also a rare sight to see a writer who so gleefully trades accessibility for raw narrative power. (I can't tell you how many people I have tried to introduce to Covenant who just can't get through LFB.)

god. me too. And I have tried. There was this waitress at the dinner we had for Donaldson at ElohimFest '07 and I talked it up to her for something like two full hours, and then... Oh. Wait. That turned out to be something completely different. Nevermind.

I was there. It was painful to watch.

Now I'm curious

[iQuestor]

Ah, just an inside joke. Danlo and crew held an Elohimfest in Albuquerque in June to celebrate 30 Yrs of Lord Foul's Bane. SRD himself showed up and we gave him a plaque, he spoke and we got to ask him questions. We taped the whole thing, and I think its gonna end up on SRD's website. Look in the Album, you can see some pix of the event.
kevinswatch.ihugny.com/phpBB2/album_pag ... ic_id=1291

Anyway, a young waitress Dlb and I were talking to (left in the pic) was curious about the event and why we were making such a fuss over SRD, and we ended up telling her all about the Chrons and tried to get her interested enough to read them on her own. Later I took some joshing about how using the Chrons as a way to talk to young pretty waitresses was lame.

[dlbpharmd]

Ah, just an inside joke. Danlo and crew held an Elohimfest in Albuquerque in June to celebrate 30 Yrs of Lord Foul's Bane. SRD himself showed up and we gave him a plaque, he spoke and we got to ask him questions. We taped the whole thing, and I think its gonna end up on SRD's website. Look in the Album, you can see some pix of the event.
kevinswatch.ihugny.com/phpBB2/album_pag ... ic_id=1291

Anyway, a young waitress Dlb and I were talking to (left in the pic) was curious about the event and why we were making such a fuss over SRD, and we ended up telling her all about the Chrons and tried to get her interested enough to read them on her own. Later I took some joshing about how using the Chrons as a way to talk to young pretty waitresses was lame.

This concludes this week's episode of "Great moments at Elohimfest!" Tune in next week, when you'll hear Romeo say:

"I'm going to meet a friend for lunch."

[iQuestor]

Ah, just an inside joke. Danlo and crew held an Elohimfest in Albuquerque in June to celebrate 30 Yrs of Lord Foul's Bane. SRD himself showed up and we gave him a plaque, he spoke and we got to ask him questions. We taped the whole thing, and I think its gonna end up on SRD's website. Look in the Album, you can see some pix of the event.
kevinswatch.ihugny.com/phpBB2/album_pag ... ic_id=1291

Anyway, a young waitress Dlb and I were talking to (left in the pic) was curious about the event and why we were making such a fuss over SRD, and we ended up telling her all about the Chrons and tried to get her interested enough to read them on her own. Later I took some joshing about how using the Chrons as a way to talk to young pretty waitresses was lame.

This concludes this week's episode of "Great moments at Elohimfest!" Tune in next week, when you'll hear Romeo say:

"I'm going to meet a friend for lunch."

nice.

1 week!!!!

[SoulBiter]

It's also a rare sight to see a writer who so gleefully trades accessibility for raw narrative power. (I can't tell you how many people I have tried to introduce to Covenant who just can't get through LFB.)

Ive been trying to get my daughter into these books. She loves to read and devours books like mad. The think is I know if she can get through the first chrons she will blow through the rest quickly because the Second Chronicals are so much more fast paced.

However.... she couldnt get through LFB....She made it all the way to Revelstone and then stopped reading.

However... I think I have the answer.. although Im sure I will be lynched for this.. Im having her read The Illearth war before finishing LFB. I think after she reads TIW she will go back and want to re-read LFB. I will let you know how this experiment turns out. As I recall.. back in HS (was that 30 years ago???) I did much the same thing.. I picked through LFB without really reading it....then blew through TIW and PTP.. and went back and re-read LFB.

[Linna Heartbooger]

Okay.. for those of you who are "trying to get other people to read the books"... let me just tell you a little about my path to reading the books: I have TWO different friends who very strongly assert that what's in the books ...sorta "explains who they are." My husband and another good friend had read the books and talked about what's in there. These last two would always say of me, "I'm not sure if she should read these..." because they know how quickly I tend to empathize with people's wounds, and they figured it probably would just crush me and I wouldn't get enough use out of the books to justify my reading them.

Basically, my hubbie and the one friend kinda thought I should be sheltered from the books - and there MAY BE some people who aren't ready for them yet. I don't think I would have been ready for them until recently - it is possible that the net effect would have been negative until I had known certain people, lived out certain things. Because Donaldson does kinda pose his reader with a set of moral tests as well... and how we respond also has to do with where we've been.

When I finally read LFB, I understood very little of what the heck the point was. After I read "The Illearth War," I was almost like "screw it, I'm not reading these anymore. I hate this!" and had a thousand arguments in my head with the characters and esp. the author. It was horrible! Conversation w/ my husband and a little of my introspection helped me to not reject things out of hand. Slowly, I began to understand a few things. But reading book 3 was what really did it. I have a really hard time seeing people suffer acutely when I don't yet see the long-term gain. Yes, I am kinda a wuss. ;-P

But this is just to give you an idea of how much it might take to get someone who's as "unwilling of a student" as I was to read them - and get use out of them. Multiple years, and about 4 different friends close to me who valued the books. And thank goodness there were people close to help me process them once i did read them.


I've only read the first 4, and I kinda rate them in this order:

1. The Power that Preserves. ("mercy, mercy..." as the theme. From Mhoram returning Covenant to spare one life in his world, to seeing who Triock became through all this... that theme of mercy, that seeks others' good, WITHOUT BEING SHOWY about itself and wanting to make sure that "other person" knows what you're doing for him. I wept sorely and joyfully over the Unfettered healer who knew she was probably going to her death or worse. And seeing our beloved Mhoram's life of wearying visions finally come to fruition. And those poor, blessed jherherrin who only dream of the life that we take for granted brought a deep beauty.)

2. The Wounded Land. (Seeing things start out so horrifically shattered - and then slowly seeing that there were resources to fight against this impossible ill. Seeing things that Foul, the Ravers, etc.... just did not account for. How something like the truth about aliantha - one wicked lie - could change the lives of people who were misguided into the Creche's whole set of lies.)

3. Lord Foul's Bane. (I need to re-read it. At the time, I read it obsessively. The sacrifice of these beautiful people. Especially Lena, and especially Atiaran, and also the Lords and the Unfettered.)

4. The Illearth War (just never could forgive Elena. *sigh* That opened me up to seeing some real evil in myself that horrifies me, and I just haven't fully dealt with yet. And in that book.. it just seemed like things started out kinda bad and just kept getting worse and worse.)

[Fist and Faith]

Nice post, Lina. Welcome to the Watch!

[matrixman]

Incredible post, Lina! Welcome indeed!

But this is just to give you an idea of how much it might take to get someone who's as "unwilling of a student" as I was to read them - and get use out of them. Multiple years, and about 4 different friends close to me who valued the books. And thank goodness there were people close to help me process them once i did read them.

I value your perspective. As someone who immediately loved the Chrons, I admit I tend to have trouble understanding why some readers find the books so hard to get into. I tend to forget how harrowing these books can be for the first time reader. I should remember how difficult many passages were for me! (Especially in The Power That Preserves.)

Your description of those first 4 books certainly re-emphasizes again what a moral and emotional ordeal SRD puts his characters and the reader through in the course of this saga.

I have a really hard time seeing people suffer acutely when I don't yet see the long-term gain. Yes, I am kinda a wuss. ;-P

Actually, I feel the same way. That's one of the reasons why TPTP has been the hardest Covenant book for me to read through. There is suffering piled upon suffering, and people seem to die horribly in vain every other chapter. Almost remorselessly it seems, SRD piles on the pain in that book. So, yes, someone coming to the Chronicles with no notion of how dark the material is could have a very tough time seeing the beauty amid the horrors. I had no clue myself the first time I came upon the books. I suppose I was able to see that beauty through Covenant because I related immediately with him - an outsider, a loner.

[Guest]

1) The Illearth War
1) Fatal Revenant (300 pgs in...so far so good)

3) The Wounded Land
4) The Power That Preserves
5) The White Gold Wielder
6) The One Tree
7) Lord Foul's Bane
8) The Runes of the Earth

[emotional leper]

Fatal Revenant is now number one.

[Aranion]

1. The Wounded Land
2. The Power That Preserves
3. The One Tree
4. White Gold Wielder
5. Fatal Revenant*
6. The Illearth War
7. Lord Foul's Bane
8. The Runes of the Earth


*MASSIVE SPOILER:

Spoiler

Fatal Revenant would likely be #2 if it actually featured a lot more Thomas Covenant.