The UK publisher Gollancz has revealed a plot synopsis of AATE:
Spoiler
Desperate for help to find her adopted son, Jeremiah, Linden Avery has resurrected Thomas Covenant in a cataclysmic exertion of Earthpower and wild magic. But the consequences of her efforts are more terrible than she could have imagined. Sorcery on that scale has awakened the Worm of the World's End: the ultimate end of all Time, and therefore of all life, has been set in motion.
And on a more personal level, the results are no less extreme. The stress of reincarnation so many centuries after his death has fractured Covenant's mind. He cannot tell Linden where to find her son. And his leprosy has renewed its grip on him, inexorably killing his nerves. The Ranyhyn had tried to warn her. Now, plunged to depths of desperation and despair for which she is entirely unprepared, Linden seeks radical responses to the dilemmas she has created.
Searching for Jeremiah, and accompanied only by a few friends and allies – some of them unwilling – she takes chances that threaten her sanity, forcing her to confront the Land's most fearsome secrets. Dreadful futures hinge on all of her choices, and she and her companions are driven beyond the limits of their endurance. Yet she still walks paths laid out for her by the Despiser, and his forces are ready...
rdhopeca wrote:Would it be fair to question the synopsis accuracy? I hesitate to make any assumptions based on a publisher's synopsis.
I take it with a healthy pinch of salt, but it certainly sounds like a publisher's blurb, in its sweeping generalities - if you ignore the references to specific characters other than Linden, this could almost be the blurb for Fatal Revenant.
dlbpharmd wrote:Looks like we're about to read another fuckin' book about Linden, and that pisses me off.
And after such a tease in that first chapter... The TC POV in Chapter 1 of Shall Pass Utterly will go down as the best chapter of the Last Chronicles. I'm calling it now.
drew wrote:I'd say that this synopsis didn't really give away any information that we didn't already know by reading the first chapter.
................agreed...there's nothing new here at all.
"Who enters here, do not lose hope / Who leaves; do not rejoice / Who has not been, shall be here yet / Who has been here, shall never forget" Anonymous / discovered scratched into the wall of a cell in the KGB's Lefortovo Prison in Moscow/originally quoted in the book "Alexander Dolguns Story" (by A.Dolgun),describing the ordeals of an American citizen falsely imprisoned by the Soviet Union from 1948 to 1957.
I respectfully disagree with some of the posts here concerning the AATE plot synopsis. I haven't had my full dose of coffee yet this morning, but I think we might be able to see things hinted at that we might not have anticipated:
1) Accompanied by 'few friends, some of them unwilling'. I can't imagine that TC wouldn't go with her, but is that possible? Or does this refer to the Haruchai?
2) Radical responses? What in hell could those be? Reset the time-line? Partner with Lord Foul? Give in to the Harrow?
3) Dilemmas? How many?
4) Most fearsome secrets? Did we not always think, or were lead to believe/assume, that TC's and LA's personal demons were being dealt with against the backdrop of the Land that itself had a certain structure and obeyed certain rules? Are we about to find out that things were not as they appeared? What don't we know that is about to be revealed?
The long-awaited sequel to The Runes of the Earth and Fatal Revenant returns readers to the Land—and unravels some of the mysteries haunting Covenant and Linden Avery.
Thomas Covenant is alive again, restored to his mortal body by the unimaginable combined force of his own white gold ring, Linden Avery’s Staff of Law, and the ancient dagger called High Loric’s krill. His resurrection is Linden’s defiant act of love, despite warnings from mortals and immortals that unleashing this much power would destroy the world. She brought his spirit back from its prison in the Arch of Time, and revived his slain body, so that Covenant lies whole on the cool grass, and the world seems at peace.
But the truth is inescapable: The thunderclap of power has awakened the Worm of the World’s End, and all of them, and the Land itself, are forfeit to its devouring. If they have any chance to save the Land, it will come from unlikely sources—including the mysterious boy Jeremiah, Linden’s adopted son, whose secrets are only beginning to come to light.
In PDF format:
booksellers.penguin.com/static/pdf/putnam-fall10.pdf
I think some important clues about what to expect in AATE and The Last Dark can be found by re-reading:
* Pitchwife's conversation with Linden about the Worm of the World's End and its cosmological significance in the chapter "A Calling of Nicor" from TOT (which was subsequently confirmed by Daphin in Elemenesdene);
* Lord Foul's gleeful predictions of the end of the world in the chapter "The Despiser's Guidance" in ROTE, and his statement that "There is more, but of my deeper purpose I say nothing."
I think the arousal of the Worm will be irreversible, the Earth will be destroyed, and the ultimate denouement of The Last Chronicles will involve the foiling (or perhaps not foiling) of Lord Foul's "deeper purpose".
dlbpharmd wrote:Looks like we're about to read another fuckin' book about Linden, and that pisses me off.
shouldn't be surprised about this... SRD has already spoken often about the POV and she AND TC are crucial to the story. They are equal. In love.
I find it funny, that after all this time, people can't get over this 'Linden thing' and just enjoy a damn-fine story with damn-interesting characters...
ah well....
~...with a floating smile and a light blue sponge...~
dlbpharmd wrote:Looks like we're about to read another fuckin' book about Linden, and that pisses me off.
shouldn't be surprised about this... SRD has already spoken often about the POV and she AND TC are crucial to the story. They are equal. In love.
I find it funny, that after all this time, people can't get over this 'Linden thing' and just enjoy a damn-fine story with damn-interesting characters...
ah well....
I bought a book called "The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" not "The Whines of Linden Avery". (and I am not a THOOLAH member!)
Just my $0.02...
"This is the grace that has been given to you - to bear what must be borne."
Why does TC have leprosy again, after it was burned out of him in the ?Banefire in WGW.
I would say: Spoiler
IIRC, the leprosy wasn't burned out of him. I think Linden says at first when she sees him emerge from the Banefire that he no longer has leprosy, but then realizes it's just quiescent.
Why does TC have leprosy again, after it was burned out of him in the ?Banefire in WGW.
I would say: Spoiler
IIRC, the leprosy wasn't burned out of him. I think Linden says at first when she sees him emerge from the Banefire that he no longer has leprosy, but then realizes it's just quiescent.
[/spoiler]
I believe you speak sooth, Borillar.
'Tis dream to think that Reason can
Govern the reasoning creature, man.
- Herman Melville
I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all!
"All creation is a huge, ornate, imaginary, and unintended fiction; if it could be deciphered it would yield a single shocking word."
-John Crowley
Accompanied by 'few friends, some of them unwilling'. I can't imagine that TC wouldn't go with her, but is that possible? Or does this refer to the Haruchai?
Maybe Infelice or Esmer would qualify too, if they go with her. And might the Ranyhyn be less eager to follow Linden now?
Another possibility is that the book splits in two with TC accompanied by some companions going off to achieve one quest/goal, while Linden goes off another direction. Rather like the Ill-Earth War after TC and Elena, led by Amok, leave Mhoram and Hile Troy. This would give us chapters with both POVs.
