I've just completed a read through of all eight books of the Chronicles, starting in around January this year. So that's about seven months worth of reading on the tube to and from work for me. This was after a break of around 25 years since I last read them.
And, as I've indicated before, I do largely agree with Black Asgard's assessment.
The First Chronicles remain the pinnacle of the whole concept of the Chronicles, for me. And as a story, it is far more cohesive and coherent. It was original and unconstrained in its formulation by SRD and I think that shows. It doesn't suffer from any a priori issues. TC is a wonderful anti-hero of a character and the Land is wonderful and surprising - but not too surprising. Every element that is introduced during the First Chronicles feels right - nothing feels like it jars or comes too far from left field. The linear development of the story and the character arc rolls the reader along with it.
I too had more issues with the Second Chronicles. There were things that I thought were splendid about them. I think SRD's set up for the Second Chronicles was masterly. The subversion of the Land, the venom in TC, the Clave, all brilliant devices to take the story on. And there was some undeniably brilliant set pieces, probably more so than in the First Chronicles. The white gold caamora, in particular, I think is the finest section of the whole Chronicles. In many ways it was easier to empathise with TC now his intentions were all pointed in the "right" direction. But, as Black Asgard says, there is a "cumulative over-exposure to the weird". The characters etc that are introduced this time round do not all seem quite so holistic, quite so "natural". Some of them may be, in themselves, extremely interesting devices, but overall it detracts from that essential cohesion that existed in the First Chronicles. There is a sense of a number of set pieces stitched together in some parts of the Second Chronicles that I never felt in the first. (Though I do think that my opinion of them this second time around is much higher than the first time, 25 years ago, when I might well have equally "disowned" them.)
The One Tree appears to divide opinion perhaps more than any other book and, overall, I'm with Black Asgard on the negative side of the scales.
There is also the contrast between TC's time in the Land and his time back where he belongs in the First Chronicles, that added a whole new, and, for me, important, dimension to the work which is lacking in the Second Chronicles. It was one of the main things that drew me into the Chronicles in the first place. That tangible connection between fantasy and character and the "real" world. With far greater perspicacity than I can manage, Wayfriend has recently put this into larger context.
Wayfriend wrote:Covenant's real story arc is not about learning how to defeat Foul or how to save the Land. His real story arc is a journey of self-discovery. He must resolve his internal conflicts, face the darknesses he carries within himself, tear down his self-built walls. When he does so, he will be capable of wielding the white gold, and the fall of Lord Foul is then a rather trivial exercise.
It's no coincidence that it's just this kind of an ordeal which is of practical value to a modern man in the real world. Covenant could learn how to use Earthpower, but, when he returns to his real home and his real life, this knowledge wouldn't be worth anything. Covenant could learn how to lead armies or ride Ranyhyn into battle, but he would have no armies, no Ranyhyn, when he returned to Haven farm. Ah, but learning how to master ones passions and to harness them towards constructive ends - in the modern, Ironic world, that has real value. To Covenant - and by extension, to us.
I'd like to think that even if I'm not capable of analysing and interpreting the Chronicles in the depth and with the insight that others are able, even if the Land as metaphor or externalisation of TC's emotional struggles largely passed me by first time around, nevertheless, by reacting to the books in the first place in a very visceral, emotional way, I did unconsciously in some sense recognise this important facet to SRD's work.
Marry me? 
I'm a purist, so I'm not gonna even start it. But you're still a woman after my own heart.
)
