Kevin's Watch

There isn't any worst books in the Chronicles...

There are just personal favorites and the one(s) you read less of.

I've always thought The One Tree was my least favourite..
And not because of The Giants, or Linden, or the Elohim / worm / vain, but simply because it ended on such a bad note, with the failure of the Quest to get a branch off the One Tree.

Imagine reading that and then having to wait years for the next book to come out?

Absolutely not. I cannot even go as far as Ur-dead on this. There is no worst book for me in the first two Chrons (and please do not get me started on the Last Chrons - trust me, you don't even want to go there!); I have gone beyond the point where I can even view them as separate books. I loved TWL, just as I loved the others - the meeting with Brin in the dungeon's under Revelstone, the Giants in the Sarangrave, the Cammora for the dead Giants. C'mon Vain - how could you not get this!

( Said in the nicest possible way I promise).

I thought none of the Second Chronicles were nearly as enjoyable as the First. WGW seemed to struggle along from one crisis to the next, and having each of the main characters locked in catatonic states through much of the story was not all that exciting.

Despite the fact that I've proudly worn my white gold wedding ring, literally since '83, it was WGW.

The end of its 1st half culminated nicely in annealing flame, and the very end, other than the small detail that TC bled to death, was nicely done. But, in particular, the stuff about resurrecting Drool Rockworm and surrenderng the ring didn't work for me. I got more out of the bits with Vain and Findail than before on my most recent (probably 4th) reading.

By the way, my wedding ring has 3 little diamonds in it, which seems to seriously dampen any Wild Magic.

ninjaboy wrote:I've always thought The One Tree was my least favourite..
And not because of The Giants, or Linden, or the Elohim / worm / vain, but simply because it ended on such a bad note, with the failure of the Quest to get a branch off the One Tree.

Imagine reading that and then having to wait years for the next book to come out?

It seemed like years, that's for sure!

The quest didn't fail. They only thought it failed. But the stupid branch was hanging off of Vain's right shoulder the entire time!

Yes - strangely that is the only occasion (I think - remind me if there are others) where Donaldson has lapsed into complete predictability. The moment Vain put on the heels, one on his wrist, the other on his ankle, it became 90% certain that he was the staff of law, his arm turning to wood made it 99.99%. The only people who couldn't see it coming were TC, LA and the rest of the questers. Findails incorporation caught me by suprise but the rest was prompted in the hamiest of stage whispers

p.s. I still loved it all!

peter wrote:Yes - strangely that is the only occasion (I think - remind me if there are others) where Donaldson has lapsed into complete predictability. The moment Vain put on the heels, one on his wrist, the other on his ankle, it became 90% certain that he was the staff of law, his arm turning to wood made it 99.99%. The only people who couldn't see it coming were TC, LA and the rest of the questers. Findails incorporation caught me by suprise but the rest was prompted in the hamiest of stage whispers

p.s. I still loved it all!

You mean you weren't fooled for even one second? Wouldn't you have to know that there was a new SoL in the works?

if i had to pick one for me it would be lord fouls bane. the first half of the book is very hard for me to get through. although i would say that the first time i read it i didnt have that problem, only now since i know what im looking forward to in other books

TheWormoftheWorld'sEnd wrote:You mean you weren't fooled for even one second? Wouldn't you have to know that there was a new SoL in the works?

No - absolutely not. The moment Vain put on the heels in the dungeon I knew that he was the SOL. Why else would he have done it, particularly in the way he did.

peter wrote:

TheWormoftheWorld'sEnd wrote:You mean you weren't fooled for even one second? Wouldn't you have to know that there was a new SoL in the works?

No - absolutely not. The moment Vain put on the heels in the dungeon I knew that he was the SOL. Why else would he have done it, particularly in the way he did.

Ok, I just wanted to make sure you're not one of those who reads the last chapter first.

TheWormoftheWorld'sEnd wrote:

ninjaboy wrote:I've always thought The One Tree was my least favourite..
And not because of The Giants, or Linden, or the Elohim / worm / vain, but simply because it ended on such a bad note, with the failure of the Quest to get a branch off the One Tree.

Imagine reading that and then having to wait years for the next book to come out?

It seemed like years, that's for sure!

The quest didn't fail. They only thought it failed. But the stupid branch was hanging off of Vain's right shoulder the entire time!

Perhaps 'failed' was the wrong word. However that book ended on a very low note. Mistweave had sacrificed himself, TC seemed to have resigned himself to failure, the Haruchai had left the service of TC and LA, and they had not taken a branch off the one tree to create a new SOL with.

Yes, Vain had been transformed, but the Quest did not know what that signified.

And indeed Donaldson gave us plenty of cause to think Vain would become the new SoL when he donned the iron bands on their first visit to revelstone.. Perhaps it would have been a better ploy for Vain to have obtained the iron bands on the company's return to Revelstone, when they were fighting the Clave / raver / banefire.

(pssst......WOTWE, you make me doubt myself; perhaps realisation came at the moment his arm turned to wood - hell, it was a long time ago! )

peter wrote:

(pssst......WOTWE, you make me doubt myself; perhaps realisation came at the moment his arm turned to wood - hell, it was a long time ago! )

I wish I had the same doubt-inducing effect on my brother who claimed he knew how the whole story was going to end. Yeah right. Well, I believe you, too bad you can't tell us how you worked it out.

Well WOTWE - that much I can tell you. I didn't work it out - it was a moment. A blinding flash of inspiration of a type very rare to individuals of my mediocre intellect.

peter wrote:Well WOTWE - that much I can tell you. I didn't work it out - it was a moment. A blinding flash of inspiration of a type very rare to individuals of my mediocre intellect.

Seeing the emote you just created, you're obviously beyond me. I can barely produce a smiley and then only because there's 20 of them at the left side of this box.

ninjaboy wrote:I've always thought The One Tree was my least favourite..
And not because of The Giants, or Linden, or the Elohim / worm / vain, but simply because it ended on such a bad note, with the failure of the Quest to get a branch off the One Tree.

Imagine reading that and then having to wait years for the next book to come out?

Yeah I'd agree with that. Up until that point I'd never read a fantasy novel in which the heroes so utterly FAILED at their objective. Mind you, I was 13 at the time, but still....it shocked me and I was bitterly disappointed at the time.

Horrim Carabal wrote:

ninjaboy wrote:I've always thought The One Tree was my least favourite..
And not because of The Giants, or Linden, or the Elohim / worm / vain, but simply because it ended on such a bad note, with the failure of the Quest to get a branch off the One Tree.

Imagine reading that and then having to wait years for the next book to come out?

Yeah I'd agree with that. Up until that point I'd never read a fantasy novel in which the heroes so utterly FAILED at their objective. Mind you, I was 13 at the time, but still....it shocked me and I was bitterly disappointed at the time.

And then there was "The Empire Strikes Back." Science fiction maybe, but that second of a trilogy certainly ended on a downer. Do we see a pattern emerging here?

TheWormoftheWorld'sEnd wrote:

Horrim Carabal wrote:

ninjaboy wrote:I've always thought The One Tree was my least favourite..
And not because of The Giants, or Linden, or the Elohim / worm / vain, but simply because it ended on such a bad note, with the failure of the Quest to get a branch off the One Tree.

Imagine reading that and then having to wait years for the next book to come out?

Yeah I'd agree with that. Up until that point I'd never read a fantasy novel in which the heroes so utterly FAILED at their objective. Mind you, I was 13 at the time, but still....it shocked me and I was bitterly disappointed at the time.

And then there was "The Empire Strikes Back." Science fiction maybe, but that second of a trilogy certainly ended on a downer. Do we see a pattern emerging here?

2 things.. TESB was a Movie. It's completely unable to evoke the sort of passions, emotions, hopes and fears that the TC novels do. AND in the 'Land' it's basically impossible to want Fangthane to win. I've never met anyone who does. But in Lucas' universe, a hell of a lot of people don't want those goddamn rebels to win. And the ending of TESB is only 'bad' for the percentage who are in the Rebels' side.

Perspective. I hope you have some now.

The ending of One Tree never bothered me... probably because I always viewed the entire Second Chronicles as one book (which is reflected in my personal copy being an omnibus edition )