Kevin's Watch

1. The Power That Preserves
2. The One Tree
3. The Illearth War
4. Lord Fouls Bane
5. Runes of the Earth
6. White Gold Wielder
7. The Wounded Land

I must really like characters that don't talk much to like TOT so much: Seadreamer, Vain, Nom, the coryel, TC . Even though that opens alot of room for Linden to yap, which I can deal with (thanks in large part to Pitchwife). Such a varied mix of characters, races and creatures-I love to see the Giants at work on the dromond.

The Wounded Land
The Illearth War
Lord Fouls Bane
The One Tree

--A

I was wondering whose list would be most similar to my own . . . turns out to be Avatar's.



1. The Illearth War
2. The Wounded Land
3. Lord Fouls Bane
4. The One Tree
5. The Power That Preserves
6. White Gold Wielder
7. Runes of the Earth

It's strange that Donaldson writes these stories for the ending, but I find the middle and beginning of each series to be much better than the concluding books of either trilogy. I do like the way each Chronicles ends, but you can feel the ending coming with such single-mindedness, that the rest of each third book suffers. The 3rd books don't benefit from the "throw you into a new world" experience of the 1st books, nor the "mind-blowing expansion of this world" of the 2nd books. They just feel like a very long trudge to the end.

Of course, Runes appears to break this pattern--but then again, we haven't seen the ones after it yet, so it's too early to tell.

Could it be that authors are paid (by US publishers) for how many lines they write? Or is that just one of those stupid rumours, or does it only apply to non-fiction?

My favorite is definitely WGW, with TIW running a close second. But I feel that TIW suffers from middle-book syndrome.

IMO TIW is the best! you get to learn so much about the Land and its history you feel really immersed in the Land as opposed to LFB where you don't quite know enough or TPTP when so much is obscured by the unnatural winter etc etc.

Prebe wrote:Could it be that authors are paid (by US publishers) for how many lines they write? Or is that just one of those stupid rumours, or does it only apply to non-fiction?

I've never heard of novelists who get paid based on how many lines they write. If that were true, why would any book be less than 1000 pages? No, they get paid based on sales alone--apart from the advance. But even that is an advance on your expected royalties.

Freelance writers often get paid by the word, but they'll be contracted to write an article of a specific length.

Ah! I thought I might have gotten things messed up. It didn't sound too likely.

Do not be to quick to dismiss it. Have you ever read the "Sword of Shannara"? The book seems to go on for quite a while after the story is actually finished.

For me, the order I like them (most to least) is the order they were written in. I'm hoping Fatal Revenant bucks this trend (and I am confident that I will enjoy it more than Runes, at the very least).

The Wounded Land
The Power That Preserves
Illearth War
LFB
Runes of the Earth
The One Tree
White Gold Weilder

Okay - without looking at anyone else's list, and not counting ROTE*:

The Power That Preserves
The Wounded Land
The Illearth War
The One Tree
Lord Foul's Bane
White Gold Wielder

Personally, I think that TPTP is one of the finest heroic fantasy novels ever written. I've said elsewhere that there are chapters in that book that deserve serious study by students of heroic fantasy. Most notable, to me, is Lord Mhoram's Victory. Setting Tolkien aside (as one must), it's the best chapter of any fantasy novel I've ever read.

The Wounded Land takes second because it's the beginning of the single most logical "sequels" in all of fantasy. What else would Foul do after licking his wounds for three millenia? Well - this is what he would do. Give us exactly what would kill us the most: something broken. Did I say Foul? Perhaps I meant SRD. Anyway - it *worked*. To see the stunning Land reduced to a metaphor of Lena raped was beyond compelling.

The Illearth War - One word: Amok. OK, two: Troy. Wait, three: Elena. There's a lot going on in this book, and it doesn't suffer from the sophomore slump that virtually every trilogist (is that a word yet?) encounters. It more than fulfills any promises that were made in Lord Foul's Bane.

The One Tree - Similar to the TIW above, this didn't suffer from a sophomore slump. It also introduced us (as did TIW) to a world far greater than what we had come to know. And what a world.

Lord Foul's Bane - I struggled with this selection. LFB might be the weakest of the books, but it was the book that drew me in. I got past Lena's "desecration" without difficulty (not that I wasn't repulsed by TC), and that allowed SRD to introduce us to a gorgeous, beautiful world. I've often pointed to The Celebration of Spring as the chapter that really sold me on The Land. Without that, who knows? TC might not have been palatable. Typical of SRD, though. Show us beauty, and then take it away from us.

White Gold Wielder - Easily my least favorite. I was surprised to hear that SRD originally intended the 2nd series to be four books long, because this felt very stretched and repetitive. SRD gets high marks for an ending that forces readers to think. I know that I didn't get it the first time around. And NONE of my disfavor for this book has anything to do with LINDEN AVERY. Didn't I create an Order for those who LIKED Linden? It's been so long...

* I'm not sure why, but I don't feel as if I can measure ROTE against the other works yet. Perhaps it's because SRD works from the end backwards, and without seeing everything as a whole I can't judge the parts yet. That said, I've given ROTE very high marks in my review on Amazon (for what it's worth - I wrote the review [an honest one] also with the idea of enticing new readers...we all want SRD to be successful...right?).

Ryzel wrote:Do not be to quick to dismiss it. Have you ever read the "Sword of Shannara"? The book seems to go on for quite a while after the story is actually finished.

The story seems to go on for about three hundred pages longer than it should...

Or perhaps 692. What's the exact page count again?

Malik23 wrote:

Prebe wrote:Could it be that authors are paid (by US publishers) for how many lines they write? Or is that just one of those stupid rumours, or does it only apply to non-fiction?

I've never heard of novelists who get paid based on how many lines they write. If that were true, why would any book be less than 1000 pages? No, they get paid based on sales alone--apart from the advance. But even that is an advance on your expected royalties.

Freelance writers often get paid by the word, but they'll be contracted to write an article of a specific length.

You are, as you know Malik, correct.

So far, RoTE is my favourite, mainly because it's the Second Chronicles of Linden Avery.

Not including ROTE (sorry - but I hate that book)

Lord Fouls Bane (without which none would follow)
WGW
The One Tree
The Wounded Land
TPTP
The Illearth War


This will change when I read them all again on holiday in a couple of weeks, Actually thinking about it I may bump The One Tree to the top, I love the Giants in the 2nd Chronicles, That's why I put them ahead of the 1st (except for Lord Fouls Bane which started it all)

1. The Illearth War
2. The Power That Preserves
3. The Wounded Land
4. White Gold Wielder
5. The One Tree
6. Lord Foul's Bane

just about a tie for 1st between TIW and TPTP

I'm having a hard time choosing so I'm going to go -

1. The first Chronicles - all so excellent

2. The Wounded Land - stands out

These 3 put me no where near the top 4 did ( too much Linden I presume)
3. The One Tree
White Gold Wielder
Runes of the Earth

Like others, I don't feel ready to judge Runes yet without the bigger picture, sooo...

1) The Illearth War
2) The Wounded Land
3) The One Tree
4) The Power That Preserves
5) Lord Foul's Bane
6) White Gold Wielder

It looks harsh on the lower three, though, cos I still think they're fantastic. Just not quite as fantastic. I can understand why TPTP is so popular, I think that it definitely has some of the most amazing writing of all the Chronicles. But for me, it was a little sporadic