Kevin's Watch

The 1st chronicles for me. CovenantJr said pretty much everything I wanted to say in his first post. All I can add is that the 2nd hurt too much. Once I got to the end, I really didn't want to go through that again.

While I agree the First was better, the hurt, pain, and wrongness of the Second Chronicles was one of the things that made them great books to read.

High Lord Mhoram wrote:While I agree the First was better, the hurt, pain, and wrongness of the Second Chronicles was one of the things that made them great books to read.

I totally agree. Once I'd started them, I couldn't put them down. But I wouldn't say I enjoyed them as much as I simply had to go on reading if only to find out how much worse it was going to get, and how it was going to be resolved in the end. I've only read them the once, and once I found out what happened, I've never felt any desire to read them again.

But the First Chronicles have been read until the pages fell out!

not a poll, but I thought Tuvor might b interested...

When I think about it, I like different books in each series more than
others.

Here be spoilers.....

















Lord Foul's Bane-- The rape gets to me. I don't read that part of the
book anymore. Even so, Covenant did do a fair number of heroic or
brave things in this book-- helping to turn the tide at Soaring
Woodhelven, for one. And I loved Saltheart Foamfollower.


The Illearth War-- it's grown for me over time, but Covenant seems
to spend most of the book whining. I liked Troy's personality, but he
just came across as such a klutz to me on a military basis.

The Power that Preserves-- I like the ending. Covenant doesn't
do much for me when he decides to flee with the Ranyhyn, but
how can anyone ever read, "I am Saltheart Foamfollower, last
of the Seareach Giants and I give my life as I choose" and not
get choked up?

The Wounded Land- I like this book a lot. Covenant is proactive.
Sunder is fantastic. The Haruchai. And the Search Giants!

The One Tree- the beginning is great. We meet the Elohim and
the Brathrair. I'm not a big fan of Linden, and we get a heavy
dose of her here, but I'll deal with it so that I can have Pitchwife
time.

White Gold Wielder- an awfully depressing book. The Waynhim have
lost their home. The Clave has virtually depopulated the Land. Caer-
Caaveral dies. "The glory of the world becomes less than it was" and
Linden gets the white gold ring while Covenant dies.

I think it's very close call, the 2 trilogies are so different. I love the first because of the struggle going on inside of Covenant in the face of all the tangible realism that he is presented with that contrasts so much with the sterile regimed lifestyle he prefers as his "real" life. The Land is revealed as a place full of wonders and when I first read it as a teenager ,as desparate to go their (and in truth would now if it were possible).

I love The Illearth War, it's so dark and full of betrayal - my favourite. LFB & TPTP are also close calls for the best book too, so many new and fantastic experiences and characters. And Foamfollower, one ofthe best characters in the whole series.

THe second chronicles are so different, but I loved the despair and decay in them, overlaid with Covenant's rage and horror. There is this overlying feeling throughout that at any minute TC is going to erupt and kick backside; I like that a lot.

Fo me it's a draw, too close to call. Maybe the 3rd will be a clear winner

My post from the poll thread on this subject:

I liked both, although the first is probly a slight fav because of the Land itself & earthpower being used for good, healthy purposes as opposed to the 2nd where it's used for unhealthy purposes. I liked the second cause TC finally decides to personally do something about the plight of the land.

I also agree on taking all 6 as one story - I can't really read the first without the second....

:earthy

I like the second better, though the first was great as well.
Second just seemed so much more expansive and mind boggling.

I loved the Second Chronicles, more giants, The Elohim, NOM. SRD really expanded his world in the second chrons but the corruption of the Earthpower and the wounding of the Land was so traumatic.

For me nothing can surpass the beauty and magic of The Land as it was in the First Chronicles when the Earthpower was uncorrupted. Nothing will make me forget the first time I discovered the Gaints, the Ranyhyn, the Bloodguard and the Lords.

I liked the first chronicles better overall, but my fave book is TWL.
Don't ask me why, but the whole corrupted EarthPower thing just captured my imagination.

Even though I liked the Illearth War alot, I think as a whole I would go with the 2nd Chronicles. I thought the whole thing was a deluded dream of Covenant's till I read the 2nd and having another person there like Linden gave the story alot more complexity.(and no, Hile Troy didn't count as a real person in my book)

I don't know why but they were easier to read and absorb than the second chronicles as well. I think it is because they are not as rich in detail and there is more emphasis on the story itself but not enough to lose vision of detail entirely.

i cant decide between the 2 .. personally both series are connected thereby .. need each other to be apprecaited ..

the entire series is brilliant ..

Hmmm... Well, the first chrons has some great stuff: my favorite book is TIW because I love Amok and the search and discovery of the 7th Ward; and Mhoram's deal with the forestaal of Garroting Deep. The first Chrons also has more cool battles and the ravers are particularly evil in the first Chrons (ie. possessing people we like.)

The second Chrons was also neat because we got to travel outside the Land. I loved the whole idea of The Worm and The One Tree. Of course Nom is awesome! I really liked WGW, also -- the ending was fantastic.

On the whole I like the First Chronicles better, but this may be because I have read them more than the Second. Reading the Second is a pretty serious undertaking and so I haven't read them as much. Plus, even though I mentioned I liked the search for The One Tree, TOT was my least favorite book because we hardly got off the ship! I got kind of bored. I suppose I would not be much good on a cruise!

I prefer the Second Chronicles by far!

The First Chronicles are great sci-fi, but the ultimate answer is just the same as used by old President GWB: use your power to wipe out the bad guys.

The Second Chronicles, however, bring us through some marvelous new lands (yes, the Elohim's land seems a bit contrived, but certainly the fascinating Kemper's land is similar to some of the Middle Eastern dictatorships), including a visit to "ancient" mythological sources like the One Tree, only to end with an ending not usually found in contemporary crowd-pleasing literature - TC surrenders his ring to Foul!

I am sick and tired of movies/books/songs that play on our innermost violent tendancies. In "Witness", we all loved it when the town thugs thought Harrison Ford was Amish and then he slugged them - an insult to true Amish people. In "My Bodyguard", the answer to bullies was to find a bigger bully to be on your side. The latest Star Trek movies have concluded with fistacuffs scenes - Kirk fighting hand to hand to save the universe.

Donaldson has the courage to have his character not win by force but by literally turning the other cheek, even to the extent that TC knew he had to die in order to win any victory. As I have written here before, I can't help but see the comparison to the story of Jesus in the Gospels, as his victory was portrayed as coming from surrendering to his enemies. We see the effects of both Donaldson's history of pacifism and his Christian upbringing here, in my opinion. (Tolkien also avoided a pure military victory in LOTR, but in the end evil defeated itself by violence with Gollum's greed overcoming him).

So, folks, I would bet that old SRD won't hesitate to have the Land turn the other cheek and die as well if it suits his vision. I only hope there there isn't a total victory by evil!

Wow - I like that analysis, srtrout. I think I should read the Second Chronicles again sometime soon...

The first chronicles was the first true fantasy novels I read. I think that kind of gives them too much bias. Everything I read after that got compared to them, even if it was subconsciously. I've seen this affect on someone else more recently. After seeing the Fellowship of the Ring, he read the entire series, reading the Hobbit after the other three. He was never a big novel reader, but now he's on a tear reading anything I can give him or that strikes his fancy while he's in a book store. Now, everything he reads gets compared to Tolkein, which annoys me to no end because I never cared all that much for his books. To each his own obviously... but the first chronicles will always be the #1 spot in my list.

I like TWL and WGW best, so I'd have to say the 2nd Chronicles. I steadfastly did not enjoy, however, TOT. Leaving the Land was, for me, like taking away the basis of the argument. It was interesting, but felt somewhat hollow, like standing on thin ice. Even corrupted, the Land is the basis for the stories, and only when TC and LA are in it does it feel solid.

I acknowledge that this was, perhaps, SRD's intention in taking the story beyond the confines of the continent of the Land, to show in the narrative how much the Land truly is the basis for the entire series, and by showing how empty it feels to be only on the seas, visiting lands not your own. Perhaps TOT is, at its core, about making us feel what it is like to be unhomed ourselves.

But regardless, before I stray too far from topic... I prefer the second to the first. The concept that the best way to hurt a man is to give him back something he loves, broken... that haunts me to this day.

-Mouseglove

Mouseglove wrote: But regardless, before I stray too far from topic... I prefer the second to the first. The concept that the best way to hurt a man is to give him back something he loves, broken... that haunts me to this day.

yeah, that was a great and powerful point

I have always enjoyed TOT immensely. The journey and of course Vain.
His escape from the Elohim is a classic passage.
The Kemper and that land is another fantastic creation. The One Tree is that inevitable filler before the final blow. I applaud Donaldson for making it such a great book.
For some reason a few years ago it was just sitting in my bookshelf along with all the others and I was just drawn to it. Maybe because it escapes the land, I don't know. I have probably read TOT 5 times compared to the 3 times I have read the rest of the second chronicles.
The beginning of TWL however is perhaps my most vivid image in all the chronicles. The Sunbane the various afflictions that it brings in all its painful and excruciating detail-brilliant.

I'm split on it, like them both equally, for very different reasons.