Kevin's Watch

Manny Calavera wrote:Now... I at times,almost wish he never started back in on it in the first place.I will reserve final judgement until the last book.

Donaldson himself said, and I cannot find the reference sorry, that FR is his best work ever. So have hope...

dlbpharmd wrote:How do you have audio books for the Covenant series?

Google it,Amazon has some of them,as does the local library,and well,the first ones well.... I kinda sorta... 'borrowed' them
from the local Library,and kinda forgot to take em back..... Runes I
made the mistake of buying off Ebay for 12.99 + 4.50 for USPS 6
to 10 day delivery.Maybe Runes will grow on me,but after the fifth full
read through it in 2 years,I am starting to doubt that in a big way.

I bought the audio book,as I had snagged a ARC off an auction site
and was pissed when I finished it,as it cost me a pretty penny.And as
I mentioned,I was kinda ,well, letdown with it.It was only recently
that I started being truly honest with myself and my feelings for it
after the fifth read through,and realized that yeah it goes allot farther
then just Linden 'sucks'.When I saw this thread,and AR's
well put post,I clicked 'Reply' but realized that I was not a member
so I joined up Its not the story,as I kinda like it,or the new
characters,as I am liking some of them (Stave , Anele) but the prose!

Its dry,and dead in comparison to the first 6 books.Its like its not
SRD at all,but a lawyer or accountatnt writing it.The War Of The Spider
Queen.I read that recently,and liked it,but the main problem was the writing of the different authors.Some of the books were written by
psychologists,turned fantasy writers.... Well,after reading ROTE,it was
like I was reading a COTC book,but through the eyes of Philip Athans...

*Ducks*...

If you have read the series you will know exactly what I mean....

Now having said that ! I finally sat down to read the first 7 pages of FATREV,and I liked it.

I guess I am maybe willing to give this series another chance.
Eithier that or I want a time machine so I can go back and convince SRD to continue writing the series from where it all left off... Before he....
started writing so dryly,and in such a detached and emotionally
'compressed' fashion.Bring back the fluff please,ASAP.

Oh.... and Linden can take a long walk of a short pier.

Am only disappointed in the amount of explanation of the lands history for new readers i had to wade through. The second book should now be able to drive the story onwards.

Artagel wrote:Am only disappointed in the amount of explanation of the lands history for new readers i had to wade through. The second book should now be able to drive the story onwards.

Welcome!

Actually, I really enjoyed all of the history sections, especially since SRD gave us new detail.

Agree with that dlbpharmd, much of the historical aspects were told from slightly different viewpoints, or in fact forced me to re-evaluate what I thought I knew about the Land's history.

The history of the Viles/Demondim/Demondim-spawn was particularly illuminating, and the story of the One Forest as told by Anele was heartbreaking.

I probably need to read again (only read Runes last month for 1st time) but the main problem I had with the book was that SRD has had to invoke so many new concepts and beings: caesures, Kevin's Dirt, direct possession by Lord Foul, skurj, the Durance, ur-viles fighting against Foul, time travel.... some of these things, like skurj, are only mentioned in the most oblique manner. I'm sure it will all become clear, if not in Fatal Revenant, but it did strike me as different to, say, the 2nd Chronicles, where the chief enemy of the Sunbane and the Clave were described in outstanding detail and explained, although obviously there were changes in the way one came to perceive these things as the books progressed. I just didn't find it as convincing as the arid death of the desert sun, the horror of the soothtell, the "screaming of trees" of the fertile sun....

The writing is clearly different, but it wouldn't really be reasonable to expect SRD's style to stay still for 20 years.

I haven't enjoyed any of SRD's first books in his series. ROTE hasn't changed my mind. MOHD is probably the exception.

LFB was a labor. I must have started it 10 times before I finally finished it. TRS wasn't very good, either. They ended amazingly, though.

But, the man always comes through with a brilliant conclusion. Hoping the Last Chronicals are no different.

not at all disappointed in Runes - just reading it now for the 2nd time after recently re-reading the first two chronicles again, and I find Runes to be one of the best of the 7 TC books.

i agree with you whole heartedly, Sleepless One.

I will say the ROTE wasn't quite what I expected. But from the other side of the fence, it is setting up 3 other books to finish a story, so I am hopeful. I am thinking if TC made a larger appearance, it might have scored better from me.

Honestly, I really didn't care for it. It felt kind of... "stunted" to me -- stylistically, or something. Or maybe it was the vocabulary. I don't think I can even justify blaming it entirely on Linden, either. Maybe I'll like it better the second time around. Unfortunately, at this rate, I may not be finished by the time FR comes out. I just went back through the other 6 books, and each one took me about 2 days. This is my 3rd week working on Runes, and I'm on page 172.

Guess I'll put in my .02euro.

I felt after Runes more like after having read The Real Story. I liked Runes, but yep like soooo many others have said, just something missing there. But, I have faith <remembers waiting for Gap books to be released.>


Oh yes, and where do I get my THOOLA application?

stutt

Stutty wrote:Oh yes, and where do I get my THOOLA application?

stutt

You don't

Oh yes, and where do I get my THOOLA application?

We're always accepting new members, heh. But remember the "H" at the end of THOOLAH. The "Haters" is the most important part! Heh.-jay

Runes had a lighter narrative due to being in Linden's head rather than in Covenant's head. I thought that was a rather refreshing change of pace for a first book in the series, allowing the tension and the heaviness to build throughout the Quadrilogy

kevinswatch wrote: We're always accepting new members, heh. But remember the "H" at the end of THOOLAH. The "Haters" is the most important part! Heh.-jay

Bah! Didn't have time to scroll back through an hour's worth of messages to find the acronym again. Will try to do better in the future.

stutt

Is anyone disappointed in Runes?

Well I was, but...

Unusually this took me a long time to read at first go, which I thought this was due to the slightly 'plodding' pace, and a marked feeling of a re-working of TWL in part 1. I also had the sense that we were being taken on a ride where everything set up in the previous chronicles would be either destroyed or turned on their head, and I've always been irritated by new work which devalues or even negates your emotional involvement in the earlier.

I left it lying for nearly a year, but some things nagged me about it, and I've re-read it twice now. I've changed my position completely. I get the sense that SRD is trying to do something extraordinary with this last series, and thus with the whole work, and ROTE is playing a pivotal part in setting this up. It's doing this in a wonderfully complex and intriguing way.

In one sense it does remind me of TWL. I didn't enjoy that at all on the first read since I had the sense that it just disposed of the connection I'd made (sometimes with extereme difficulty) with characters and places in and the story of TFC. But the beautiful ending pulled me into the whole of the series. Completing that gave a whole new perspective on TFC and the whole series, which added to the joy of the overall experience. There was a natural completeness to it, which was also satisfying.

On the 2nd and 3rd re-reading of ROTE there is a complexity to it, and such a richness of themes that I didn't grasp at the first I sense will eventually let us see each part of the earlier work in a new way, and also bring it's own completeness.

Just scratching the surface we have, the parent/ child relationships, and how they affect the motivations and acts of each (Roger as Foul, Jeremiah as the Creator, LA will damn the land for her child, TC as the keystone on the Arch); the duality inherent in creation, and in concepts of good and evil; the significance of the relationship between the characters and the environment etc etc. These, and the many others are themes through the whole series, but each time I go back to ROTE there just seems to be something new to find beneath the surface.

This is so much more than my initial irritation with, eg Anele, the claustrophobic plot and Linden's propensity to manipulation. Yes the prose style is different; I believe it has to be to achieve the task it is set.

If he pulls it off, it'll be well extraordinary, and I do understand why he says he needed to grow as a writer before attempting it. That he might pull it off as evidenced by ROTE, makes my only dismay now the wait for each future part.

My disappointment came from the high caliber of the past books: compared to them, Runes just didn't seem to cover as much geography or introduce as many memorable characters and situations (who can forget seeing Foamfollower, or Covenant's first attack on a band of ur-viles beneath Soaring Woodhelven?).

As much as I like Linden, I don't think she's lead character material. Her shining point was in juxtaposition to Covenant: she had no hope/felt condemned, whereas Covenant had, through past sufferings, gained a faith and love for the Land.

The most enticing parts of Runes were the hints of Covenant still existing (heck, the book's end is so exciting because of that fact). And I guess that's where the promise comes from: Covenant. Will his resurfacing put the "sex" back in Donaldson's "violence"?

I felt as if the book was holding back all its cards or hiding the fact it didn't have any. Yes, it was great seeing Linden and a deranged Joan, but the other characters didn't stick with me like a Mhoram or Hile Troy (or even a Sunder and Hollian). Heck--aside from Stave and Anele, I've forgotten most of their names.

The only thing I was disappointed with was how long I had to wait for it (like 20 years or so ) and how relatively short it was compared to that wait . Also, it was so cool to be back in the Land with all those rich characters - it ended way too soon and with such abruptness - if that's a word. I was also very disappointed that I had to wait so long for Fatal Revenant .

Other than that - it's been great!

Good to see you around, Amok!

well I have just started to read the 1st and 2nd chronicles again. they are orders of magnitude more powerful than ROTE. A lot of people are saying wait until all 4 books are out to see what happens. I doubt whether these will match the sheer brilliance of the first 6 books. Each of the 6 books had a power that is missing from ROTE and from what I have read so far of FR the power is missing from there too. But we will see what transpires....

regards

Alan