Kevin's Watch

I'd just typed a huge long response to ur-bane's post and for some reason it disappeared. Now I'm upset. I'm not going to bother re-typing it today.

I just sold my copy of "Runes of the Earth": its unbearable to see
such a great series become so ordinary...

I will not lay out another penny for any new Covenant series book.

I feel the way I did when I picked up some of the new "Dune, House xyz"
books: they are a big let-down from the original Dune.

Anyway, thats my plan for whoever may care.

Her hatred is directed at Foul, not herself, therefore she is better prepared than Covenant was to fight Foul.

Elena's hatred was directed at Foul. Ditto for the Bloodguard.
Foul has quite a knack for taking his foes' hatred of him and using it against them.

Yeah, definately. I'm also pretty insistent about the evidence in the text going AGAINST the idea that some infections have to be cut out. That cutting out process has proved useless just about every time it's been attempted.

How dare you sir [slaps Davies_Hyland with leather gauntlet]


There's nothing ordinary about TCTC or any of SRD's work for that matter. I haven't had to wait 20 years between WGW and RotE, but I think that if I had, it would still have been worth it.

There are still 3 books to go, and there is not a shred of doubt in my mind that SRD will make all of his fans proud. If you choose not to buy any more of the books, that's your choice, but ultimately it is your loss.

"THe only way to really hurt someone is to give him back something broken."

-from "The Wounded Land" book 1 in the last good chronicles of Thomas Covenant


With the new series, I have been hurt: I loved the TC books as if they were the best joy, and yet now I have read "Runes".

"The only way to hurt a man is to give him back something broken."

I thought that was only how to hurt a leper...

No, it's the only way to hurt someone who has already lost everything: give him back something broken.

I DID wait a long time. I knew before most that Donaldson was planning a third trilogy (right place, right time), and the agony of waiting was awful. The reward, however, has been magnificent for me. I started reading Runes in the morning and didn't stop until I had finished that evening, with the exception of popping in a frozen dinner or two along the way. I love Linden, I love the juxtaposition of TWO Covenant's being in the Land, that JOAN is in the land with a SECOND white gold ring, that we get to see the Demondim, that they are - through their lore - controlling the Illearth Stone through a caesure (although there were MANY banes, and they could have picked another...but the Ill-Stone is probably the strongest of the banes), that Foul isn't the only enemy of the Land (major departure!), and we don't know up from down. I thought Donaldson's writing was crisper and cleaner than I've seen it since the end of The Power That Preserves, and I have absolute faith that Fatal Revenant (even if the title puts people off because 90% of the public has never heard of the word revenant) is going to send my scalp into orbit.

I completely reject that writing in the first person hurt him. As any writer that has a clue what they're talking about will tell you, storytelling from varying points of view *strengthens* your writing in the long run.

You might surmise from all of this that I really liked the book.

Anyone that's ever played Doom 2 or 3 knows what a Revenant is. It's a big skeleton with rocket launchers on its shoulders and a mean right hook...

Yeah, that's true. It'll totally tear a raver to pieces.
Lord Foul, welcome to the world of the RPG. Hahahaha...
UrViles, Say Hello To My Little Friend

Ash wrote:This is my boomstick!

Yeah! Wow... if they took Bruce Cambell instead of Thomas Covenant, that would be a real eye opener for the land.

He'd probably beat the hell out of Hile Troy, just to show everyone who's in control. Then HE would ambush the giant raver in treacher's gorge. Not the Warward and him, but JUST him. And he'd win too.

"Fleshharrower, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you to leave the Land"

"Who the hell are you?"

"The name's Ash...housewares"

To start with, I loved this book. I agree with many that it is a prologue to the next three. I could not put it down. For those of you who were not able to attend Elohimfest, SRD himself said that he is not the same writer as he was when he wrote LFB. After hearing that, I did not expect another LFB but another approach to the Land from a more experienced, mature writer. I was not disappointed.

That being said, here are my critiques:

I found the Haruchai, Ramen, and Stonedowner to be the same. Wouldn't they have evolved, inter-bred, something? How can they still have the same thoughts and ideas? Thousands of years have passed and no change in any of these people. No change in customs or thoughts.

I did not like Linden. I felt she was being made too much into Covenant of the second chrons and it just did not fit for me. She had not been through too much and right from the beginning she was complaining about being responsible for others and being so tired, etc. it just didn't fit. She is still a "Jane" to TC's "Tarzan."

I missed the big words! I did not have to use a dictionary for this book! It used regular language. I was looking forward to learning a few new words from SRD and he used no words that I had to look up on Websters Online!

So has anyone posted a GI question and mentioned the lack of big words and/or operatic language, and requested that it return more fully in Fatal Revenant?

He did mention fighting with his editor over the style, and I think he went a little too far in the Gap direction of writing myself, as opposed to the old chrons style...

caamora wrote: I missed the big words! I did not have to use a dictionary for this book! It used regular language. I was looking forward to learning a few new words from SRD and he used no words that I had to look up on Websters Online!

I, too, did not need a dictionary for this one. I remember clearly having my American Heritage readily available while reading the First and Second Chronicles.

It was one of those qualities in the books that was both enlightening, and at times annoying. Annoying is not quite the right word, but I remember being swept in by the narrative, completely unaware of anything else around me, and stumbling headlong into a word that I needed to look up. I couldn't just pass it by, for I wanted the full meaning of the prose.
But I guess it wasn't that bad, since within two sentences, I was right back into the Land, and nothing else existed once again.
I guess I miss that part of reading SRD.
But I don't really feel that it took anything at all away from the story.

Spoiler

The Haruchai are back, Ramen and Rhanyhn have returned to the Land, Joan is wreaking havoc on the arch of time, a centuries-lost Staff has been recovered, Linden once again travels with a Stonedownor willing to do anything for her, Demondim have traversed the depth of ages to savage Revelstone, an Earthpowerful madman accompanies the group, Revelstone has been diminished by the absence of the Lords, Foul is up to his old tricks, other enemies have appeared to add confusion, an Haruchai-merewives offspring helps and harries the companions, long dead Thomas Covenant has apparently returned to the Land......and we're only in the first book!

Ahh! I'm home!

I just completed RUNES. I have ZERO negative views. Except perhaps that I'll now have to wait a couple of years before I can read further.

The vocabulary was one of the things that I loved about the previous chronicles, but I would feel a little bit of intellectual arrogance if I let that stop me from enjoying the story... still, I miss it.
It's the kind of thing that grabbed me at first and helps me recommend the books to my hyper-intellectual (ly arrogant) friends. Oh well

I found, back when I read it in high school, that the vocabulary was a big turn off for a lot of people that I tried to push the book on. As was TC's stubbornness.

I just got started reading Runes last night and am about 100 pgs into it. One thing that strikes me is how similar this is to the 1st books of the other series. I feel that SRD likes to set up his story and settings in depth (which may be what we all like about him) contrary to other wirters.
We have to rememeber that he is not a internet generation wwirter and does not go for the instant gratification type of story in his writing.
Kind of like LFB and TWL he is setting us up for the rest of the story (sorry for the Paul Harvey reference )