Is Runes Self-contained?

Book 1 of the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

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Critteranne
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Is Runes Self-contained?

Post by Critteranne »

I finally got back into the Chronicles after finishing Lord Foul's Bane over a beach vacation. I'm reading The Illearth War now, and when I saw The Runes of the Earth in the Barnes & Noble... Well, I just couldn't resist. :P I bought Runes and a cool blue beach bag.

It's almost time to return to the beach. Can I read and enjoy Runes of the Earth even though I still have five books to go in the series? I don't mind spoilers for the earlier books -- heck, I've run across some of the major ones by accident. And I just wanna read it now, waaah. :cry:

P.S. Look, it's a Hile Troy smiley! 8)
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Post by High Lord Tolkien »

Um.....sure!
Read Runes before finishing the IW.......yeah..... makes sense to me.
And if you're pressed for time just read the last chapter.
:huh: :screwy:
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Post by rdhopeca »

I'd highly recommend against it. In fact, I doubt you'll recognize anything in Runes if you haven't read the previous two Chronicles. Everything derives from everything that has gone before it.
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Post by Seareach »

High Lord Tolkien wrote:Um.....sure!
Read Runes before finishing the IW.......yeah..... makes sense to me.
And if you're pressed for time just read the last chapter.
:huh: :screwy:
HLT! Be nice! :)


But, yeah, I'd recommend against it. It's not really going to do it for you unless you've read the other books...and, well...it's kinda going to ruin the other books for you (if I remember correctly, Runes covers a fair amount of backstory).

All that said, I want to know: did the cool blue beach bag come with the copy of Runes?!?!?!? ;) :biggrin:
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Post by SoulBiter »

Definelty recommend you dont skip ahead. You truly dont understand whats at stake unless you have read the previous books.

You should fall in love with the Land by the end of the first set of books.. breathing a sigh of relief and then when you start the second chrons.. it should be a jaw dropping experience for you because of what had come before.
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Post by AjK »

Absolutely agree with everyone here. Resist temptation by reading the other books. You won't regret it. If that gets tough, limit yourself to looking at the pretty ROTE cover art... :D
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Post by Relayer »

Agreed!

I've always wondered what it would be like for someone to start w/ the 2nd or 3rd series, but definitely recommend you read all the way through! Take a LONG beach vacation ;-)

ps, 8) isn't Hile Troy (though I guess it could be)

|-T is.
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Post by AjK »

Relayer wrote:ps, 8) isn't Hile Troy (though I guess it could be)

|-T is.
:haha:

So is:

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Post by High Lord Tolkien »

Andy Kalish wrote:
Relayer wrote:ps, 8) isn't Hile Troy (though I guess it could be)

|-T is.
:haha:

So is:

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OMG!
That was awesome!
:lol: :banana: :beer:
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Post by Relayer »

Ouch!!

See, Critteranne, you really have to read everything to understand the joke :-)
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Post by Critteranne »

High Lord Tolkien wrote:Um.....sure!
Read Runes before finishing the IW.......yeah..... makes sense to me.
And if you're pressed for time just read the last chapter.
:huh: :screwy:
I could always read the "What Has Gone Before" sections from books 1-5 and then read the end of book six. :lol:
rdhopeca wrote:I'd highly recommend against it. In fact, I doubt you'll recognize anything in Runes if you haven't read the previous two Chronicles. Everything derives from everything that has gone before it.
Oh dang. Good point.
Seareach wrote:All that said, I want to know: did the cool blue beach bag come with the copy of Runes?!?!?!? ;) :biggrin:
Sort of. :) I bought both the book and the bag at Barnes & Noble. They had a special price on the bag if you bought two other items, so I bought Runes and a plastic bookmark that shows what sentence you last read. I ended up going back to dog-earing because the plastic bookmark made a tiny tear on one of the pages. :P

The bag is one of those nifty translucent types. Hmmm. Note to self: Do not put the yaoi manga in that bag, or my brother will see the covers and make fun of me. :roll:
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Post by Critteranne »

SoulBiter wrote:Definelty recommend you dont skip ahead. You truly dont understand whats at stake unless you have read the previous books.

You should fall in love with the Land by the end of the first set of books.. breathing a sigh of relief and then when you start the second chrons.. it should be a jaw dropping experience for you because of what had come before.
Oh good. I like having my jaw dropped. Except I'm probably going to be bummed out. But then, I guess that comes out of reading Stephen R. Donaldson books. ;)
Andy Kalish wrote:Absolutely agree with everyone here. Resist temptation by reading the other books. You won't regret it. If that gets tough, limit yourself to looking at the pretty ROTE cover art... :D
Thank God they didn't give it a boring cover with a gold ring. :D
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Post by Ur Dead »

My new friend.

You have just begun the saga of Thomas Covenant.

Welcome to the watch.

PS. Runes is 4 more books away from where your reading.

The quest begins and a love of a story that parallels Tolkien is in the making..
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Post by sweetbread »

Andy Kalish wrote:Absolutely agree with everyone here. Resist temptation by reading the other books. You won't regret it. If that gets tough, limit yourself to looking at the pretty ROTE cover art... :D

Look at it this way, you still have two years before the next book is released. If you read Runes now (followed by FR) you'll have a heck of a long wait for the next one, and still not know really whats going on. If you read all the books in order, then you'll not only know whats going on to the fullest, but you'll also have less time after Fatal Revenant to wait for the following book.....


Read 'em in order, Silly....
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Post by ninjaboy »

Must resist temptation.. If you just leapt into Runes then.. Oooh.. The pain. The confusion..


*sigh* This isn't pop fantasy. If you don't live the journey page by page you will not experience the heartwarming moments and those that take your heart, put it in a box with flesh eating ants, post the box to yourself and hit it with a hammer till it smashes into little pieces.. Which is necessary before you begin Runes Of The Earth.

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Post by deer of the dawn »

Yeah, sure, you could skip over the filet mignon to get to the chocolate mousse desert. But why? :? Enjoy the feast!!
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Post by peter »

I think most of these replys sem to be missing the point. If I am correct you have read all of the previous novels before. If this is the case then a jump forward to reading 'the runes' will not cause the slightest problem as any references to 'what has gone before' will be easily intelligable to you. Once you have read it, you can then return to TIW where you left off and then continue through the rest of the books, finishing with a second reading of the runes at the end.
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