Kevin's Watch

I finished the book a couple weeks ago and just wanted to share some thoughts I had while reading it. Let me preface this by saying that I did enjoy the book, and I am very much going to be impatiently waiting for the last one! Also, sorry if any of this has already been discussed elsewhere in this forum; I haven't really had a chance to read through the threads yet and I just wanted to get this stuff off my chest all at once!

First, I am appalled at how many typos--either misspelled or incorrect words--I found as I was reading through the book. In this day and age, between technology and human proofreading, I would have thought that someone along the line somewhere would have been able to pick up on this stuff and correct it before it went to press. Unfortunately I don't have any specific examples at hand, but hopefully I'm not the only one who noticed this either.

Second, "She Who Must Not Be Named?" Really?! I've read criticisms of Donaldson's creativity in the past, but I never really thought much of them until now. Not only does it borrow quite heavily from another very popular fantasy series, but it's just so....blah. For a 'character' that is made out to be as important as she is and who has the potential to affect the very outcome of the story, I have to admit that I was more than a little disappointed with the apparent lack of effort there.

Finally, and I know it's been discussed elsewhere on the forums in the past, Linden and "All right." Regardless of Donaldson's reasons for using that OVER AND OVER AND OVER, it got old after Runes. Honestly, I get it. She's frustrated; she's lost; she might even be completely useless. But at least, for the reader's sake, change up the dialog once in a while!

I don't know if ol' SRD is just getting bored with writing this series and is just trying to crank them out for the sake of the fans, or if he really does have a serious lack of creativity going on. Compared to the 1st and 2nd Chrons, I have found the Last to be rather less enjoyable overall, and it just seems to be getting worse. Like I said, I did still enjoy the book, and I really can't wait for the last one, but I really do hope that it has more going for it than just being the final book of the series.

If you made it this far, thank you for enduring my rant and please, by all means, feel free to comment and poke holes in my arguments!

Hey lordsfire,

I didn't really notice typos when I read AATE, maybe I just read over them, or maybe it's less of a problem with the British edition (I'm pretty sure we got the British one in NZ.)

I agree that a bit more effort could have been put into the name of the bane. I'm hoping, though, it wasn't just laziness and we will find out definititvely why She must not be Named. What I'm really hoping is that it's similar to the use of a magic ring: Donaldson has said that he was of course aware this would invite comparisons to Tolkien, but he needed that ring for the sake of his story, themes, etc. Maybe, just maybe, the story requires SHMNBN as well...

The repition of "all right" is definitely noticeable, but it didn't bother me as much as some people (you're not alone in this, though). I see it as Linden's verbal motif, and as such revealing certain essential characteristics. "Hellfire!" served exactly the same purpose for TC. An expostulation of, variously, violence, defiance, indignation, disbelief, horror, etc. suited to Covenant always, but adaptable to circumstance. For Linden, "all right" can signify resolve, acceptance, bafflement, or (what I consider some of the most important uses) putting aside something she considers unimportant, which may or may not be crucial.

I didn't feel that Donaldson is running out of creativity in this series, the sense some people get that it's some kind of re-hash may come from him planning the LC as a logical extension of the 2nd Chrons.

I didn't even notice the "all right" until I read this complaint in this forum. Then I read Donaldson have Covenant saying, "all right," as if he was Linden. Donaldson actually wrote that, "... as if he was Linden." So obviously Donaldson himself is aware of the issue, and is making light of it.

I did notice a few mistakes. I saw, "fornication," when we all know it's supposed to be 'formication." That's the only one I can remember off the top of my head.

I must have missed the 'fornication' one; either that or I did pick up on it and just forgot about it.

One of the biggest that I picked up on was Stave's use of contractions (it happened twice I believe). It was VERY out of character both for him and for the Haruchai as a whole and it seriously took away from the scenes in which it happened.