Ranking of the 10 chronicles books

Post by **Avatar** » Thu Feb 05, 2015 4:31 am

How can you rank The Illearth War last? That was a brilliant book.

--A

Post by **Linna Heartbooger** » Fri Feb 06, 2015 5:40 pm

Different people's minds work in different ways.
I am horrible and/or undisciplined about visualizing relative positions in my mind.
So for all the battle scenes, I was like, "yeah, there are some big things of that type in one place, a bunch of other guys somewhere else, and our guys are coming in from some direction that I don't remember..."
<reads words, reads words>

Kinda bad, I know.

Also, we're each ranking based on different things.
TIW sorta exceeded my pain threshold.

The Illearth War: "Watching a train wreck in slow motion, and knowing it might be avoidable."
So I didn't like it.

I'm betting it is a brilliant book!
The fact that I would sit on the bus having arguments in my head where I yelled at the author probably testifies to that.

It actually may have been the reason I ended up here... I was like, "I have gotta talk to someone about this!" about that specific book.

(yeah, I haven't re-read any in entirety but LFB.)

So there ya go.
What are your favorite parts about it?
Or, alternatively, what do you fail to love about whichever book YOU ranked last. (haven't scrolled back yet)

Edit: "avoidable," not "unavoidable."
Removed "of the first or 2nd chrons"

Post by **aliantha** » Fri Feb 06, 2015 6:31 pm

I've gotta admit that do the same thing with battle scenes. I know there are people who love all the strategy and spend time visualizing troop placement and all that stuff, but when I get to those scenes, I start skimming.

I did the same thing with most of the battle scenes in the Malazan books. And it probably is part of the reason why I fell asleep during the big battle in the last LOTR movie. Well, that, and it was nearly 3am.

Post by **ussusimiel** » Fri Feb 06, 2015 8:23 pm

TIW is my favourite. As I have said a number of times before it is really the last time in the whole series when the Land as a character is present in uninjured, unbroken form. We get to spend a significant amount of time in Revelstone. We get to spend time with Mhoram. There's Revelwood, Amok, a Forestal, the Grieve, Elena, Hyrim, Hile Troy etc. The only thing missing from the book is Foamfollower and we get lots of him in TPTP.

It has great battles, excellent magic, it's like a detective novel with some courtroom drama thrown in when TC questions the Haruchai on Rivenrock, there's romance, attempted suicide, Trell's descent into madness, hints of the Elohim and the Sandgorgons and, and, and...

Personally I think it is one of the finest fantasy books ever written bar none, and it was written when SRD was in the first flush of his creativity and, for me, it has that aura about it of passionate flow where everything shines.

Did I say that I really like this book!

u.

Post by **Avatar** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 5:48 am

For any fans of The Illearth War let me recommend CovJr's classic thread Defend The Land.

--A

Post by **SoulBiter** » Fri Apr 03, 2015 5:30 pm

1. The Illearth War
2. The Power that Preserves
3. The Wounded Land
4. Lord Fouls Bane
5. The One Tree
6. White Gold Weilder

Post by **Zarathustra** » Sat Apr 04, 2015 4:27 pm

Cord Hurn wrote:TOT I now like the least because of the realization that after they left Elemesnedene everything else they go through is pointless (though of course they and I didn't know at the time that Findail was all they needed).

I just noticed this. Donaldson addresses this complaint in the GI. The most obvious rebuttal to the idea "Findail was all they needed" is Vain's transformation at the One Tree. I think it was vital that the Tree's defenses were triggered so that he would encounter them and have his arm changed into "essence of wood" or whatever happened to it. Making a new SoL couldn't simply be a combination of Urvile lore and Elohim magic. The One Tree did need to add its input.

But there were important character lessons learned on the journey for both Covenant and Linden, lessons which made the resolution in WGW possible. One could argue that it was Brinn's self-sacrificing victory over the Guardian that inspired Covenant's final solution.

Post by **Rhebeqah** » Tue May 19, 2015 11:56 am

This is a bit tricky:

1) The Power That Preserves
2) The Wounded Land
3) The One Tree
4) The Illearth War
5) White Gold Wielder
6) Lord Foul's Bane

Haven't quite made up my mind where to place the Last Chronicles so I'll need to do a Covenant marathon at some point.

Post by **ussusimiel** » Tue May 19, 2015 10:54 pm

Hi Rhebeqah! Welcome to the Watch!

You certainly seem to like the darker of the books in the 1st & 2nd Chronicles. I'm an Illearth War and Lord Foul's Bane man myself!

Why don't you take yourself on over to The Summonsing, introduce yourself and get a semi-official welcome.

Be Welcome and True!

u.

Post by **Nerdanel** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 8:07 am

1. The Wounded Land
2. The Power that Preserves
3. The Illearth War
4. The One Tree
5. White Gold Wielder
6. Lord Foul's Bane
7. The Runes of the Earth
8. The Last Dark
9. Fatal Revenant
10. Against All Things Ending

I'm not so sure about the latter part of the list. It contains some big gaps between times of reading, which make comparisons very unreliable.

Post by **wayfriend** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 1:42 pm

Holy cow, it's Nerdanel!

Post by **Wolfe** » Mon Dec 21, 2015 12:52 pm

1. The Last Dark
2. The Illearth War
3. Fatal Revenant
4. The Power That Preserves
5. White Gold Wielder
6. Against All Things Ending
7. The One Tree
8. The Wounded Land
9. Lord Foul's Bane
10. The Runes Of The Earth

Post by **ussusimiel** » Mon Dec 21, 2015 9:01 pm

Hi Wolfe, welcome to the Watch!

Why not drop in to The Summonsing tell us a bit about yourself and get an 'official' welcome

u.

Post by **Avatar** » Tue Dec 22, 2015 5:29 am

Hey, welcome aboard Wolfe.

What ^he^ said.

--A

Post by **Wolfe** » Tue Dec 22, 2015 12:30 pm

Thanks for the welcome! I've introduced myself over there.

Post by **Avatar** » Wed Dec 23, 2015 5:33 am

--A

Post by **slickthomas** » Sun Jan 08, 2017 11:53 pm

1. The Power That Preserves
2. The Wounded Land
3. Lord Foul's Bane
4. The Illearth War (the Troy half ranks higher, the Elena half lower)
-gap-
5. White Gold Wielder
-gap- (the ranking gets more difficult from here)
6. The One Tree (I hate sea voyage novels like Voyage of the Dawn Treader but it had a couple of good parts)
7. Fatal Revenant (the Berek halfhand section raises it)
8. Runes of the Earth (just kinda boring)
9. The Last Dark (final showdown was written underwhelming and the couple hundred pages before that are horrible)
10. Against All Things Ending (the first 80% is the worst thing SRD has ever published)

Post by **Shuram Gudatetris** » Sun Jan 29, 2017 1:36 pm

I've just about got a ten way tie at the top, but if I HAD to try to rank them, Four or five stand out for me juuuuust a bit more, and one stands out as inferior. I've listed them within clusters in order of release.

TPTP-- First two chapters, masterpieces. Lord Mhoram's Victory, bitches!
TWL---

Sunbane hurts my heart. Giants! (tears)
TOT--- Almost could drop this to lower tier, but.... Nom.
FR----- Effing mother effing showdown under Melenkurion Skyweir!
TLD-- Jeremiah's brilliant. Climaxes! Conclusions! Rock-climbing Stave!

LFB---- My introduction to fantasy fiction, and what an introduction.
TIL---- Troy, why are you forestalling telling them about your plan?

TROTE-- Hated (HATED) this book first two readings. Third, it grew on me. Fourth: OMFG I LOVE this book! Stave! Linden!
AATE--- The Harrow is a douche. That was disappointing. The Ardent, though? Ribbands! Love me some ribbands!

WGW--- Ice block monsters? *sigh* This one just feels bloated for all of what happened in it

I seem to rank them based on epic-ness. Epic moments get extra credit.

I was surprised to see so much disdain for the Final Chronicles! I really like them.

Post by **Cord Hurn** » Mon Feb 06, 2017 6:06 am

Shuram Gudatetris wrote:FR----- Effing mother effing showdown under Melenkurion Skyweir!

Yeah, this is one of my favorite confrontation scenes in all the Chronicles. The scenes with Berek Halfhand, Caerroil Wildwood, Linden destroying the caesure of the Demondim to destroy their link to the Illearth Stone, and Linden going after moksha Raver all contribute to this being my favorite book of the Last Chronicles.

Post by **wayfriend** » Mon Sep 25, 2017 1:55 pm

This was on the Episode of West Wing that I watched the other night.

The West Wing S04E10 'Arctic Radar' wrote:JANICE
I'm not obsessed. I'm just a fan, and I care.

JOSH
I'm a fan. I'm a sports fan, I'm a music fan and I'm a Star Trek fan. All of them. But here's what I don't do. Tell me if any of this sounds familiar: "Let's list our ten favorite episodes. Let's list our least favorite episodes. Let's list our favorite galaxies. Let's make a chart to see how often our favorite galaxies appear in our favorite episodes. What Romulan would you most like to see coupled with a Cardassian and why? Let's spend a weekend talking about Romulans falling in love with Cardassians and then let's do it again." That's not being a fan. That's having a fetish.

Nothing wrong with a good fetish, I say.

Kevin's Watch

Kevin's Watch

Ranking of the 10 chronicles books