Booklist Review
Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2004 12:44 pm
From Booklist
Donaldson returns, with the intent of saying farewell to his most successful creation, Thomas Covenant, in four volumes, of which this large, generally impressive novel is the first. It is 10 years since Thomas Covenant's death, and Linden Avery runs the small mental hospital in which Covenant's widow, Joan, is confined. Roger Covenant, newly turned 21, visits Avery and tries to get his mother released. Failing at that, he kidnaps Joan as well as Avery's adopted son, then commits several murders and flees to the Land, the other world of Covenant sagas. Roger is clearly doing Lord Foul's bidding, and Avery has no choice but to follow him. She discovers that in the Land three and a half millennia have passed. The Haruchai are now called the Masters and distrust Earthpower, and an old man, Anele, who is full of Earthpower, is key to finding the lost and essential Staff of Law. Thus is engendered a quest of formidable complexity, ranging across the Land to end at the seat of the Masters at Revelstone Keep, presently menaced by a host of Demondim, against which, however, the Staff of Law, wielded by battle-worn Avery, no longer offers the only hope. Filled with splendid inventions (occasionally described to the point of prolixity), this book promises extremely well for the future of the end of the Covenant chronicles. Expect readers to swarm. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Donaldson returns, with the intent of saying farewell to his most successful creation, Thomas Covenant, in four volumes, of which this large, generally impressive novel is the first. It is 10 years since Thomas Covenant's death, and Linden Avery runs the small mental hospital in which Covenant's widow, Joan, is confined. Roger Covenant, newly turned 21, visits Avery and tries to get his mother released. Failing at that, he kidnaps Joan as well as Avery's adopted son, then commits several murders and flees to the Land, the other world of Covenant sagas. Roger is clearly doing Lord Foul's bidding, and Avery has no choice but to follow him. She discovers that in the Land three and a half millennia have passed. The Haruchai are now called the Masters and distrust Earthpower, and an old man, Anele, who is full of Earthpower, is key to finding the lost and essential Staff of Law. Thus is engendered a quest of formidable complexity, ranging across the Land to end at the seat of the Masters at Revelstone Keep, presently menaced by a host of Demondim, against which, however, the Staff of Law, wielded by battle-worn Avery, no longer offers the only hope. Filled with splendid inventions (occasionally described to the point of prolixity), this book promises extremely well for the future of the end of the Covenant chronicles. Expect readers to swarm. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved