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Thomas Covenant may be dead, but that hasn't stopped SRD from continuing his chronicles. WGW, the third book of the 2nd Chronicles, was published 21 years ago. Now, in Runes Donaldson retuns to the Land for the Last Chronicles. Like the gap betwen the First and Second Chronicles, this one is set ten years later in Covenant's "real" world and 3,500 years later in the Land. Lord Foul, its reigning demon
has been reassuming his form and power in an effort to destroy the Arch of Time and free himself.Curiously, Runes has more in common with the first Covenant novel, LFB than the fourth, TWL, whose transition from the first trilogy is relatively straightforward. First, the title doesn't apply directly (runes are absent from Runes and LFB was Lester Del Rey's title, not SRD's); and second the novel staggers coming out of the gate. While the latter may result from Donaldson's hiatus from the "Covenant" series, I suspect that the lengthy expositions of both books necessitate the complications of their beginnings. In LFB we had to learn about the tragic arc of TC's life; his success and golden life until the onset of leprosy and his resultant alienation and self-immurement. Donaldson had a lot to hammer in, from the medical tutorial in leprosy to the descriptions of TC and his moribund town to the unremitting hostility that greets him. Nor is it an easy task to accept the grim, diseased TC as hero; and until the reader becomes more at ease with Donaldson's dense style, the operatic prose he intends but sometimes overachieves, reading can itself can become a chore at times.
Similarly, in Runes the shift in narrative from the dead TC to his lover and companion, Linden, requires Donaldson to reconstruct much of the background of the novel, a challenge complicated by the return of TC's wife, Joan and the introduction of his son, Roger. Moreover, Donaldson insinuates connections to events, issues, places and people from the first books to bring in the previously established loose ends and unfinished stories that will undergird the actions of the final chronicles.
The start of Runes finds Avery in charge of a mental hospital in TC's small town, a life of grey despair made bearable by her memories of the Land, her love for TC, and his white gold ring. In her care is Joan, who precipitated the events of the 2nd chrons through her vampiric possession by Foul and who now lives in a state of mental vacancy. Just before his 21st birthday, Roger Covenant arrives, demanding TC's ring and care of his mother. From the first, Linden distrust him, and her suspicion and rejection prove justified: Roger kidnaps his mother and Linden's adopted son, Jeremiah, who beyond anything else gives meaning to her life.
Jeremiah is the maimed son of one of the religious lunatics from the 2nd Chron. Like TC, he is missing several fingers; like Joan, he has no direct contact with others, and he lives his days constructing architectural masterpieces from Tinker Toys - including replicas of Revelstone and Mount Thunder. When she discovers Roger's perfidy, Linden pursues him, Joan, and Jeremiah to the place where TC sacrificed himself for Joan ten years previously, and in the resultant conflagration all are transported to the Land.
This prologue, a section of five chapters, and the initial pages of Part I, occupies the first 100 pages of Runes, and involves a length and a complexity of past and present events that make Donaldson's expositon unwieldy at times. The good news is that once the narrative arrives at this point it resumes the pace and coherence of the earlier books. Linden awakens on Kevin's Watch, as did TC. She acquires a guide, the deranged Anele, and a Stonedowner companion, Liand. She discovers that her task, like TC's in LFB, is to recover the Staff of Law. Foul taunts her with his foreknowledge of her failure; she meets and is aided by Stave, a Haruchai, and by Ramen and Ranyhyn. Ur-viles, Demondim, and Waynim all make appearances. The action consists of a long journey of suffering and privation while Linden tries to piece together what has happened since her initial sojourn in the Land. Much history is related - and warped - in the tales of Anele, Stave, and others, all clouding Linden's understanding.
As he did in bridging the 1st and 2nd series, SRD establishes a number of brilliant connections and reverals. The lost Staff of Law still works, but because of past events, the Law of Time has been altered, creating even more of the spiraling paradoxes that characterize the Chrons. Whereas Foul attacked Linden in the 2nd Chrons by torturing her health sense through the Sunbane, now a pall called Kevin's Dirt blankets the Land, inhibiting everyone's health sense. The Haruchi, misinterpreting their own history, have metamorphosed from dedicated vassals to self-proclaimed "Masters." A new character, perhaps the most paradoxical, Esmer, the tormented son of Cail and the merewives, permeates the narrative with his mystery. And finally, the last act of Runes, and the open questions it poses, is worth the price of admission by itself: trapped in Revelstone, Linden and her companions await the returning Haruchai and the two people they have found while scouting the enemy.
As in the 2nd Chrons, the characters do not return to the "real" world but remain in the Land. Flawed as it is at times, Runes offers an intriguing and eguiling return to the Chrons, as we await with anticipation the continuation of the tale.
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Sorry if there are numerous spelling errors. This disclaimer was easier than re-reading the whole darn thing.
