So finally I got to lay my hands on the first book of the Last Chronicles of one of literature's most unusual heroes... God knows I have been waiting.
When I read the First Chronicles I was blown away. I remember feeling like I did when I read Tolkien for the first time. Not because the content was similar, or because they share the same writing style, but because it just entranced me the same way. Fantastic landscapes, imaginative plots and terrific creatures - all seen through the eyes of a diseased, selfish and introvert anti-Hero with no interest in "saving the world".
The Second Chronicles were even better. The story had expanded and we finally got to meet the loveable Giants and follow the inner plight of the Haruchai. The Sunbane was an excellent symptom of the evil that had befallen the Land. I loved how Stephen Donaldson defiled his wonderful creation from the first books to make the reader even more involved in its ultimate fate in the second books.
So here we are...
Third Chronicles...
And I'm not impressed...
The problems are many and the higlights few.
The Land has been afflicted with a disease of the highest order. A disease EVERY single race and character suffers from in this book:
Guilt.
"We are not worthy."
"It was our fault."
"The shame."
The crying of all these spineless people made me want to tear my hair out.
Linden is forever unworthy because of her personal history, Anele is unworthy because he lost the Staff of Law, the Haruchai are unworthy because of how they failed to serve the Land and thus has taken up a twisted form of total service by implementing the use of tyranny. The Ra men are not worthy because they hid in the hills instead of fighting the good fight. The Stonedownors are unworthy because they have been kept in the dark. The Waynhim are unworthy because they are Waynhim and so on... Everybody also feels everybody else is unworthy so there's no encouraging pep-talk going on. Everywhere you turn they are all wallowing in self-pity and guilt and shame... Only makes for so much varied reading as far as character development goes. "Oh here's another one. Let's see what his plight is.. Oh, what do you know... Self-blame and anscestral shame." Well, snap out of it.
Another thing that bothered me with this book that despite its number of pages nothing really happened. Linden's kid gets stolen, she goes to the Land, finds the Staff of Law and ends up in Revelstone. That could have been a nice first ten chapters. A whole book? C'mon... I can only take so much of Linden groaning. My wife read the book as well and her comment was "This woman needs to be smacked with a big salami."
I'm from New York. I know we have a reputation to be tough but I would assume that these Stonedownors, Haruchai and Ra men would have us beaten right?
Yet everybody puts up with Linden's "struggling silence". On every page she is taking her damn time answering questions, while fighting some emotional battle with herself over some stupid crap noone but her cares about:
See what I mean? This was of course all a fictitious event that didn't take place, but to me it represents what the whole book was about. Just endless emotional inner turmoil at the expense of everybody else."Oh, Chosen! The big ass tornado of evil is heading this way, loaded with vile creatures. What are we going to do?"
Linden groaned. How could she give these poor people an answer when all she wanted was to howl in despair! It doesn't matter! The Masters have deceived you! He has my son! Foul will win. No, it was all futile. She made a point of taking another treasure berry and slowly putting it in her mouth, feeling the juices slowly rejuvenating her battered body, while the Stonedownor and the Ra men were bristling with ill concealed impatience. You could see the hairs on the knuckles of the closest Demondim charging towards them now.
"Chosen! We must flee!"
Linden groaned again. She had the White Gold. Covenant's ring. It was hers by right now, he had given it to her to heal the land. She closed her hand over it, feeling its double-edged warmth against her skin underneath her shirt. No... It was wrong. That was what Foul wanted her to do. Just like her father had wanted her to witness his ultimate demise in that attic so many years ago, so did Foul wish for her to observe the undoing of the Arch of Time, all by her hand. She had so much blood on her hands already. She could not help these people. She started rocking back and forth, engulfed by emotional torrents.
The first Demondim crashed into them, ripping limbs of screaming Ra-men, clawing faces into minced meat.
"Linden Avery. We must depart." said the Manethrall stoically, now bleeding from multiple gashing wounds. He was still all pumped for battle, almost urging Linden to get to her feet and make a stand. The silent plea in his eyes spoke to her more plainly than any words ever could. Oh, Covenant. If only you were here. Don't you understand? she wanted to shout to the Manethrall, he has my son!
You just pray for Angus Thermopyle to rip open the fabric of time and space and step through the Gap, striking Linden with a crashing blow and screaming in her face" What the hell is wrong with you? People are dying and you're playing the goddamn pity violin? Nobody gives a shit about your inner demons honey so either start killing these goddamn bastards or friggin' run! Get your gay ass off the ground and put that ring to some good use. If Foul can't take a joke, screw him!"
If I see "Linden groaned" one more time...
Third... Stephen R Donaldson's vocabulary is of course most impressive. You have to admire a man who can properly implement such tongue twisting words as "puissant", "preternatural" and "percipience" (what? - so he got to the P's in the dictionary). Unusual as these words are, I sometimes get a kick out of seeing them used in proper English. It gets a little too much though when said words become the story.
With such an extensive vocabulary maybe Mr. Donaldson could have varied the formications and puissances a little? Isn't THAT one trademark of a great writer?
Also... On the same subject I find the overuse of "elegant" words quite disturbing at times. I'd like to think I am fairly well versed in the English language and yet I find myself not even getting the context of certain sentences because of words I have just never encountered before. That takes away from the flow of the story. If I have to look up a word I have never even heard before, it means I am taking my eyes off the pages the writer intended me to read, UNLESS the meaning of the word is unveiled through the rest of the sentence or paragraph. No such luck with this book. Endless paragraphs of extremely fancy words totally killed this book for me.
I just recently re-read the Gap-series and I can't remember flinching at even one word throughout that whole saga. Is it that Mr. Donaldson nowadays feels "ashamed" of being a Fantasy writer and thus over-implements a multitude of floral words moreoften found in "serious fiction"? Is it for himself or for his reader he writes? If it's for himself, then of course... he can do whatever he pleases. If he's writing for the reader, he's losing them by using a language that rather scares people off than sucks them in. Your vocabulary only means so much if you're the only one appreciating it.
Maybe these books will pick up, but right now the story is treading water. This was an utterly pointless reading experience and remember... I do count the Chronicles of Covenant to be my all time favorite book series along with the Gap-series.
There's no shame in writing Fantasy Mr. Donaldson. Come off your high horses and join us mortals so we can enjoy your fantastically imaginative mind working for the story instead of against it.
/
Skeletal Grace
Your biggest fan (like everyone else in here)