OK. Shoot me down but surely everybody has their least favourite book?
I have just worked my way through The Wounded Land and it's been the most FRUSTRATING read so far
Maybe it had something to do with the story simply clattering along from one bad event to another without any REAL intervention from TC or Linden - in fact they're both pretty irrelevant except for a few events.
I figure SRD was more focussed on changing the landscape than actually telling a story. Thank heaven for good old Vain - at least he kept me going So ! Is this a shared feeling or is it just me?
I know what you mean about The Wounded Land, it does really get you down, but my least favorite is The Illearth war (gets ready for the backlash from probably everyone on the Watch) I just hate Hile Troy and this is the book which I just struggle through to get to the good bits at the end. Its still my 6th favorite book ever
Cail left. Honniscave died. Hollian died (yeah, she
got better, but still), Sunder got transformed, Hile
Troy died ... and then it all wound up with Covenant
dying ....
Besides, a part of me would have loved to have seen
an army of the Haruchai taking out Foul's guards so
that Covenant could get in for his final confrontation.
Wow. Now THATS a hard question. Now, as does everyone else here I'm sure, I love all of the books in the Chronicles. But, if I had to pick a least favorite, I would have to say The Illearth War. My next least fav would probably be The Wounded Land. The Illearth War I felt was a little slow, plus it didn't really pick up until the end. And as for Wounded Land, I loved way Donaldson set up the downfall of the Land, but again, it was just a little slow compared to the others. Now, The Power that Preserves, that's a fast paced book.-jay
I know what you mean about The Wounded Land (though not about The Illearth War - I love that book), but my least favourite would probably be The One Tree. The whole thing seemed to go astray a bit there. Don't get me wrong, it's a good book, and it has some great moments, but in my opinion it's the weakest of the Chronicles. I agree White Gold Wielder was certainly heavy going, what with all the deaths, but it was largely redeemed by Covenant almost being prevented almost at the last turn by the dull-witted, slobbering Cavewights, and in his desperation seeing only one person (or entity) in the world who could save himself and Linden at that moment.........Lord Foul. Loved that bit. That moment almost single-handedly saved the whole book from being too oppressive.
My least favorite book of the Chronicles is definitely TWL. It was so painful seeing what had happened to the Land that I knew and loved! I couldn't take it...I even threw the book across the room at one point because I was so frustrated wondering how could this happen??
My favorite is TPTP, mostly because I love Foamfollower and the way he interacts with Covenant...
yeah, altho i luvd the way sd portrayed the land in twl, i hated how tc & linden didnt do much of any use. @ some points they were almost useless. thats the same thing that bugged me about the illearth war, but i luv mhoram & elena & hyrim. i also agree bout hile troy, he just couldnt c things from any other point of view but his own.
my favourite 2 books would b; tptp coz i also luv foamfollower, & i luv the struggles & triumphs of mhoram & amatin & loerya & trevor & borillar & quaan, & i luv the way bannor is finally free of the vow 2 b who he is; and wgw coz i luv how honniscave & hamako found some meaning 4 themselves, & how linden beat the raver & accepted her health sense fully, & pitch wife & the first rocked.
sum sui generis
variol son
You do not hear, and so you cannot be redeemed.
In the name of their ancient pride and humiliation, they had made commitments with no possible outcome except bereavement.
He knew only that they had never striven to reject the boundaries of themselves.
It took me 4 severe headaches 2 bouts of depression 1 case of vomiting and 2weeks 2 get through the middle of TWL--on the brighter side: My FAV The One Tree couldn't have been written w/o it--w/o Vain (I LOVE VAIN!!) and the Waynhim I'd have never made it through The Wounded Series, er Land..as they say: once bitten (by Marid) twice shy!
I think SRD isnt real good at writing a bad book .. and I thought TWL had a story but one that needed much explaining .. It was an intense contrast to that we had all become accustomed to in the first series .. SRD created a strong connection between the Land and the reader in the first series but then all is dashed .. SRD "took something we loved then gave it back to us broken" .. just like he explained about his getting Joan 'back'.
Like many of you .. I hated what I read .. what had become of the Land I loved .. and this loathing was not released not even at the end of WGW .. I wanted to be taken through the healed Land and see for myself the evil had been purged! But alas it was not to be .. we know the LA entrusted with the ring and the staff healed the Land and I just wish I could have seen it for myself.
Worst book?? I dont think there was one .. Least favourite book .. has to be TWL .. for all the reasons previously stated and concurred with ..
I didnt really like the ending of TWL actually .. I didnt like to be left hanging like that .. but in Mordants Need in aMoHD he does that to the reader there too! .. oh well .. oh what it is to be at the mercy of such an author??? Clever .. indeed .. cos I couldnt wait to get my hands on tOT .. so I read WGW first!!!!
I know!! .. the cardinal sin of a reader!!!
keep smiling
'Smoke me a kipper .. I'll be back for breakfast!'
This might just come from reading all 6 books in a week and a half, but I thought that LFB was the worst book of the series. The reason for this would be that partially because Covenant was soooo annoying (I always thought that the Land was real), and partially because it didn't really seem to have a interesting plot. There's only so much Disbelief that I can tolerate in a charecter before getting a strong impulse to strangle, yell at, or slap him. And Drool wasn't a very interesting enemy...just that name....Drool...ugh!
TWL was more painful, however, and it got REALLY frusterating in parts like where there's a grim coming, and Covenant doesn't DO anything at all. It was most frusterating how TC would have a chance to save someone's life, wouldn't, would feel really bad, then use wild magic for something that he could've prevented. But that is just how the reader feels about it; it goes to show what a great writer SRD is that so many people keep reading through that book and still care about the Land.
WGW would've been better if half of it hadn't been spent in an iceland that seemed to just be a anti-climax of TOT. Also, Huruchi (sp?) would've been much cooler, and was it really nesscary to kill, send away, or atherwise lose most of my favorite charecters???
Regarding TIW, I didn't like most of the part whith HT, but the last 5 or so chapters almost made up for it (I REALLY like Forstalls, there should be more).
For any problems whith spelling or grammer, I apologise....I rather need to take a course in them next year....
Each man is worth exactly the value of that which he has seriously persued.
--Marcus Auralius
I'll agree with you there, Lauralin...I spent most of LFB, and much of TIW, too, wanting to strangle, yell at, and/or slap Covenant. He really irritated me. But something happened between TIW and TPTP that made me lose the desire to scream at him. By the end of the series, I actually liked him...a lot. Now I look back on his early Unbelief with a sort of...weary affection is the only way to describe it.
Now, Linden irritated me too at first...the difference is, I never stopped wanting to scream at her.
i completely agree that TWL was the worst ....although like the prince of amber said , its still on my fav books list......i didnt so much mind how slow it seemed to drag , as i thought it added to the readers understanding of teh frustration of TC...but i hated linden avery ...when she came to the land and was all " woe is me , i hate everyone , and its all my dads fault "..i wished we had never gotten an insight into her mind. .. but as everyone knows........she is the sunsage , she does heal the land!!! it kind of redeems her!
Strange as it seems, I didn't really have a problem with Linden in particular in the first book; the thing that bugged me was the vast amount of mental, emotional, and physical stress she and TC had to go through before they reached Revelstone. After all, who wouldn't be depressed and hysterical after all of that? After spending three books getting to understand TC I really didn't want to have to get used to another disfunctional charecter with dozens of problems. The reason it's not my least favorite book is because after the burst of wild magic at Revelstone, between giants an Hurichi (however you spell that) I did think that the book got to be more interesting, and less painful. I would reccomend re-nameing this book The Wounded Reader.
Each man is worth exactly the value of that which he has seriously persued.
--Marcus Auralius
I don't know if there is such a thing as the worst book in "The Chronciles of Thomas Covenant", that's like asking which is the worst book in "The Lord of the Rings". However, to state the obvious, there are obviously books that frustrate the hell out of the readers as they try to place it in the overall context of the chronicles.
I remember reading in one of the other discussions that compared TCTC and LOTR where it was stated that JRT told a great story whereas SRD was just messing with everyones minds. This discussion goes a long way to support that statement.
For me there was no worst book, however I would have like to have seen TIW in its' entirety irrespective of the fact that Koriks' mission proved that the land was real. I noticed that TIW was one that many selected and I wonder if that is more to do with the fact that three stories are happening simultaneously even though SRD presents them as separate sections of the book.
TIW and TWL have an affect on most readers as it discusses the destruction of what readers as well as TC have come to love, ie the giants, the inhabbitants of the land and the land itself.
For me it's a close call between TWL and WGW. I found the One Tree to be the best book of the 2nd chronicles by far, given the confrontations with the Elohim and the Kemper himself. While TWL is depressing as all hell, it serves a purpose of drastically changing our perceptions of the land, as well as introducing many new charecters.
To me, WGW begins in despair with the party ice locked on the ship, and pretty much drags from there. The battle with the Clave at Revelstone offers some good reading, as does the end of the book. My favorite book of the six is TIW, by far. The story becomes much deeper, contains some magnificient writting depicting the hell of war (see forced march), and the events within it set up the rest of the series (Amok/Kevin/Law of Death).
I've just finished The Wounded Land again and I have to say its now my favorite. I just love it when Covenant finds Giants again, it had me almost in tears. I know the Land is broken but - you can feel the will of Covenant to mend it, you can almost taste his (and Linden's) raw emotions. It is wonderfully written and I just wish I had the language skills to express how I feel about all of these books. I start the One Tree again tonight (actually I read the first couple of pages in bed this morning ) and it will probably be my favorite by next week,
I just finished The One Tree and it's been a pleasure. It's probably one of the more diverse books ito new and interesting places - and from an activity scale, more made for the big screen than many of the previous books.
Now I'm reading White Gold Wielder and will see how that goes
So ! Is this a shared feeling or is it just me?
(gets ready for the backlash from probably everyone on the Watch) I just hate Hile Troy and this is the book which I just struggle through to get to the good bits at the end. Its still my 6th favorite book ever 
