The Runes of the Earth
by Stephen Donaldson
The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (1)
fantasy
copyright 2004
read in September 2013
rated 7/10: well worth reading
Absolutely over the top ! Guilt... suffering... heroic sacrifice ! Yes, the seventh major book of Thomas Covenant continues the tried and true formula !
Although -- now I come to think of it -- there is no real misery.
The characters suffer by choice. Bloody and bowed but unbeaten. Because their hearts are true.
Still...
The language is just as over the top. Poetic, almost: there is more meaning in the way in which the words are used than in the words themselves. What, for example, is an "indistinct nose" ? (Sorry, not an actual quote. Rather, a re-imagining of a noteworthy but unnoted phrase.)
And this book must set the record for number of times that an author has used the word "formication"... Donaldson used the word just one in his first book -- without explanation, I had to check a dictionary. This time, the meaning is given and the word is repeated... many, many times.
I have always had the impression that Donaldson writes with both dictionary and thesaurus to hand. He browses the reference books and attempts to use the longest words that he can find...
Anyway...
Runes continues the history of The Land. This time, with a focus on Linden Avery. Since Covenant himself is dead. Apparently. Thanks to a jump of several thousand years, threats to The Land are brand new and even more threatening than earlier threats.
I do have a problem with one threat, the Falls... or time-slips. If they are a turbulent mix of every instant at the place where they occur -- them how do they also allow entry at one point and exit at another ? Surely that means that the Falls must exist at every instant at all of the places between entry and exit ? Yet they don't...
Still, that's just a minor quibble... This is fantasy :-) The Falls increase the threat to Time itself. And that is the central driver throughout the entire Covenant series.
Not a great book but a lot of fun. Well worth reading. Especially if you enjoyed the first six books...
Perhaps the third book of The Last Chronicles will actually end the saga... ?
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