Thomas Covenant is back...or is he? (The Runes of the Earth - Stephen Donaldson)

Member Name: Mauri

Product:	The Runes of the Earth - Stephen Donaldson
Date:	07/07/09 (82 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well written

Disadvantages: Slow to get going

I first read the original Chronicles of Thomas Covenant many years ago and thoroughly enjoyed them. They were a different kind of more adult fantasy series and extremely well written. In order to review this latest instalment of the Thomas Chronicle series it is important to put it into context.

The original series spanned 6 books the first three are The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever: 'Lord Foul's Bane', 'Ill earth War' and 'Power That Preserves' the second trilogy is The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: 'Wounded Land', 'One Tree' and 'White Gold Wielder'. This latest instalment 'The Runes of the Earth' is the first book in new trilogy published almost twenty years after the original. The Thomas Chronicle of the title is a best-selling author who discovers he is suffering from leprosy. When he finds a way to access an alternative world known as the Land he finds that he is cured. In the Land, a pseudo medieval world populated by strange races and magical beasts, Covenant not only find his health restored but that he is capable through using his white gold wedding ring to tap into the 'wild magic' that is present in the Land. Thomas Covenant is the single most powerful being in that world and the only one that can stand up against the evil power of Lord Foul the Despiser who is threatening to enslave the Land for his evil purpose.

'The Runes of the Earth' doesn't exactly pick the story up where it was left since the end of the original series does have a distinct conclusion, indeed Covenant himself does not feature directly in this new book. The heroine of 'The Runes of the Earth' is Dr Linden Avery who first appears in the series in the second trilogy when she joins Covenant in the Land. There she soon finds her own source of power as a Healer who can repair the damage inflicted on the land by the creation of a Staff of Law a powerful artefact that can counter evil and restore the natural balance to the Land. Inevitably Avery and Covenant fall in love but do not live happily ever after.

At the start of this new series Linden Avery is back in our own world running a psychiatric clinic where one of the patients is Joan Covenant, Thomas' ex-wife. Joan has lost her mind and has become a tortured soul constantly reliving the horrors that she has experienced. Avery feels an obligation to do what she can for her. She now also has an adopted son Jeremiah who is severely autistic and has become the focus of her life. When Roger Covenant, Thomas and Joan's son turns up at the clinic and wants to take his mother away to look after her himself Avery is suspicious of his motives, she believes that somehow Roger wants to use the same power that Thomas wielded and that he needs his mother to do this. After she refuses Roger takes Joan by force and then abducts Jeremiah. Avery tracks them down but in the struggle that follows all of them are plunged back into the Land, thus begins a desperate quest by Avery to find her son and to stop Roger bringing harm to the Land. It is ten years since Avery was in the Land and in that time one thousand years have passed there. In that time the order of the Land has changed and despite the creation of the Staff of Law to protect the Land from further evil, dark forces have returned to the Land so her task is even harder than she at first imagined.

Donaldson's Land rather like Tolkien's Middle Earth is populated by humans as well as other creatures. In the original series we were introduced to the Giants, the Ranyhyn wild, intelligent horses roaming the plains, the Ramen a tribe of humans who devote themselves to the care and protection of the Ranyhyn, the Lords of Revelstone humans but powerful wielders of magic and the Bloodguard who are a mixture of ninja warrior and Mr Spock from Star Trek being devoid of emotional expression but expert deadly fighters. We also had evil creatures such as the soul draining Ravers and The Despiser himself a force of pure evil. In this book taking into account that one thousand years have passed since our last visit not all the familiar characters feature and some minor ones have become more prominent. The Bloodguard for instance are now the self acclaimed protectors of the Land and have made it their mission to ban the use of magic from the Land. They are now mistrusted by the other tribes and Avery can't decide if they are potential friends or enemies.

I loved the original series indeed I'd go as far as to say it was the best written and most innovative fantasy series of recent years. I came to read this book with great expectations and I really wanted to like it, however those expectations were not fully met. The one big problem that the author faced in writing this was the gap in time between the original and this final instalment. He would obviously be writing to long standing fans of the original but he also needs to cater for those coming new to the series and for who this would be an entry point. Having created such a complex world in his previous books to try and lead new readers into this later instalment was always going to be difficult and he had to include some back story unfortunately I think he's overdone it. There is an introduction at the beginning which serves as a potted history of what has gone before in the Land but despite this the first part of the book is spent relating so much of what has happened previously that the story really doesn't take off until we are well into the narrative. The prose is still well written, the characters both old and new are still interesting and the story should be exciting but the pace of the story seems to be halted with annoying regularity by long explanations of what has gone before. The irony is that although so much time is taken with this backfilling of story it seems to me that a new reader would not actually be very clear as to what has gone on before. The story is so complex involving so many characters and different threads that to even try was a mistake. If the reader already knows the original and has especially if it has been read recently then the re-telling of the event simply gets in the way of what should be a fast paced fantasy adventure. However the story does eventually become more compelling and the author's sins in the initial part of the book are forgotten as we are gradually drawn into the plight of our heroine. Like the previous books this is not your ordinary fantasy story. It has adult themes and much care is taken to examine the psychology of the characters a why they do what they do. This is not Harry Potter!

By the end Donaldson seems to have almost reached the dizzy heights of the previous books as we follow the tense exploits of Linden Avery and her companions as they move from one tense situation to another. Since this the first of a new series we end inevitably on a cliff-hanger and by the end I was once again hooked and looking forward to the next instalments.

All things taken into account and even though you can read this book in isolation from the previous series I would advise you not to. If you are going to read any part of the Thomas Covenant Chronicles read them in order and you will get the most out of it.

Overall I was slightly disappointed but not enough to give up on the next books. I'm hoping that the next books not being handicapped by having to re-tell the story for new readers will be more immediately accessible and better paced. Certainly from the tantalising ending of this first book there is a lot to look forward to.

'The Runes Of The Earth: The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant' by Stephen Donaldson is available in paperback (768 pages) from Amazon for £6.99 (+p&p) at the time this review was written.

© Mauri 2009

Summary: The first of a new Thomas Chronicle fantasy series