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Summary
Summary
Donaldson makes a triumphant return to his New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series with a quartet of new novels that take place ten years after Covenant's ultimate sacrifice as savior of the Land.
Author Notes
Stephen Donaldson, 1947 - Novelist Stephen Donaldson was born on May 13, 1947 in Cleveland, Ohio to James R. Donaldson, a medical missionary, and Mary Ruth Reeder, a prosthetist. His father was an orthopedic surgeon that worked with lepers in India. He lived in India between the ages of three to sixteen and while listening to one of his father's lectures on leprosy, he conceived the legendary Thomas Covenant. Donaldson attended the College of Wooster, Ohio and graduated in 1968. Afterwards, he spent two years being a conscientious objector doing hospital work in Akron and then attended Kent University where he received an M.A. in English.
Donaldson's publishing debut was with "Lord Foul's Bane" (1977), which was the first book in the fantasy trilogy entitled The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever. It was named best novel of the year by the British Fantasy Society and received the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, in 1979. He followed with the sequel series The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, also set in The Land, starting with "Daughter of Regals," and then the Mordant's Need series with "The Mirror of Her Dreams" and "A Man Rides Through." Donaldson is also the author of the Gap Into series of science fiction adventure that began with "The Real Story" and followed with "Forbidden Knowledge," "A Dark and Hungry God Arises," and "Chaos and Order."
In addition to the awards he received for his first novel/series, Donaldson has also received the Balrog Fantasy Award for Best Novel for "The Wounded Land" in 1981 and for "The One Tree" in 1983, the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Novel for "The One Tree" in 1983, the Balrog Fantasy Award for Best Collection for "Daughter of Regals and Other Tales" in 1985, and the Science Fiction Book Club Award for Best Book of the Year for "The Mirror of Her Dreams" in 1988 and "A Man Rides Through" in 1989. He also received The College of Wooster Distinguished Alumni Award in 1989, the WIN/WIN Popular Fiction Readers Choice Award for Favorite Fantasy Author in 1991, the Atlanta Fantasy Fair Award for Outstanding Achievement in 1992 and the President's Award, The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts in 1997.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Six fantasy novels featuring Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever appeared between 1977 and 1983, but Donaldson shows that his epic series still has the power to surprise in this richly imagined start of a final quartet. Covenant died at the end of White Gold Wielder (1983), and at this novel's outset so does his lover, Linden Avery, in a violent confrontation with Joan and Roger Covenant as they kidnap her son, Jeremiah. Linden awakens once again in the Land, where she finds Lord Foul scheming to escape the Arch of Time with the help of Joan and Roger while using Jeremiah as a pawn. The 10 years since Linden's last visit have been centuries by Land time, and in that interval Anele, with whom she teams, has lost the Staff of Law, plunging the world into chaos. Linden's only hope for saving the Land and reclaiming Jeremiah is to gather a crew from the Land's numerous races and surf a caesure, or time rift, to retrieve the Staff. Nevertheless, she can't shake her fear that all this has been plotted by Foul as part of his malignant design. Donaldson's saga has transformed tremendously since initial volumes offered startlingly original antiheroic fantasy resonating with echoes of both Tolkien and Philip K. Dick, but the engaging humanity of his characters still compels attention. A new generation of readers may find this episode's midstream plunge into the saga bracing, while fans of Covenant's past chronicles will welcome a return to the Land. Agent, Howard Morhaim. (Oct. 13) Forecast: Despite the long gap since the last in the series, this one should hit many bestseller lists. The Michael Whelan dust jacket is going to have a lot of fantasy fans drooling. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Donaldson returns, with the intent of saying farewell to his most successful creation, Thomas Covenant, in four volumes, of which this large, generally impressive novel is the first. It is 10 years since Thomas Covenant's death, and Linden Avery runs the small mental hospital in which Covenant's widow, Joan, is confined. Roger Covenant, newly turned 21, visits Avery and tries to get his mother released. Failing at that, he kidnaps Joan as well as Avery's adopted son, then commits several murders and flees to the Land, the other world of Covenant sagas. Roger is clearly doing Lord Foul's bidding, and Avery has no choice but to follow him. She discovers that in the Land three and a half millennia have passed. The Haruchai are now called the Masters and distrust Earthpower, and an old man, Anele, who is full of Earthpower, is key to finding the lost and essential Staff of Law. Thus is engendered a quest of formidable complexity, ranging across the Land to end at the seat of the Masters at Revelstone Keep, presently menaced by a host of Demondim, against which, however, the Staff of Law, wielded by battle-worn Avery, no longer offers the only hope. Filled with splendid inventions (occasionally described to the point of prolixity), this book promises extremely well for the future of the end of the Covenant chronicles. Expect readers to swarm. --Roland Green Copyright 2004 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Thomas Covenant, the leper who crossed the barrier between this world and that of the Land, gave his life to save his newfound world. Linden Avery, a healer of mind and body, accompanied him into the Land and inherited his stewardship of it. When Covenant's son, Roger, suddenly appears many years after his father's death and seeks to claim his inheritance and custody of his insane mother, Avery senses the presence of a familiar evil, the machinations of Lord Foul. Twenty years after ending his second Thomas Covenant trilogy, Donaldson resurfaces with a final trilogy that is intended to bring together all the threads of the previous books. Familiar and beloved characters from the Land mix with new heroes and villains in a reawakening of a classic fantasy saga. Most libraries will want this title for their collection. Buy multiple copies. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/04.] (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| What Has Gone Before | p. xiii |
| Prologue: "My heart has rooms" | p. 1 |
| 1 Mother's Son | p. 3 |
| 2 Gathering Defenses | p. 17 |
| 3 In Spite of Her | p. 30 |
| 4 Malice | p. 48 |
| 5 The Cost of Love and Despair | p. 58 |
| Part 1 "Chosen for this desecration" | p. 79 |
| 1 "I am content" | p. 81 |
| 2 Caesure | p. 88 |
| 3 In the Rubble | p. 99 |
| 4 Old Friends | p. 111 |
| 5 Distraction | p. 136 |
| 6 The Despiser's Guidance | p. 156 |
| 7 Companions in Flight | p. 166 |
| 8 Into the Mountains | p. 176 |
| 9 Scion of Stone | p. 194 |
| 10 Aided by Ur-Viles | p. 215 |
| 11 Hints | p. 240 |
| 12 The Verge of Wandering | p. 262 |
| Part 2 "The only form of innocence" | p. 287 |
| 1 Spent Enmity | p. 289 |
| 2 Dangerous Choices | p. 304 |
| 3 The Will of the Ranyhyn | p. 320 |
| 4 Heedless in Rain | p. 339 |
| 5 Against Time | p. 366 |
| 6 The Staff of Law | p. 374 |
| 7 Aid and Betrayal | p. 388 |
| 8 "Contrive their salvation" | p. 415 |
| 9 Pursuit | p. 440 |
| 10 Troubled Sanctuary | p. 457 |
| 11 The Masters of the Land | p. 477 |
| 12 Find Me | p. 504 |
| Glossary | p. 515 |