slarter's Full Review: Stephen R. Donaldson - The Wounded Land
There is something in the fantasy epic that lends itself to a peculiar form of excellence. The trilogy in particular, well-nigh sacrosanct to the genre, embodies this, but the more finely crafted of the longer series partake of the same fact. The steady increase of words brings with it (when the author is skilled) a burgeoning knowledge of and care for the characters and situations depicted. Had Tolkien told his tale of the One Ring in a single novel*, his accomplishment could never have affected so many so profoundly; brevity does disservice to important stories. Stephen Donaldson originally conceived of his Thomas Covenant novels as a ponderous arc comprised of three trilogies. The first two were published over the course of a decade, between the mid 70s and mid 80s. The third series has only now begun to see publication, and does not promise an end until next decade. While the success of the last trilogy is yet to be seen, The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant is, if anything, even more magnificent than its predecessor. The first book of the series, The Wounded Land, begins Covenant's second sojourn in the Land, and an apocalyptic struggle against Despite.
<=== Characters & Plot ===>
Linden Avery, a new doctor in a small town, is unprepared for Thomas Covenant. At a request from her supervisor, she undertakes a visit to Haven Farm, only to stumble across an old beggar experiencing cardiac arrest. Driven by the strictures of her profession, she strives mightily to save him, but when she succeeds she is inexplicably shocked by the message given to her by the man she has just rescued: "You will not fail, however he may assail you. There is also love in the world." She is left to stumble toward Covenant’s door with the words "Be true," ringing in her mind.
Thomas Covenant himself is another enigma. Leprosy-afflicted and isolate, he is nonetheless possessed of a tremendous force, an inflexible strength of will that awes Linden. Fascinated and irresistible drawn, she follows Covenant in his most exigent moment of distress: his wife, in thrall to a malefic force, is going to be sacrificed, and the only redemption he can effect is through willing submission to the same fate. As he is struck down, Linden finds herself powerless to help, powerless to save him, and flayed to the soul by the hate in the eyes of Lord Foul.
The two awaken on a stone platform thousands of feet in the air: Kevin's Watch. There Covenant must confront the reality of his return to the Land, and help Linden through her first panic-stricken moments in a place that should not exist. Now, while only ten years have passed for Covenant since he fought and defeated Despite, 4000 years have passed in the Land, and nothing is as it was. The Sunbane wracks the earth daily, grinding its people under a weighty millstone of malice. The earthpower that formerly sustained the Land has been corrupted, and now life must be purchased from the soil by blood and tears. Spurred by the painful memory of past beauty, Covenant leads Linden toward giant-wrought Revelstone in search of answers. Once again the Land's fate, for good or ill, lies in the benumbed hands of a leper.
<=== Analysis ===>
A Land ravaged and wracked by Despite is brutally painful to Thomas Covenant. It is also painful to the reader who recalls the poignancy of the First Chronicles. In those novels, the Land was a place of excruciating loveliness, where health was palpable, and wood and stone were objects of reverence. The deep respect with which its people regarded their home was a pure, noble expression of empathy and strength, and their willingness to spend themselves extravagantly in service to the Land was a thing of especial magnificence. Now, under the puissant ill of the Sunbane, beauty and earthpower have been corrupted, and all that was right and excellent about that world has been stricken. The loss is palpable, nigh unbearable.
All is not sorrow and rue, however; there is yet strength and beauty in the world. Where he expects to find none, Covenant finds succor and guidance from the unlikeliest of companions. Acting against everything they have known, Sunder, graveler of Mithil Stonedown and Hollian, eh-brand of Crystal Stonedown, proffer their aid willingly to the two strangers, though it means peril and possible death. Further, Covenant encounters the Haruchai, whose unassailable competence is undiminished by the passage of millennia. Finally, in a masterstroke that surpasses all others, Donaldson reintroduces the giants, his most magnificent creations. As Covenant is jarred into anguished recollection in meeting the kin of his lost friend, Saltheart Foamfollower, so too is the reader; the long fidelity and tragic fate of the Land's giants flows as a raw undercurrent to the unfolding story.
As in the first trilogy, so in the second: Donaldson's prose is dense, almost esoteric, but evocative in the extreme. It seems as though he has gone out of his way to discover new adjectives, and his use of simile and metaphor continues to amaze. Pedestrian explanations are beneath him; he consistently pushes language toward the boundary of the comprehensible. Such writing could easily become bogged down in description, but the situations the author creates are fraught with such danger that the narrative fairly flies in parts. While lush and expressive prose is his norm, Donaldson knows well how to use staccato sentences to build tension. In a myriad of ways, he proves himself a master of his craft, and light-years beyond the lesser writers that populate the fantasy genre.
<=== Finale ===>
In a recent interview, Stephen Donaldson confessed that he would not have wanted to publish the Second Chronicles unless he could surpass his achievement in the First Chronicles, and didn't want to publish his Third Chronicles unless he could surpass the Second. This last assertion remains to be proven, but if The Wounded Land is to be taken as an example, the first is indubitably true. The brilliance that was the First Chronicles is distilled, subverted, and recast such that it retains its essentials while becoming something entirely different. Much that was admirable about the first trilogy has been destroyed, but some of Donaldson's most cherished creations take center stage in the second, palliating the unavoidable sense of loss that accompanies the wrenching change in milieu. The Second Chronicles' impact, of course, would have been much diminished had it been comprised of a stand-alone story arc. Sir Isaac Newton once said that he was able to see further than others because he stood on the shoulders of giants.** Analogously, The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant succeed precisely because they stand on the shoulders of the first trilogy. Those are indeed prodigious shoulders.
Four thousand years have passed since Covenant first freed the Land from the devastating grip of Lord Foul and his minions. But he is back, and Conven...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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