Against All Things Ending: The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (Gollancz S.F. S.) [Paperback]

The Good News is that I finished Against All Things Ending, this morning. The bad news is that having waded through the first 2 books in this, the last chronicles of TM, I naively expected this to be the last book in the chronicles only to discover that there is a 4th book which will be out in a couple of years.

To echo other's sentiments, the first two chronicles were superb! SD's writing style was never a problem in the first two chronicles - in fact it was commensurate with the complexity of the story line. It was essential to build in the reader's mind, a detailed profile of all the characters which would sustain the reader's understanding of events to come and the parts each character had to play and the way they influenced the event outcomes. Much of these character profiles evolved as the "action" took place. This enabled the story to move along and maintain a balance between 1) something physically happening and 2) the thought processes and emotions of the characters involved. SD was polished in the writing of these two important facets and adept at integrating them in such a way that left the reader hungry for more of both. A testament to the success of this formula (or style) is the fact that I read the first chronicles in one weekend - for 2 days I was totally consumed.

As I approached the end of Against All Things Ending, I was beginning to feel self congratulatory. This is, I am afraid, a poor indictment on the book and to a slightly lesser degree the previous two books. I was thinking "I'm nearly there; I've finished it; I won't have to read ALL the books yet again to remind myself what has already transpired". The fact is - this was hard work! The only reason I stuck with it was out of some kind of loyalty to the previous chronicles and an increasingly forlorn hope that "it would come good"

In conclusion, SD's protracted and repetitive soliloquies damaged what would otherwise have been a very good book indeed. I can't begin to imagine what has caused SD to labour so, the emotional conflicts and self doubts of one, increasingly irritating Linden Avery. It is inconceivable that any of the characters in her motley crew put up with her for so long. In doing so however, we the readers were obliged to do the same.

Enough said. My deepest wish is that soon, a Bannor or Foamfollower character will enter SD's life and give him a gentle tap and convince him to "get a grip" (pretty much what I would have liked to have happened to Linden in this book).

There's a heck of a lot of good stuff in this book. About 400 pages-worth, which is roughly the length of each of the first trilogy. The only thing is, this book is 743 pages long. So we have 400 pages of action that moves the story along, decent introspection and analysis, character study, and 343 pages of Linden whining.

Although I couldn't say Linden Avery's ever come close to cracking my top 10 list of favourite Covenant characters, I've never been a hatah. Until, I'm sad to say, now. Sadder than I can express, actually, because ever since discovering the first and second trilogy at the same time, in the mid-80's (they screwed up my "O" level revision), the Chronicles have been my favourite set of books. Ever. And when I heard about the Last Chronicles coming along, well, I was a very happy chap.

The Runes of the Earth: great. Fatal Revenant: excellent. But now that I've finished reading Against All Things Ending I am, for the first time, wondering if Stephen Donaldson's lost his mojo. If you look on the US Amazon site you'll see a lot of reviews which express similar sentiments: Linden. Bloody Linden. Why is the whole thing about LINDEN?! And I agree with them. The *constant*, never-ending, repetitive, boring, circular self-doubt, self-hatred and whining. The almost wilful misunderstanding of people's motives. The need always to bring things back to me, me, me. I'm so wicked. I killed my mother. I watched my father die. I'll never live up to Covenant. Give. It. A. Rest.

At times Donaldson seems to have completely lost the feeling for his own characters - this quote from page 625: "What remained, except to pray that she and her friends had not made a terrible mistake by surrendering their fate to the Ranyhyn?" Oh, you think? Her reaction to Covenant's post-resurrection disorientation and pain? She sees it as a rejection of her, that she's been abandoned. "To hell with you" she even thinks, at one point. And later, "Covenant was still alive: in effect, Infelice had said so. Other issues were more important." The last time I looked, it was still the Final Chronicles of *Thomas Covenant*. She's what you might call an unreliable witness, so can't be objective about things - fine, but come on. She wasn't *this* bad before. She may have second-guessed (and even third-guessed) herself, but in this book she's just interminable.

Oh, and the Giants. Since when did they ever describe themselves using language not far short of "Heh! We're Giants! We're absolutely bonkers, us! You'd have to be mad to work here! We're ker-rayzee"? Joy in the ears that hear, certainly, but Foamfollower and the Search always reserved a fundamental, grave dignity. There was never the feeling that our current band are projecting of "hey, who cares where we're going? Who cares what we're up to? As long as it turns into a good story, right?!"

The best example I've seen of fantasy that ties up motivation, struggle (internal and outward), action and heart-in-the-mouth pace is The Illearth War. Go back and read it. It's majestic. When you stumble on the name of one of Linden's gang, trying to remember who is being described (because they're all similarly heroic and self-sacrificing), marvel at the way Donaldson managed to elegantly juggle Elena, Hile Troy, Mhoram, Covenant and Bannor. All different and distinctive, all memorable.

Three stars. A lot of good stuff (everything involving Covenant, basically), but several hundred pages of wallowing, self-pitying drivel from Linden Avery.

I finished this book today and was very interested to see what other readers thought of it. This is a more of a response to the other reviews than anything else.

The main criticism, which has been much repeated, is how annoying Linden Avery's self pity, doubt and hatred is, particularly when it consumes such a large number of pages. To some extent,I agree with this: it's not a lot of fun and it undermines the credibility of the story to some extent - why does this character, who inspires such tedium in the readers, inspire such loyalty in the other characters? However, I think it fair to balance the criticisms with two other considerations.

First: lengthy, whingeing navel gazing is hardly a new feature of the Chronicles. Why should this be any different? Also, much of the criticism seems to be personally directed at Linden Avery as if Thomas Covenant had not filled hundreds of pages in his time with dour introspection.

Second: Linden is a developing character. This should be made clear by the symbolic transformation of the Staff of Law, even if you managed to miss the fact that this mortal, flawed and fallible woman has been under a spectacular degree of stress lately (how would you like it if you had to ba a character in a Stephen Donaldson book?). Such a deep transformation absolutley requires a long and deep inner process, and that, ultimately, is the purpose of all those tortuous pages.

The other most repeated criticism is about Donaldson's absurd vocabulary. Like, the navel gazing, this is a prominent feature of the landscape and if you really don't like it then I'm genuinely surprised that you've come this far. Besides, this is what dictionaries are for.

I have my own deep reservations about this book, which I have not seen voiced by others though.

One is that the theme of catatonic impotence is overused. Anele's madness is frustrating but it is at least interesting because of his veiled destiny and his vulnerability to possession. When Covenant becomes catatonic, there is some interest in his transition from timeless immortality to present mortality but the catatonia theme is already starting to strain. Then when Linden vanishes up her own *******(don't know what the profanity rules are for Amazon but I'm guessing I should be fairly discrete)it's just annoying.

The other theme which is over stretched is the deus ex machina (sorry, dont know what the proper Latin plural sould be). Every major action sequence involves a whole host of characters who seem able to sense events from far away in space and time and then either show up in person or otherwise influence events. To be fair, in some cases Donaldson handles this like an escalation between balanced forces like a well balanced chess game, but in general I felt that the super abundance of forces that transcend space and/or time placed a heavy burden on the narrative.

My third criticism is that much of the dramatic tension comes from the ongoing moral debates within and between characters, a good example being the debate between Stave and the Humbled, the outcomes of which determine much of the unfolding of the narrative. Indeed, it could be said that this theme is one of the main strengths of Donaldson's works. However, there are times when I feel unconvinced that his understanding of philosophy and of human psychology are sufficient to make some of these debates feel authentic. The characters make difficult choices, forever fearing to tread on ground where the Despiser has long since maneouvered them. The story approaches some interesting and deep ideas about which paths serve despite and which paths lead away from it but I feel less than convinced by Donaldsons arguments on this point.

My fourth reservation is that in terms of narrative coherence, I am concerned that in this story, much rests on the party trusting the wisdom of those who have already proven susceptible to Despite. What have the Ranhyn learned since Kelenabanal's futile sacrifice that qualifies them to combat Lord Foul now?

My fifth criticism is fairly minor. The parallels between Donaldson's works and tolkien's are easy enough to draw (disembodied malevolent adversary, magic rings, etc)and generally to forgive but I found the events on the bridge to be so reminiscent of the bridge at Kazad Dum as to be offputting.

My final criticism is that neither the 'What has come before' section, nor the glossary contains sufficient information for me to keep up with all of the story's characters. Like another reviewer, I started reading the Chronicles when I should have been revising for my GCSEs more than 20 years ago and I just don't remember some of the references that seem to inform this current plot.

But it must be said that this book has strengths too, and they are great ones. When, from time to time, something happens, the action is both electric and epic. As always Donaldson creates people and places of astonishing beauty, which are all the more moving when they are sacrificed: the fates of Liand and Elena particularly impacted me more powerfully than most fiction has the power to, indeed little has impacted me like that since the deaths of the giants in the Illearth War.

Finally I wish to emphasise that this book does not stand alone. It cannot. I can certainly say that this is the weakest book of Donaldson's that I have read (and I've read them all) but ultimately, I stand behind it and eagerly await the conclusion of a truly epic tale when I anticipate that the costs of reading this book will be amply repaid.