Topic: 20 years More Mature...

[Sirgod]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/536975/ref%3Dsdr%5Fbk%5F2/002-0687781-8720844

Stephen R. Donaldson: The Runes of the Earth

 I'm often asked why I waited so long--20 years--to begin work on the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. After all, the previous Covenant books were successful beyond my wildest expectations. My publishers were certainly eager for more. Apparently my readers were as well. So why the long delay?

Personally, I blame the Second Chronicles.

In some circles, it has become common knowledge that I conceived of both the Second Chronicles and the Last Chronicles in the same flash of inspiration. A year or so after I finished work on The Power That Preserves, I had one of those "tail of the comet" experiences (Patricia McKillip's words) that set my imagination on fire. And while it burned, I saw in some detail the enormous developments which would take the essential substance of my original trilogy, the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, and extend it in two more sections or movements until it formed one vast, unified story: The complete tale of what I call "Covenant's struggles against Despite in the arena of the Land." While the tail of the comet held me, I visualized everything that would have to be done, everything that would have to happen, in order to carry those "struggles" through to their logical and ineluctable apotheosis.

Frankly, the experience scared me. The story I had just conceived was truly vast: Enormous in scale, huge in difficulty--and prodigiously complex. And, as I like to say, my mommy didn't raise any self-confident children. Any hints of assurance with which we may have been born were trained out of us at an early age. The only thing I was sure of when I contemplated my intentions was that they far surpassed my abilities.

On the other hand, I was--as my father would have said--"young and vigorous," and I had already surpassed myself once by writing the original Covenant books. So instead of allowing myself to be paralyzed by self-doubt, I plunged into the project. And some four and a half or five years later, I succeeded at completing the Second Chronicles: The Wounded Land, The One Tree, and White Gold Wielder.

I probably shouldn't say so in public (as it were), but that experience taught me humility on a whole new order of magnitude. I was already familiar with self-doubt; but writing the Second Chronicles taught me to understand real creative desperation. With near-perfect seriousness, I can say that "Covenant's struggles against Despite in the arena of the Land" paled beside my own struggles to surpass myself. And of course I already knew that the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant would be far more difficult to write than the Second.

In other words, the Second Chronicles taught me that I needed to become a <i>much</i> better writer before I tackled The Runes of the Earth and the rest of the Last Chronicles.

So that's what I've been doing for the past 20 years: Trying to become a better writer. Which I've done by pushing myself as hard as I can in as many different directions as possible: By writing gentle fantasy (Mordant's Need) and dark science fiction (the Gap sequence); by writing mystery novels (my four The Man Who ?books); by writing enough short fiction to fill two volumes (Daughter of Regals and Other Tales and Reave the Just and Other Tales). Also by studying the martial arts and by raising my children, although such things may not seem obviously relevant.

Now the time has come. The Runes of the Earth is here, and we're all about to find out exactly how far I've been able to surpass myself.

--Stephen R. Donaldson, 2004

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Thanks To ToastyO for pointing this one out to me.

Man I loved Chronicles when I was growing up as a Kid. Granted some of the Themes Probably warped my Fragile little 8-10 year old mind, But to see It finally coming back, is just amazing.

Stephen

[Hale]

Cool.   These are good books.   I read the Gap (NC-17) series and found it hard to believe it was the same author.

[Capt_Bearslayer_XC]

Sheesh... been soo long since I read those books.... never did stop to think what happened to him.

[AlienLXIX]

I guess I have to be the oddball and say I have never heard of these books.  Clue me in please?

[Astarte]

http://www.futurefiction.com/the_chronicles_of_thomas_covenant.htm

*shrugs*  Never read them myself, but have heard a lot about them.  A UO shard I played had a bit of lore based on it.

[TheJudge]

I guess I have to be the oddball and say I have never heard of these books.  Clue me in please?

Thomas Covenant, an award-winning author, has leprosy and is a pariah in his small hometown.  After meeting a mysterious old man, he finds himself in a magical world called the "Land" where the carefullly rules he follows to live with his disease are assaulted.  Use to living with numb hands and feet, he finds himself tasting the health of the Land with every breath, he can see the life in the living things around him, and after meeting a local woman, his leprosy is impossibly healed, returning the sense of touch to his limbs that he thought was lost forever.  A pariah in his home, in the Land he is welcomed warmly and hailed as a hero of prophecy, given such warmth and welcome as he'd never experienced before. 

These experiences threaten the mental stability he'd established in order to control his leprosy and live his life in what he comes to call the 'real' world.  His reaction to the Land and its inhabitants becomes violent at times, and is filled with what he comes to call 'un-belief' in the Land and their need for what he brings to the land:  A white-gold wedding ring that in the Land is a talisman of power great enough to destroy the planet itself.  Thomas Covenant must tread a path between his ubelief, and the dangers thrown up against the Land, and him, by a being known as Lord Foul the Despiser.

Lord Foul's Bane is the first book of the collection and is the introduction to Thomas Covenant and to the Land.  Covenant meets the people of the Land, and the Lords of Revelstone for the first time.  He accompanies High Lord Prothall, Lord Mhoram, and others on a quest to regain the Staff of Law from Drool Rockworm, an evil creature who found the powerful Staff and has been taught its use by Lord Foul himself. 

The Illearth War is the second book and Thomas Covenant is once again summoned to the Land to aid the Lords of Revelstone as Lord Foul the Despiser sends his armies against the Land.  Covenant's unbelief is tested by the presence of another man in the Land, supposedly from Covenant's own world, and by the ramifications of his relationship with the new High Lord, Elena. 

The Power that Preserves is the third book and Thomas Covenant is summoned to the Land for what is shaping to be the last battle of the Lords of Revelstone against Lord Foul the Despiser.  The Land is awash with the forces of Lord Foul, and High Lord Mhoram leads the few survivors against a vast horde that threatens the ancient keep itself.  Thomas Covenant must make some hard choices if he is to overcome Lord Foul and save the Land, and possibly reverse some of the wrongs he himself has done...

The Wounded Land takes place ten years later, for Thomas Covenant, and several millenia later in the Land.  Thomas Covenant is summoned once more to the Land, this time by Lord Foul himself.  The Lords of Revelstone are no more, and the Land itself lies broken under a geas by Lord Foul.  Nor is Covenant alone, this time.  He is accompanied by Linden Avery, a medical doctor of his world who is assaulted by the evils of the land and struggles for her sanity even as Covenant struggles for mastery of his White Gold power in order to save their lives, and the Land itself.

The One Tree is the second book of the Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.  Covenant and Avery join the Giants of the Search in a hunt for the mythical One Tree.  Their mission is simple:  The creation of a new Staff of Law to replace the one lost during Covenant's third trip to the Land.  Probably the hardest book of the series to read, it is still vitally important to understanding the Land and the future novels.

White Gold Wielder is the sixth book of the series and the penultimate struggle as Thomas Covenant and Linden Avery return to the land, defeated in their quest for a branch of the One Tree.  Instead they take the fight first to Revelstone and the evil Clave, led by the Raver Sheol Satansfist.  Then they travel to Gravin Threndor, lair of Lord Foul the Despiser, where Covenant faces Lord Foul for the last time, and Linden Avery discovers her own true abilities.

The Runes of the Earth, written nearly twenty years after the first two chronicles, is the first book of four planned in the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.  Dr. Avery has been pursuing a life without Thomas Covenant, working to heal the wounds of our world in memory of her lost love.  One of her patients, the insane ex-wife of Thomas Covenant himself, is a constant reminder of her past, and when Roger Covenant, Thomas Covenant's son by Joan, appears, Linden knows that she is in the fight of her life.  Soon she finds herself once more in the Land.  Several millenia has passed and the Land is not what she had thought it would be.  While Lord Foul holds her adoptive son hostage, she seeks to master Covenant's White Gold power while searching for allies among old friends and old enemies, all of whom have changed drastically over the passing millenia.  Can she find the lost Staff of Law, master the power of Covenant's ring, and save her son?

[Sirgod]

awsome Rundown on the Seires Judge.

Amy, I have both the first and second Chronicles I can sanil mail you and Steve If you want to read them.


Stephen

[TheJudge]

Thanks Stephen...and considering I did it from memory alone...well I must say I even impressed myself after re-reading the post.  I tried to keep it as spoiler free as I could as well since there are quite a few surprises in store for new readers...