Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Let me start by saying that I disagree that this would be a good book for readers new to the Covenant series to start with. It's true that Donaldson does a good job of explaining events from the prior books as he goes along, for the benefit of readers who may have forgotten various details over the years, but these explanations would act as spoilers of the six prior books for new readers. It would be much better for new readers to start with Lord Foul's Bane and read the first two series through first, rather than to start with this book and find that the first two trilogies have been ruined for them. The Runes of the Earth lacks both the scope and the imaginative detail that Donaldson's writing displayed, in particular, in the second Covenant trilogy. The action is confined to a relatively small part of The Land (and to one small area of the "real" world), and takes place over a very brief timespan from the point of view of Linden Avery, the main character. There are of course some new concepts introduced, and a new threat from Lord Foul. But too much of Runes merely recycles old themes and characters and peoples from the first two series. In the second Chronicles, Donaldson was not merely content to rehash the first trilogy. Instead, he brought us Elohim and Sandgorgons, venom and Sunbane, Bhrathrair and the Clave - and Linden herself. Runes offers nothing comparable to the shock which The Wounded Land presented to readers familiar with The Land. Even the new characters are too dependent on the prior series. Linden's son, Covenant's son, even Cail's son and Sunder's and Hollian's son. Why not somebody brand new? 7,000 years after the first trilogy, we are still seeing Stonedowners, Haruchai, and Ramen. Do no new peoples ever arise from or migrate into The Land? Before the publication of JRR Tolkien's Silmarillion, many readers of the Lord of the Rings trilogy feared that exploring Middle Earth's past too thoroughly would destroy the "impression of depth" that was such a compelling facet of that series. A similar effect may be at work here. By tearing away the scenery and showing what really happened with Cail, the merwives, Kastenessen, the ur-viles, the Ranyhyn, etc., Donaldson may be answering 20 years worth of accumulated fan questions, but what is he leaving for the reader to wonder about? Runes is too dependent upon Linden, the only significant point of view character. The second trilogy gave us Linden as a counter to Covenant, as the first had given us Troy and Mhoram, but in Runes Linden must stand alone. This is problematic in several other ways besides imbalance. First of all, Linden is not nearly as compelling a character as Covenant. She is not a leper, she is not responsible for Elena's misdeeds, etc. Also, there is no longer any real reason that Linden cannot use a combination of Wild Magic and the Law to achieve basically anything. Unlike Covenant, she is unhampered by leprosy, lack of health sense, etc. And her character had already been thoroughly explored in the second trilogy, and her paralyzing refusal to act no longer applies. So Donaldson has to contrive reasons to keep Linden from simply winning the day with White Gold or Law, and those reasons seem just that, contrived. So does the conflict between Linden and the Haruchai as represented by Stave, a carbon copy of Cail. The Haruchai are committing their usual fatal mistake, oversimplistic certainty. As usual, they recognize that they have erred in the past, but they are unable to see that how they always err is to be too certain that they will not err again. This offers nothing new to readers of the first two series. Linden futilely attempts to argue Stave and the Haruchai out of one specific stance without addressing their meta-flaw, that they just can't admit they might be wrong. Certain plot elements seem half-baked. A supposed added motivation for Linden to oppose Foul is that he has kidnapped her son. But surely, if the fate of the world rests in your hands, saying that the fates of the world plus that of your son rest in your hands doesn't really ratchet up the stakes any. The my-child is-in-danger device seems melodramatic as well, as if this series should be subtitled, "This time, it's personal." Is Linden Dirty Harry or Charles Bronson? Of course not. So why go down this road? Another annoying and unconvincing device is that of madness on the part of a key character. His madness causes this knowledgeable but unreliable character to drop cryptic hints for Linden and the others to try to puzzle out rather than to just say what's on his mind. This is of course highly convenient for an author who wants to carefully ration out information to his readers, but for just that reason it is obvious that it is authorial cheating. Donaldson readers have already been through this with Adept Havelock - they deserve better than this redux. Donaldson may simply have run out of things to say. The fact that he continues to repeat himself with his anti-absolutist stance regarding the Haruchai tends to suggest as much. He has already explored the ideas of power equaling guilt, its absence equaling freedom, and the danger of certainty. If this third trilogy is going to have a new theme, its first entry does nothing to suggest what that theme might be. Runes is very much a 2004 book, in that it follows the current epic fantasy trend of merely being one chapter in a longer work with a single ending. In this respect is suffers by comparison to its predecessors such as The Illearth War and The One Tree, which were complete novels in and of themselves as well as being parts of larger works. The bottom line for die-hard Donaldson readers is that of course Runes is a must-read. Though it is a somewhat unworthy follower to the two previous series, it is certainly not an irrelevant abomination such as the later Ringworld books of Niven. But it will be bound to disappoint many who go in with high expectations, hence the two stars. Let us hope that its successor books contain less setup, and that some of the new characters are allowed to develop. The new series badly needs, if not its version of Foamfollower or Pitchwife or Mhoram or Elena, at least a Sunder.