false 2 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Jul 01 04:39:53 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 01 05:01:55 -0700 2009 umpteen
This volume is a bit more muted compared to the previous two volumes, I suppose in some ways that indicates how beaten and close to defeat the forces of good are - there's no majestic war or glorious battle here, just a desperate struggle to defend a stronghold that seems doomed to fall, and a series of futile guerilla-style skirmishes before the final confrontation and the last-minute victory via philosophical deconstruciton of the villain's motives (sort of).

This time round, none of the magic of the land comes to cure Covenant's leprosy and he is left pretty much in exactly the same condition that he experiences in the real world. On top of this he has no strong, honourable or capable friends to protect him. It's just him and his vulnerabilities, and the stakes are higher than ever. Once again Donaldson has reversed the fantasy tropes, having our hero get weaker and more pathetic and less in tune with the fantasy world he is supposed to be the saviour of, at the same time as having his foe become stronger and more potent.

Like I said in my reviews of the earlier books, you really do get the feeling that the good guys could genuinely lose this one - the trajectory for our heroes is downwards from the start, and it feels like Donaldson is so hell-bent on proving something with his inversion of high fantasy that he really could - out of perversity, or just because he's got something to prove - end it all badly.

He doesn't, though, and maybe that's actually his point. Because after everything is lost - friends, family, even hope - our hero still finds something to hold onto: a sense of self, a refusal to capitulate, a stubbornness. And it's that which allows him to win out in the end.

In some ways this is the least satisfying of the three books because of this final victory, even though it's not a textbook fantasy happy-ever-after ending. It's pleasing to see Thomas Covenant survive, because by this point I had gotten fond enough of him to want him to stick around. But you know? Perverse as it might sound, it would have been interesting to see the good guys lose.

Problem is that's NEVER a satisfying ending, which might be why Donaldson didn't go that way. But in doing so - for whatever reason - the last few chapters of the book are perilously close to the fantasy tropes that Donaldson messes with elsewhere.

Maybe that's why it feels a bit flat in comparison. But really, I can't see what else he could have done but let the good guys win. I was happy enough with the conclusion, but not inspired enough to pick up the next trilogy for a re-read (though that might have had something to do with the time-suck factor of re-reading these books and my unwillingness to endure another three books' worth of it).]]>