The Runes of the Earth

September 27, 2004
Six fantasy novels featuring Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever appeared between 1977 and 1983, but Donaldson shows that his epic series still has the power to surprise in this richly imagined start of a final quartet. Covenant died at the end of White Gold Wielder
(1983), and at this novel's outset so does his lover, Linden Avery, in a violent confrontation with Joan and Roger Covenant as they kidnap her son, Jeremiah. Linden awakens once again in the Land, where she finds Lord Foul scheming to escape the Arch of Time with the help of Joan and Roger while using Jeremiah as a pawn. The 10 years since Linden's last visit have been centuries by Land time, and in that interval Anele, with whom she teams, has lost the Staff of Law, plunging the world into chaos. Linden's only hope for saving the Land and reclaiming Jeremiah is to gather a crew from the Land's numerous races and surf a caesure, or time rift, to retrieve the Staff. Nevertheless, she can't shake her fear that all this has been plotted by Foul as part of his malignant design. Donaldson's saga has transformed tremendously since initial volumes offered startlingly original antiheroic fantasy resonating with echoes of both Tolkien and Philip K. Dick, but the engaging humanity of his characters still compels attention. A new generation of readers may find this episode's midstream plunge into the saga bracing, while fans of Covenant's past chronicles will welcome a return to the Land. Agent, Howard Morhaim. (Oct. 13)

Forecast:
Despite the long gap since the last in the series, this one should hit many bestseller lists. The Michael Whelan dust jacket is going to have a lot of fantasy fans drooling.

June 1, 2004
Remember The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant? Published 20 years ago, that six-book series has gone on to sell more than six million copies. Here is the first of four new Covenant novels.

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2004
Donaldson returns, with the intent of saying farewell to his most successful creation, Thomas Covenant, in four volumes, of which this large, generally impressive novel is the first. It is 10 years since Thomas Covenant's death, and Linden Avery runs the small mental hospital in which Covenant's widow, Joan, is confined. Roger Covenant, newly turned 21, visits Avery and tries to get his mother released. Failing at that, he kidnaps Joan as well as Avery's adopted son, then commits several murders and flees to the Land, the other world of Covenant sagas. Roger is clearly doing Lord Foul's bidding, and Avery has no choice but to follow him. She discovers that in the Land three and a half millennia have passed. The Haruchai are now called the Masters and distrust Earthpower, and an old man, Anele, who is full of Earthpower, is key to finding the lost and essential Staff of Law. Thus is engendered a quest of formidable complexity, ranging across the Land to end at the seat of the Masters at Revelstone Keep, presently menaced by a host of Demondim, against which, however, the Staff of Law, wielded by battle-worn Avery, no longer offers the only hope. Filled with splendid inventions (occasionally described to the point of prolixity), this book promises extremely well for the future of the end of the Covenant chronicles. Expect readers to swarm.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)

October 15, 2004
Thomas Covenant, the leper who crossed the barrier between this world and that of the Land, gave his life to save his newfound world. Linden Avery, a healer of mind and body, accompanied him into the Land and inherited his stewardship of it. When Covenant's son, Roger, suddenly appears many years after his father's death and seeks to claim his inheritance and custody of his insane mother, Avery senses the presence of a familiar evil, the machinations of Lord Foul. Twenty years after ending his second Thomas Covenant trilogy, Donaldson resurfaces with a final trilogy that is intended to bring together all the threads of the previous books. Familiar and beloved characters from the Land mix with new heroes and villains in a reawakening of a classic fantasy saga. Most libraries will want this title for their collection. Buy multiple copies. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/04.]

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.