The Last Dark
Post updated here.
posted by Loren Rosson III @ 10/17/2013
The Busybody
Just as cooks pray for a good crop of young animals and fishermen for a good haul of fish, in the same way busybodies pray for a good crop of calamities or a good haul of difficulties that they, like cooks and fishermen, may always have something to fish out and butcher. (Plutarch, "On Being a Busybody")
Special Guest Posts
Life after Death (Alan Segal)Tasty Fiction
A Song of Ice and FireThe Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
Best Biblical Related Posts
Jesus and DivorcePaul the Possessed
Treachery at Antioch
Jew or Judean
Jesus the Israelite
Subjective Genitive?
Special/Series
ShogunJesus' Parables
Lies and Deceptions
The Art of Flaming
Literary Hoaxes
Pedophiles & Ephebophiles
Blogs
Biblical Studies CarnivalMark Goodacre's NT Blog
Mark Goodacre's NT Pod
Hypotyposeis
PaleoJudaica
N.T. Wrong
The Dunedin School
Remnant of Giants
Codex Blogspot
The Forbidden Gospels
Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean
The Dilettante Exegete
Paul and Co-Workers
Higgaion
Websites of Interest
My Amazon WebsiteThe Context Group
Mark Nanos
Dale Allison
Synoptic Problem Website
The Paul Page
Flush Draw
Grognardia
Other Minds
Encyclopedia of Arda
Acaeum Wiki
Gallifrey Base
Stephen R. Donaldson
The Land
George R.R. Martin
Is Winter Coming?
Carson Lund
Ellen Page Online
Peter Straub
Discussion Groups
XTalk (Historical Jesus)Synoptic-L
Corpus Paulinum II
GThomas
Middle-Earth Fan Modules
Free Thought and Rationalism
Dungeons & Dragons
Looking BackD&D Modules Ranked
Middle-Earth Retrospectives
Rangers of the NorthThe Lost Realm of Cardolan
The Shire
Bree & the Barrow-Downs
Weathertop
Thieves of Tharbad
Hillmen of the Trollshaws
Empire of the Witch-King
The Northern Waste
Mount Gundabad
The Grey Mountains
Rivendell
Goblin-Gate
Moria
Lorien
Northern Mirkwood
Halls of the Elven-King
Southern Mirkwood
Dol Guldur
Riders of Rohan
Dunland
Ents of Fangorn
Isengard
Erech & the Paths of the Dead
Minas Tirith
Minas Ithil
Dagorlad & The Dead Marshes
The Teeth of Mordor
Shelob's Lair
Gorgoroth
Havens of Gondor
Sea-Lords of Gondor
Corsairs of Umbar
Far Harad
Greater Harad
The Court of Ardor
Shadow in the South
Doctor Who
The Best and Worst of the New Series (1-7)The Eleventh Hour
The Beast Below
Victory of the Daleks
The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone
Vampires of Venice
Amy's Choice
The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood
Vincent and the Doctor
The Lodger
The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang
A Christmas Carol
The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon
The Curse of the Black Spot
The Doctor's Wife
The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People
A Good Man Goes to War
Let's Kill Hitler
Night Terrors
The Girl Who Waited
The God Complex
Closing Time
The Wedding of River Song
The Daleks
The E-Space Trilogy
Biblical Studies Reviews
The Gospel HoaxMark's Other Gospel
Secret Mark Unveiled
New Testament Theology
Resurrecting Jesus
Constructing Jesus
Sex, Wives, and Warriors
Paul's Death Metaphors
The Bible's Sin Metaphors
Jesus and His Death
The Empty Tomb
Paul the Deceiver
Apostle to the Diaspora Jews?
The Rolling Gospel of Thomas
The Symbolic Jesus
Reconceptualizing Conversion
Lazarus, Mary, and Martha
The Secular Bible
Paul and the "Weak"
Beyond the New Perspective
The Deliverance of God
The Ethics of Obscene Speech
A Marginal Jew: Law and Love
Other Reviews
Jesus in an Age of TerrorBiblical Cranks
Last Ten Posts
- The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
- The Best Episodes of Breaking Bad
- The Five
- Dexter: The Eight Seasons Ranked
- My Dream Campaign for D&D
- The Walkmen: A Playlist
- Get Thee Behind Me, Subjective Genitive
- The Most Politically Misunderstood Films of the Pa...
- The Greatest Horror Films of All Time
- Pastor Anderson's Greatest Hits
6 Comments:
Wow. Nice take on the noble courage theme. And bang on about the Lurker attacking itself under piecemeal possession. That was hilarious.
I say 4/5. The problems with the climax you note take it down a full notch. The Bane resolution was rubbish - "I am myself"????
I thought the Bane resolution was
perfect: it could not have been
done another way. I also liked
the Jeremiah resolution and the
Covenant/Foul resolution. My only
problem with the ending is the
last Raver's whereabouts. Foul may
be inside Covenant, but his Raver/
servant is outside but nobody seems to be paying attention to that.
Im a bit confused about what happened to moksha. My reading is that Jeramiah expelled him and he fled into the new land? Is that right?
I agree that the bane resolution is rubbish or at least not explained enough and what was the fist at the end that beat lord foul? the bane? Who knew she had a fist. Also, resolution and powers gained for J was way to easy. I'm glad moksha is still around b/c a world where despite isn't around, except inside Covenant, is so terrible and boring.
it was almost as though donaldson was admitting at the end that this was all covenant's imagination and that it never really happened. he is still in coma back where the police car hit him in book no 1. Despiser is really just part of covenant after all then, he lives in all of us and that's that. Ok I can buy that but really? Even that it's a dream that's shared by linden, jacob and hile troy or is it really shared by them?
Another problem for me at the end of this book that I haven't read anyone talking about is how easily they beat the worm. Oh sure it's devestation but we don't feel it. revelstone is still there? did they rebulid it after the worm ate it? that's cheap. the worm got too much ink in this novel for the quick resolution at the end. I would have preferred to see she who must not be named, and by the way, why can't we name her, is that just a rip off of harry potter or what, but I thought that after linden beat her, although I needed more of how she beat her, that she might have grown to where she could swallow the worm istead of all those women spirits. and oh yeah, if Alena's spirit was rescued, then one more final scene of her and thomas was called for. hey, dad and especially step-mom/ rival lover of my father, I guess I owe you all something and oh yeah, special hollar out to my new brother Jake and a special disgust for my fat brother horrible nerd who's spirit's azz i just kicked. I'm just not satisfied the way I was after the first two trilligioes and while I enjoyed the last book it left me feeling a bit violated. damn was i mentally raped on that last series much like lena was? OMG Donaldson is still doing it then? I also think this was a money thing for him and in that vein I hope it worked for him. it was fun for me but so much not at the level of the first six books.
I thought the ending was horrible... I wanted Lord Foul destroyed and the land.. recreated... The Land... V.2.0...
I understand that covenant used Lord Fouls knowledge to help undo the damage of the worm.... But as the sandgorgon rent the raver... Covenant could have done that to Lord. Foul..
It must have been 1986 when I first read The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and I must admit I've tarried on finishing the final chronicles, knowing they're the last.
It works well up to a point, and I agree with your comment about Jeremiah healing too easily. For me Linden's final confrontation and Covenant's were done very well but, as both characters said, they meant naught so to have the final resolution; the reconstruction of the Arch of Time, dealt with in narrative in the epilogue was more than a little galling for me.
Post a Comment
<< Home