Deep Fried Puppies

Xkcd, very funny. Sex dice.

Anyway, weather here is annoying. We finally got some snow, but it never sank down past the higher mountains. I took a bunch of pictures, and will disseminate to anyone who cares upon coming home. In the mean time, stuff is pretty normal.

Now, I bought and read both of the new Thomas Covenant books. I was leery of them for a while, because I don’t like Linden as a main character as much. The first two series were such amazingly good reads that I didn’t want to read more for fear of being disappointed. I worried that later sequels would erode the arete of the first first. Ultimately concluding that was foolish of me, I read them anyway. Besides, I had time on my hands.

First of all, they got a little over packed with outside forces. Everyone from any of the previous books makes an appearance. Meaning groups, not specific characters mind you. You’ve got Haruchai, giants, look, I mean everyone. It gets over packed. But the books also delve into the history of the Land, which I’ve always wanted a bit more of. Donaldson does an excellent job of implying that there have been great epics in the time before the TC Chronicles, and I’ve always been really curious about them.

In the final chronicles, he introduces them a bit, but does it in his normal narrative voice. That was what made it difficult for me to read Tolkien’s old myths. I like myths, but I want them to be narrative, not exposition. Anyway, people arrive, things happen, the Land is still a fascinating world.

While I’m not sure I like the events that transpire at the very end of book two, I certainly find myself disliking virtually every non-heroic character. They’re all a bunch of selfish assholes. Very disappointing. They’re all wondering why no one listens to their edicts and commands, but honestly if I was interacting with them with the power Linden’s packing, I’d start killing people right quick. That being said, the narrative follows Linden very closely, without wandering off into the annoying supporting cast like the wheel of time books (Which may have a movie coming soon, BTW) which is what Jordan did that irritated me so much.

Donaldson does not skimp on vocab. I like it, don’t get me wrong, but often I find myself wishing I could read near net access or with an unabridged dictionary. He uses all these awesome old words that elicit vivid images via context, but I’ve never heard of a lot of them. Ultimately, still worth a read. Not up to the standard of the Illearth War perhaps, but still good fantasy. On par with the second chronicles.

Those first books are amazing though. Lord Foul’s Bane is good, but once Donaldson gets his stride in the Illearth War and The Power That Preserves, whoobadity whoo. (That’s one of those vocab words, you know.)

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