Against All Things Ending (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Book 3) - Hardcover

Donaldson, Stephen R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 039915678X ISBN 13: 9780399156786

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2010

Synopsis

The long-awaited sequel to The Runes of the Earth and Fatal Revenant returns readers to the Land-and unravels some of the mysteries haunting Covenant and Linden Avery.

Thomas Covenant is alive again, restored to his mortal body by the unimaginable combined force of his own white gold ring, Linden Avery's Staff of Law, and the ancient dagger called High Loric's krill. His resurrection is Linden's defiant act of love, despite warnings from mortals and immortals that unleashing this much power would destroy the world. She brought his spirit back from its prison in the Arch of Time, and revived his slain body, so that Covenant lies whole on the cool grass, and the world seems at peace. But the truth is inescapable: The thunderclap of power has awakened the Worm of the World's End, and all of them, and the Land itself, are forfeit to its devouring. If they have any chance to save the Land, it will come from unlikely sources- including the mysterious boy Jeremiah, Linden's adopted son, whose secrets are only beginning to come to light.

About this title

About the Author

Stephen R. Donaldson is the author of six previous Covenant books: Lord Foul's Bane, The Illearth War, The Power That Preserves, The Wounded Land, The One Tree, and White Gold Wielder, as well as many other novels.

Reviews

The unreservedly emo penultimate installment in the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (after 2007's Fatal Revenant) follows Linden Avery as she struggles to rescue her adopted son, Jeremiah, from the Despiser and forestall the Worm at the World's End, which she awoke by yanking her love, Covenant, free of the Arch of Time. While an introductory plot summary does yeoman service bringing new readers up to speed, it may be hard for them to keep so many characters straight--or care about them--when most of their development took place in previous volumes published decades ago. The focus is on Linden rather than Covenant, whose passive and distracted presence mostly gives others something to react to, but that won't matter to Covenant's large and loyal following, for whom Donaldson delivers all the self-loathing, despair, guilt, pain, and stubborn determination they could ask for.
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The third volume of the concluding tetralogy of Thomas Covenant maintains the high standards of the first two volumes. Covenant’s spirit has been released from the Arch of Time, and his body is intact. But for this to happen, Linden Avery has had to assemble so much magical power that she is in danger of waking the Worm of the World’s End. The Worm is a classic apocalyptic beast, but it is highly credible that he could destroy the Land, all in it, and perhaps parts of an earth that is closer to the Land than we may have thought. The only hope of survival is for Linden and Thomas to assemble all their possible and not-so-possible allies, including Linden’s adopted son, Jeremiah, who may live up to the biblical implications of his given name and be a harbinger of disaster rather than hope. Donaldson remains a romantic who believes in lovers who will risk all for each other. He is also a writer of extraordinary power and imagination, whose Land certainly has flavors of Middle Earth but has now stood for two generations as a major fantasy creation in its own right. --Roland Green

Edition details

• Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 039915678X
• ISBN 13: 9780399156786
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 624