Against All Things Ending by Stephen Donaldson (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: Book 3)

9/10

Against All Things Ending, is the third of four books in The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.

Stephen Donaldson’s’ “Thomas Covenant” books are not an easy read, at times they leave you feeling uncomfortable, at other times they leave you in tears, they are epic in breadth and the corner of ‘The Land’ that the characters are occupying is brought to life in amazing detail. I really think his books are the closest fantasy equivalent to Marmite (insert your own vegetarian variety if required); you either love these books or you hate them. There is not much middle ground.

This is a hefty tome, 700+ pages; the book starts with 18 pages about what has gone before in the first two chronicles, and then the first two books of this series. You can probably just get away with reading the summary and starting straight off with this book, but if you enjoy it you will need to get all the earlier ones. This is not a light and fluffy book. You might need to sit down comfortably, with a decent dictionary at your side when you step into ‘The Land’. Stephen Donaldson challenges you with his erudite writing and you cannot rush through the pages, it’s a hard but rewarding read.

Neither the hero nor heroine, Thomas Covenant and Linden Avery are made of your typical hero material. Linden is rather single minded and seems to be sacrificing everything to get her son back, and will stop at nothing to do this, and Thomas is a leper in our normal world, who in one of his first confused acts upon entering ‘The Land’ in the First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant became a one- time rapist who has since, at various times, sacrificed all and has now become part of the Arch of Time to keep ‘The Land’ safe.

This, the third book begins with Linden Avery - who is pulling ‘The Land’ apart to find her adoptive son Jeremiah - dealing with the aftermath of dragging Thomas Covenant back into the world of mortal men. It does not help that along with him comes The Worm of the World’s End, which will eventually lead to the complete destruction of the Land.

This book is quite hard going at first, the characters seem to be at a loss as to what to do to sort out all the problems and look as if they are going to be overwhelmed, but slowly they get their acts together and start to fight back against the forces allied against them. I found myself getting distracted quite often in the first 100 pages or so and found too many reasons to put the book down (damn you Twitter). But once you put all other distractions aside and settle down to share ‘The Land’ with Linden and Thomas the book comes alive. The tension builds up forcing Linden to accept the far reaching consequences of her actions, and there is a lot more at stake then she at first thought.

When they finally split up (Linden to try to save her son from the monster literally at his throat, and Thomas to try to resolve the wanton destruction his ex-wife is inflicting upon ‘The Land’ in her blind attempts to strike out at him) the tension levels and the action really picks up.

Some of the characters in this book are just plain scary, they are so dedicated to their cause its unnerving. There is no way to hide from the fact that some of the groups of characters like the Haruchai act with a fanatical outlook, and they cannot be swayed from their course.

I think I’ve made this sound a bit to dark, but it’s true, there are dark places in this book, and the characters do go through bad times, but through it all there is hope, and essentially it’s Lindens love for her son and Thomas, and Thomas’s undying love for Linden that cause this story to become what it is. Any sane person would have just given up but their love and utter faith in each other keeps Linden and Thomas fighting with every breath in their bodies.

The worse thing about the book, well I guess that’s the fact that we now have to wait for the last book, to finally find out what happened to The Land and possibly her most faithful servant Thomas Covenant.

Score out of 10. 11 and 7, when I am in a light mood and not really concentrating on the book then it’s hard to get into, but when you can settle down and give this book the time it deserves then it’s off the chart. You are left out of breath, waiting until the 4th and Final Thomas Covenant book appears.