Submitted by Jeff Iredell 
(Nov 06, 2004)The Illearth War is a continuation of Donaldsons best-selling Thomas Covenant series. The book picks up with Thomas back in his "reality", again struggling with disease and acceptance in the world. Again he finds himself traumatized and waking up in his "alternate reality" the Land.
This time he has appeared about 1 generation later than last time and is thrust into the middle of a huge struggle between the forces of the Council of Lords and Lord Foul.
When he is brought before the council this time, he discovers that his old friend Mhoram is still a Lord, however to his surprise, not the High Lord, that position is filled by his illegitimate daughter-Elena.
He also discovers that another person from his reality is the leader of the Council's army, the catch, this gentleman was blind in real life, but can "see" many things in the Land.
Elena embarks on a quest with Thomas for one of Kevin Landwasters left behind treasures while the army provides a diversion and goes after Lord Foul's forces, Saltheart with others tries to find out why they have lost contact with the Giant.
Again Thomas struggles with his belief that this is real, but there are signs that he finds hard to ignore.
There are tragic losses and great victories and in the end he returns to his reality, setting up the final showdown in the last book, The Power That Preserves.
The Illearth War was a wonderfully woven story at points, but did jump around at times from plot line to plot line, which made it difficult to follow at times. That said, I would highly recommend it to any hard-core fantasy reader.
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(49 ratings)