Wounded Land, The by Stephen R. Donaldson

After having read the first set of books, it was with some trepidation that I set about reading the second set of books. I honestly could not conceive of a way in which Lord Foul could return when it seemed that his very corporeal substance seemed to disappear utterly. Oh, how I did underestimate Mr Donaldson! With such a simple event as the destruction of the Staff of Law in The Power That Preserves, the fellow cunningly constructed an entire trilogy of novels. Novels which made sense. Reading the first section and most of the second section, I was extremely impressed with the way he described Covenant (and the new character of Linden Avery) travelling across a landscape that was on the one hand familiar, and on the other hand grossly distorted by the Sunbane. The fact that there are so few characters of substance in The Wounded Land, as compared to the Lord Foul's Bane I eventually realised was a bonus. Nassic, Sunder and Hollian (though probably Sunder the most) were all both sane and insane. A vast improvement on the many characters of the first set, who all seemed to be ideals. Caer-Caveral had matured brilliantly and I admit that I shed a couple of tears when Covenant encountered his 7 dead. Easily the best bit of the entire novel was the part spent in Revelstone. My blood was racing and my imagination alight when Covenant unleashed the power of the white ring upon the disguting Clave. The way in which the Clave had convinced the people of the Land that they were living in a hell was absolutely brilliant. After that, the story flat-lines somewhat until the Questers encounter the Search. Finally, we get to see a female Giant! That entire section made me shed a few more tears! Probably the stand-out moment in the whole novel was when Covenant performed the act of absolution for the dead Giants in Coercri. Altogether, a thoroughly brilliant book.