Ahira's Hangar

***** five stars

Donaldson Has Astonished Me!

Of all of Stephen R. Donaldson's books, Runes of the Earth reminded me the most of the first half of his Mordant's Need duology, Mirror of Her Dreams. Mirror serves as a very careful setting of stage, events, and characters that explode into action in the next book, A Man Rides Through.

And like A Man Rides Through, the followup to Runes of the Earth, Fatal Revenant is packed with nearly nonstop action.

I thought it was right up there with the better books in the series.

Lots of action and adventure.

Cool new races and characters, and return of some of my old favorites.

Can also be read as a great action story on one level and on other levels:

* the spiritual journey of one woman who had been emotionally tortured as a child, dealing with the lingering wounds of the harm done to her in the form of extreme self doubt, difficulty in making decisions, difficulty in trusting and opening up to others, and self-distrust

* an exploration of what parents do to their children and what children do to their parents - in other words, families; which nicely complements the First Chonicles and their exploration of the achivements (and failures) of individuals removed from their societies, and the Second Chonicles' exploration of couples

* the value of free will and self determination, from a patient being able to accept or reject the services of a doctor to decisions that affect the fate of entire worlds

As Donaldson calls upon all of his past books in this series, I would not start with this book. I would read the series in order:
Lord Foul's Bane
The Illearth War
Gilden-fire (an out take novella from The Illearth War
The Power That Preserves
The Wounded Land
The One Tree
White Gold Wielder
Runes of the Earth
In fact, even for those who have reviously read all of those books, I would highly recommend a reread of them all before tackling Fatal Revenant, in order to pick many more nuances than merely rereading Runes of the Earth will provide. A reread is well worth the time when dealing with a series that is so truly epic in scope, extending thousands of years and with so many important characters and situations. Donaldson rarely wastes a word, and brief descriptions of events and characters in previous books (especially in The One Tree) take on great importance here.