Ahira's Hangar

This is another of those chapters where there is so much going on that I am unsure of whether or not I can get through everything I would like to say about it in one post...



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the background info as the chapter begins:

* Linden, her party, and the Humbled leave Revelstone on Ranyhyn back
* Linden expects to be attacked by one or more of her many enemies (Lord, Foul, Nasty Kasty, Roger Covenant, or the Harrow)
* the Humbled do not trust Linden
* Linden has been repeatedly warned away from her destination - Andelain - by both enemies and friends
* the party will be passing by First Woodhelven, Sunder & Hollian's first attempt to make one of the great tree dwellings of old
* Sunder and Hollian also made a great forest in a ring around Andelain, and that makes for difficult travel
* the party has to be very careful of where they stop for the sake of Anele, as they do not want him to be possessed

when the crazy action starts:

* the party detects a caesure
* the caesure is being directed by Esmer, who has made another of his nasty storms as well
* the caesure destroys First Woodhelven
* Linden and her party decide to aid the newly homeless, shocked people who lived there
* the caesure's course changes to come right at Linden and her party
* Esmer is using the Fall to chase and try to destroy the Harrow (and God help anyone else who gets in the way!!!)
* Linden challenges to caesure and stops it
* Anele throws himself off his Ranyhyn onto bare dirt and is possessed by Nasty Kasty, who now will know where the party is - but Liand uses the orcrest to expel Kastenessen
* the ur-viles and waynhim show up willing to fight both Esmer and the Harrow to protect Linden
* The Harrow knows how to easily kill all demondim spawn, and begins killing them as a demonstration of his power
* Esmer and the Harrow hate each other
* suddenly and out of nowhere, Roger Covenant shows up with an army of cavewights
* a chaotic several way battle breaks out (the demondim spawn, for example attack the Harrow, Esmer, and the cavewights all at once) but the Harrow only fights RC and the cavewights, RC fights everyone excpet the cavewights, Esmer fights the Harrow etc. etc. (you almost need a scorecard for all of this )
* to make matters even worse, an army of kresh being commanded by a Raver shows up and starts slaughtering the poor surviving villagers
* Linden, who along with her party has been tying to fight RC, the cavewights, and now the kresh, while keeping helpless Anele alive, calls for Nom
* the Harrow tells Linden he can take her to her son
* six sandgorgons show up and take care of business with the cavewights and chase off Roger
* Linden and Liand take on the oack with the Staff of Law and the orcrest
* Esmer vanishes, so the demondim spawn also leave
* finally the raver and surviving kresh flee

I'm exhausted just reading it.


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More tomorrow, when I am a bit more awake.

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The biggest thing coming of this chapter is the fact that it isn't the same old chronicles anymore.

In the First Chrons, there was one Big Bad - Lord Foul - his important henchmen in Drool and the Ravers, and his various minions...

In the Second Chrons we get a greater variety of foes or potential foes when we go voyaging with the Giants - but in the Land itself we have one Big Bad - Lord Foul, his most important henchmen in the Ravers, and his various minions, primarily from the Clave - but with the Land itself so socially corrupted, practically anyone you meet would be happy to shed your blood for their village.

Now we have so many enemies and/or potential enemies, it is hard to keep track of them, and nearly impossible to know who is secretly up to doing what with whom. And so very many of them are so puissant. There is still Lord Foul and the Ravers. Nasty Kasty and his fiery little friends. Roger Covenant. Joan Covenant, though the woman is so crazy she might be just a force for chaos rather than an enemy as such. The Harrow, who sounds like he might be an Insequent gone bad, as two others of his race have sacrificed their sanity and lives to stop his plans...now we learn that there are at least six sandgorgons running around (and we have yet to learn why they are here and what they are up to - let us hope that they are friends, but since they are mentally part Raver, I do not trust them - also we cannot forget that the elohim warned the Land against them). And we cannot forget the croyel. And the fact that the elohim are all mixed up in this somehow, too! And Esmer and perhaps even the haruchai have the potential to be enemies to Linden.

Who knows - maybe the Land will be torn apart by all of these factions jockeying for power ratehr than anything Linden might do in her ascending darkness of her spirit.


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It's interesting that SRD gets us looking forward to seeing First Woodhelven, only to have it destroyed before we ever get there. In Runes, we witnessed the shocking destruction of Kevin's Watch. In both cases, caesures are to blame. It's as if we're again being shown how unstable the Land has become - not just in the random violence of caesures, but in the capriciousness of beings like Esmer who show up out of nowhere. And now we must include more unpredictable variables - Roger, the croyel, Kastenessen and the Harrow.

Duchess, you could well be right. The Land may well survive these dangerous individuals on their own, but throw them together and stir the pot, and who knows what calamity may ensue. At the very least, with these characters roaming around, the Land is far from being the kind of safe utopia that the Masters thought they had nurtured.

As for this chapter's huge battle: !!! Nuts !!! It may be the craziest battle sequence SRD has ever conceived. I have to admit, I got lost somewhere in the middle of it all; I just couldn't keep track of who was fighting whom. You're right, duchess: we need scorecards! Your summary sure helps a lot.

I dunno...but this was the first time in FR that I felt SRD had taken a slight misstep. Usually I don't have trouble following his descriptions of battle. Also, I have to say I was somewhat disappointed at how the Sandgorgons were introduced. In previous books SRD always built up suspense over a Sandgorgon's arrival, as befitted such an awesome creature. But here in FR an army (!!!) of Sandgorgons shows up just like that, to be lost in the fray with everyone else. Granted, in the presence of powers like Esmer, ur-viles, Roger/Kast and the Harrow, perhaps the purely physical might of the Sandgorgons seems almost ordinary in comparison. Still, I had expected a tad more fanfare for them. But I did like how they beat the crap out of the Cavewights!


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I actually think that Donaldson wanted us to be confused over that battle. I think he was trying to achieve confusion for the reader. He is much too good a writer otherwise to make a chaotic mess like that.

I think he was trying to show us how chaotic the Land is right now, and how many people and things are vying for power - some allied to the others or some of the others, some only out for themselves.

And nearly all of them willing to slaughter innocent bystanders if they just happen to be in the way.

Maybe I willl try to reread this chapter over the weekend or sometime next week, and try to make an actual flow chart or score card for the battle. It really did confuse me that much.


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