Every book, every story needs the following Cs - conflict, consequence, character, change. I feel they are the building blocks to every narrative, good or bad. 'Runes of the Earth' follow these deftly, of course, it's a good book and therefore the Cs in question are never mishandled or misused.

However, in comparison to Donaldson's earlier creations they fall short of what could have been.

First of all: Conflict. A good Thomas Covenant novel is drenched with it. Internal and external serve to parallel one another, in 'Lord Fouls Bane', the very land in which Covenant finds himself in is rife with parallels which mirror his own situation. He is a leper, the Land is diseased with 'wrongness'; he is shunned by society for his leprosy, Covenant is unable to accept the Land as truth. Admittedly, a Covenant novel's plot is there as a stage to examine the central conflict in the story, and that is the protagonist's.

The first and second Chronicles give us two very flawed, very damaged, very *human* individuals, whom, throughout the novels, come to resolve their conflicts through their quests to save the Land. This sort of conflict is absent, as this novel's protagonist was one from the Second Chronicles. Linden Avery, who was always the least human of the two, has come to terms with herself. It takes away what made her such a great character and simply makes her a good one.

A good character I don't particularly like. Over-emotional, rash, hotheaded, and dripping with unneeded sympathy. I understand it stems from her need to heal others, yet it can make her impulsiveness annoying rather than endearing.

Thankfully there are characters that promise the same amount of complexity as Covenant and Linden in their damaged pasts. Yet so far they have only shown potential, and haven't delivered on it.

Moving on to the external conflict. In 'Runes of the Earth': Linden Avery must rescue her adopted son Jeremiah who has been taken to the Land by the big bad. Yes it sounds like your typical save the world nonsense, but all of the Covenant Novels sound like that on the surface. I mean, the big bad is called 'Lord Foul', but the battle between good vs evil is just skin-deep to the depths these novels contain.

The problem with 'Runes' is that the centre of this conflict is that it is asking the reader to *care* when all Donaldson has done us *told* me about the implications of their relation. It might take a parent to find empathy, but as a single male with no children in sight for many years to come, when it comes to this story, I find it very hard to find the slightest bit of attachment. Even if I had some sort of investment as a parent, I would still feel it a shallow one. Linden's love for Jeremiah is explained to me, and hardly shown. Yes she has risked her life for him, but if Donaldson had shown me a chapter with their interactions I might have shed a tear.

In the second book of the first Chronicles, Covenant, a man you come to feel both pity and despite for, is buying bread at the market. The scene accentuates his need for humanity, the necessities of human warmth and compassion. It's very moving until he gets home and takes a bite, only to find they had put razor blades in them.

It's the only book that's moved me to tears.

*That's* how you show me, that's how you get me to give a damn. Linden's 'conflict' is as human and as sympathetic as Covenant's, yet in one book I'm immersed into the harsh realities of Covenant's life, and in the next I'm given half a chapter of Donaldson's weary monologues, explaining to me just how much Linden loves Jeremiah, as if that would be enough to move me.

Donaldson also does something very evil and very simple in the second Chronicles, which is mirrored by Covenant's own words. It goes something along the lines of this:

'The only way to hurt a man who has lost everything is to give him something back broken'.

The Second Chronicles completely ravages, rapes, and ruins the very Land the first Chronicles make you fall in love with. In this book, Donaldson attempts something similar, but obviously never reached those same heights. It's really a book that's *lacking*.

I feel that the above adequately fills the criteria for 'character', yet of consequence and change I've yet to write of. In fact, there's little of it.

Another glaring issue of this book is pace. It might be my memory, but more happens in each of the other books in less time than it did in this book for the 600 pages it spanned for. There was much to do, much to recap and recall. It's been decades since the last Covenant book, and I understand the need to reintroduce to the readers the Land. It still dragged.

Donaldson has some of the most beautiful prose I've come across in literature, he has the flavour of a romantic whilst retaining the structure of a classic.

But he can go on.

And on.

And on.

Much like this review.