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Against All Things Ending: The Final Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson must be one of the lengthy titles of a book I’ve read in a while. In keeping perhaps with the loquacious nature of the author himself. Not that Donaldson is prone to excessively long novels, given that the last book I read weighed in at over 1,000 pages in hardback, it’s nice to read one thats perhaps only two thirds of that in length.

Having said that, at 120 pages in, the characters have done little other than wander round a bit and have a chat. Of course that’s a facetious comment, as much as the “Clench Game” is but it’s something I like about Donaldson in a perverse way. The first book of his I read was The Mirror of His Dreams in 1986. I was 11 and a very precocious reader. It was my third step into fantasy, preceded by some Dragonlance and started with the Hobbit. Talk about a step in at the deep end but while I waited for Donaldson to write A Man Rides Through, I devoured both Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and lamented the fact he said he wouldn’t write a third series, even though it was fairly obvious that the final volume was pretty final. This Mordants Need pair of books, of which The Mirror of His Dreams is the first, involve an inordinate amount of talking and plotting. Most of the activities take place in a few rooms of a large castle that feels like it inspired an awful lot of subsequent castles in modern fantasy. True, there is some action, and I’ve still yet to read a better series of sword fights than Artagel’s battles with Gart the High Kings Monomach, but the essence of the story is almost akin to John Le Carre’s Smiley’s People, which from memory involved an elderly spy sitting in a loft reading a lot of field reports in an attempt to spot some inconsistencies that would lead to the unmasking of a double agent. It is about people and the situations they are in. How the people react to one another is key to how things progress, so the dialogue is very important.

I’m probably the last person in the world who can objectively read a Donaldson fantasy book and give an opinion on it but I am enjoying Against All Things Ending rather a lot. The preceding volumes in this new series have irritated me by turn; Kevin’s Dirt is a form of the Sunbane, it’s nothing original, the Insequent are so puissant (to pilfer one of Donaldson’s favourite words) that it beggars belief that they made no appearance in the first 6 books that comprise the original two trilogies and don’t get me started on the likes of Esmer or Anele or I might get a little bit foamy at the mouth.

Still, for all the inherent weaknesses of the evolution of the Land this time round, the frankly embarrassing name that assigned to the previously dead Covenant (Timewarden? it sounds like something from a corny 1970′s sci-fi show!)   and what seems like a greatest hits tour of the Lands past that takes in Berek Halfhand, Viles, Ur-Viles and Caerrol Wildwood amongst others, this volume has me quite excited so far. The ante has been upped a lot, and I get the feeling the characters are at a precipice that might lead to quite unexpected results.

Full review once I’ve finished it no doubt.

I’m still reading Brandon Sanderson’s epic- Christmas got in the way of that one a bit but on the side I’ve been listening to some rather excellent audio books on the way to work.

Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time are available as audio books in unabridged format and they’re rather good. I certainly don’t have the time for a read through of all the books before the final volume is due out in early 2012, so listening to them for the hour or so it takes to walk to and from work in the morning seems an excellent compromise.

It’s interesting to hear the written tics that Jordan has spoken by the two narrators, they sound a lot more irritating than they do on the page. David Langford once described how it invented a drinking game based around Stephen Donaldson’s use of the word “clench” in the Thomas Covenant books that involved two people opening a copy of one of the books and reading until they found the word “clench”, the loser having to have a shot. Well I’m sure you could do that with Jordan if you substituted the word “dryly” for “clench” and if I hear the phrase “‘Ta’veren’, Loial began” one more time I might have to get a bit cross.

Nevertheless, the audiobooks are very good. There are two narrators, a chap who takes the male chapters and a woman who does the female ones. One of the things it deals with nicely is the pronunciation. It’s always a bit tricky with fantasy anyway but given that this is American fantasy read by Americans, a few of the words are pronounced quite differently to how I expected. At around 30 hours for the Eye of the World, which isn’t the longest in the series by any stretch, I think my walks are going to be fairly busy for the next few months.

I don’t often pick up books on import but the publication date of The Way of Kings between the US version and good old Blighty in this instance was more than a little ridiculous, so I bit the bullet and got the gaudy 1980′s style cover version.  Nothing says epic fantasy like a histrionic cover. To Americans at least.

This is a huge huge book. Over 1,000 pages in hardback in fact, which doesn’t bode well for the paperback version(s). I’ve not read any of Sanderson’s Mistborn series but I have read his continuation of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time and I think he’s doing a better job of it than the great man would have himself.

The world Sanderson has created is very different to the general fantasy worlds that are often quite analogous with our own. There is a preponderance of crustacean based creatures in these books, which definitely makes a change. The magic system is quite unique too, not as confusing at the Malazan Warrens or as formulaic as the Channelling in the Wheel of Time books. To be honest, when one of the Shen does a bit of binding himself to walls and the ceiling whilst attempting to assassinate someone, it comes across as a bit Playstation (Prince of Persia perhaps). Still, it’s top stuff.

I’m about 400 pages in but you always know when you’re reading a good book when you glance at the clock and see it’s 1am.

The Way of Kings is out on 30th December, and available for pre-order from Amazon for a more than reasonable £11.76

Towers of Midnight finally hit the shelves yesterday. Rather than a speed read, I’m savouring it, especially since early indications are the final volume is going to miss November 2011 and will be available spring 2012 instead.

I’m only 150 or so pages in so far but am enjoying it  a lot. Still impatiently awaiting the appearance of Mat and his trip to Jain Farstrider and Tom to the Tower of Genji though.

The book weighs in at over 800 pages so it may take me a few more days to finish this one. Then I can get onto the penultimate Thomas Covenant book. Great books, they’re like buses eh?