Six fantasy novels featuring Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever appeared between 1977 and 1983, but Donaldson shows that his epic series still has the power to surprise in this richly imagined start of a final quartet. Covenant died at the end of White Gold Wielder (1983), and at this novel's outset so does his lover, Linden Avery, in a violent confrontation with Joan and Roger Covenant as they kidnap her son, Jeremiah. Linden awakens once again in the Land, where she finds Lord Foul scheming to escape the Arch of Time with the help of Joan and Roger while using Jeremiah as a pawn. The 10 years since Linden
's last visit have been centuries by Land time, and in that interval Anele, with whom she teams, has lost the Staff of Law, plunging the world into chaos. Linden's only hope for saving the Land and reclaiming Jeremiah is to gather a crew from the Land's numerous races and surf a caesure, or time rift, to retrieve the Staff. Nevertheless, she can't shake her fear that all this has been plotted by Foul as part of his malignant design. Donaldson's saga has transformed tremendously since initial volumes offered startlingly original antiheroic fantasy resonating with echoes of both Tolkien and Philip K. Dick, but the engaging humanity of his characters still compels attention. A new generation of readers may find this episode's midstream plunge into the saga bracing, while fans of Covenant's past chronicles will welcome a return to the Land.
Fatal Revenant
's last visit have been centuries by Land time, and in that interval Anele, with whom she teams, has lost the Staff of Law, plunging the world into chaos. Linden's only hope for saving the Land and reclaiming Jeremiah is to gather a crew from the Land's numerous races and surf a caesure, or time rift, to retrieve the Staff. Nevertheless, she can't shake her fear that all this has been plotted by Foul as part of his malignant design. Donaldson's saga has transformed tremendously since initial volumes offered startlingly original antiheroic fantasy resonating with echoes of both Tolkien and Philip K. Dick, but the engaging humanity of his characters still compels attention. A new generation of readers may find this episode's midstream plunge into the saga bracing, while fans of Covenant's past chronicles will welcome a return to the Land.
Fatal Revenant
The Runes of the Earth returns readers to the Land-and opens with the reunion of Linden Avery and Thomas Covenant!
Linden Avery, who loved Thomas Covenant and watched him die, has returned to the Land in search of her kidnapped son, Jeremiah. As Fatal Revenant begins, Linden watches from the battlements of Revelstone when the impossible happens-riding ahead of the hordes attacking Revelstone are Jeremiah and Covenant himself, apparently very much alive.
Here in the Land, Jeremiah is healed of the mental condition that had kept him mute and unresponsive for so many years. He is full of life, and devoted to Covenant. But Covenant is strangely changed. Sarcastic and bragging, he no longer seems like the man whom Linden adored. And yet he says he has a plan: he will take her and Jeremiah to a place where they can find a pure source of Earthpower and, after he has achieved his own purposes, Linden will be free to use that great power to go home, to take Jeremiah home, or to do anything else she sees fit. Even though she distrusts the seemingly different man he has now become, how can she make any choice except to follow him?
Their journey will cover unimaginable distances through the Land-even through time itself-and will test Linden's courage again and again. In the end, fulfilling her destiny will call for a terrible leap of faith: Can she give up everything she thought had been restored to her, for the sake of the Land?
Terry Brooks
Bearers of The Black Staff
Linden Avery, who loved Thomas Covenant and watched him die, has returned to the Land in search of her kidnapped son, Jeremiah. As Fatal Revenant begins, Linden watches from the battlements of Revelstone when the impossible happens-riding ahead of the hordes attacking Revelstone are Jeremiah and Covenant himself, apparently very much alive.
Here in the Land, Jeremiah is healed of the mental condition that had kept him mute and unresponsive for so many years. He is full of life, and devoted to Covenant. But Covenant is strangely changed. Sarcastic and bragging, he no longer seems like the man whom Linden adored. And yet he says he has a plan: he will take her and Jeremiah to a place where they can find a pure source of Earthpower and, after he has achieved his own purposes, Linden will be free to use that great power to go home, to take Jeremiah home, or to do anything else she sees fit. Even though she distrusts the seemingly different man he has now become, how can she make any choice except to follow him?
Their journey will cover unimaginable distances through the Land-even through time itself-and will test Linden's courage again and again. In the end, fulfilling her destiny will call for a terrible leap of faith: Can she give up everything she thought had been restored to her, for the sake of the Land?
Terry Brooks
Bearers of The Black Staff
For more than three decades, New York Times bestselling author Terry Brooks has ruled the epic fantasy realm with his legendary Shannara series. With each new novel the mythos has deepened, ever more fascinating characters have arisen, and increasingly breathtaking vistas of magical adventure have emerged. Now the evolution of one of imaginative fiction’s most beloved worlds continues in the first book of the new series Legends of Shannara: Bearers of the Black Staff.
Five hundred years have passed since the devastating demon-led war that tore apart the United States, leaving nothing but scorched and poisoned ruins, and nearly exterminating humankind. Those who escaped the carnage and blight were led to sanctuary by the boy savior known as the Hawk—the gypsy morph. In an idyllic valley, its borders warded by powerful magic against the horrors beyond, humans, elves, and mutants alike found a place they believed would be their home forever.
But after five centuries, the unimaginable has come to pass: The cocoon of protective magic surrounding the valley has vanished. When Sider Ament, the only surviving descendant of the Knights of the Word, detects unknown predators stalking the valley, he fears the worst. And when Panterra Qu and Prue Liss, expert Trackers from the human village of Glensk Wood, find two of their own gruesomely killed, there can be no doubt: The once safe haven of generations has been laid bare and made vulnerable to whatever still lurks in the wasteland of the outside world.
Together, Ament, the two young Trackers, and a daring Elf princess race to spread word of the encroaching danger—and spearhead plans to defend their ancestral home. But suspicion and hostility among their countrymen threaten to doom their efforts from within—while beyond the breached borders, a ruthless Troll army masses for invasion. And in the thick of it all, the last wielder of the black staff and its awesome magic must find a successor to carry on the fight against the cresting new wave of evil.
Dani and Eytan Kollin
The Unincorporated War
The Kollin brothers introduced their future world, and central character Justin Cord, in The Unincorporated Man. Justin created a revolution in that book, and is now exiled from Earth to the outer planets, where he is an heroic figure.
The corporate society which is headquartered on Earth and rules Venus, Mars, and the Orbital colonies, wants to destroy Justin and reclaim hegemony over the rebellious outer planets. The first interplanetary civil war begins as the military fleet of Earth attacks. Filled with battles, betrayals, and triumphs, The Unincorporated War is a full-scale space opera that catapults the focus of the earlier novel up and out into the solar system. Justin remains both a logical and passionate fighter for the principles that motivate him, and remains the most dangerous man alive.
George R. R. Martin
Busted Flush
In 1946, an alien virus that rewrites human DNA was accidentally unleashed in the skies over New York City. It killed ninety percent of those it infected. Nine percent survived to mutate into tragically deformed creatures. And one percent gained superpowers. The Wild Cards shared-universe series, created and edited since 1987 by New York Times #1 bestseller George R. R. Martin ("The American Tolkien" --Time magazine) along with Melinda Snodgrass, is the tale of the history of the world since then—and of the heroes among the one percent.
Now a new generation of heroes has taken its place on the world stage, its members crucial players in international events. At the United Nations, veteran ace John Fortune has assembled a team of young aces known as the Committee, to assist at trouble spots around the world–including a genocidal war in the Niger Delta, an invasion of zombies in
hurricane ravaged New Orleans, and a freak nuclear explosion in a small Texas town.
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