White Gold Wielder: The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Book 3

White Gold Wielder is the final member of Donaldson's series of six Thomas Covenant novels. In this one, our hero finally gets around to fighting the Despiser himself. But first he has to take care of the Banefire burning from out of Revelstone. So in this book we get two climactic battles and they're both actually quite exciting with unexpected outcomes. I won't give anything away except to mention that the Sandgorgon Nom from The One Tree is back in fine form. Nom was possibly the most interesting character from that book. The One Tree is, in my opinion, the best novel in the second trilogy. White Gold Wielder, though satisfying, doesn't quite match it nor does it compare to The Illearth War (the second book of the first trilogy). It is, however, a much better finish than The Power That Preserves was to the first series.Unfortunately, characterization takes somewhat of a nosedive from the previous books in the series (though not near as bad as the atrocious nosedive between the two books of Dan Simmons's Endymion series). The Giants in this novel are more than ever before like machines: impossibly strong and devoid of character flaws for the most part. Linden is a headcase and doesn't resemble anyone I know. The "romance" between Covenant and Linden, if you can call it that, seems ridiculously artificial and contrived. These two people never lighten up! They're stone-faced serious at all times and argue with each other more than anything else. Donaldson doesn't manage to convince the reader that they're actually lovers and I think that he should have abandoned the whole relationship from the start and just focused on the action.The action is done very well and brings this book up to a solid four-star rating. As in all five previous books, Donaldson's development of the swords and sorcery is excellent. The first half of the book is somewhat slow, but the tension builds well as the party gets closer to the waiting enemy. The long sequence under Kiril Threndor will have you turning pages late into the night to find out what happens next.I'm glad I read through this series. Though not quite as complex as some other offerings in the fantasy genre, the generally dark mood of the prose gives the Covenant novels a unique touch. I think that those in their late teens would get the most enjoyment out of these books.

I have really enjoyed the Covenant stories. Ending was unexpectedI would recommend the entire series to anyone. Hope it continues with Avery

I am a huge fan of Donaldson and while his darkness, excessive use of words I have to look up, re-use of the same phrases and words....too much...he weaves a creative story. He makes you fall in love with the "Land". It bridges fantasy and reality...not just because people from our land transport to his inner land but it is a story of the corruption, uncovering of banes and ills on our own earth and the despair of our people in many places in the 1980s and even today. I do wish the character of Lyndon had been less of the female version of Covenant but maybe the author intended it...maybe she could not have been transported to his Land otherwise and been the hero this new age needed. Maybe she was intended to be an un-healed Covenant with all her raw nerves exposed. My last negative criticism specific to this volume....the end was a bit rushed and I didn't like the last scene between Covenant and Lyndon...it was a little melodramatic and too nice of a wrap up for Donaldson. I feel I needed to extract my negative criticisms from a book that does it for me so that the stars I gave it is clearly genuine for the rest of the novel was exciting, dark, deep, hopeful and a victory of fantasy fiction.

The series and this book are great reads, definitely an under-appreciated Fantasy series. I was excited to see White Gold Wielder finally available for the Kindle after a long wait. I want to focus this review narrowly on flaws in the kindle addition just so people are aware and so that, just maybe, the publisher will try a little harder next time.This book shows strong evidence of being created by using a computer to scan in text with little human intervention. The first part is fine, I'm sure many older books are turned into Kindle books this way. But the latter is inexcusable. The text has a significant number of strange typos like asterisks where apostrophes should be. A sentence from loc 3175 "... her tone was candid, but free of sarcasm or accusation -- rsssssssssssss "... I have the original hard cover book and compared the texts. As I suspected Donaldson never wrote "rsssssssssssss" into his characters dialog. The publisher did a lousy job preparing the kindle edition and it deserves to be noted.So four stars for a great story but try a little harder next time Del Rey; make sure the intern doing your proofreading has some coffee or something.

I like that Linden is a woman with a complex historical background. I like that way the author describes her doubts. There is no cliché in the way the author describes the relationship between Linden Avery and Thomas Convenant. I love the fact that bith Linden and Thomas has an important role to play in the plot and that both of them save the world. The are equal until the end of the book. That is good to notice because it is not so often thatwell thought and described. I also loved to find all the different characters. The only thing that I liked less was that you could feel that the author didn't want us to arrive to soon to the end of the story and was adding uninteresting details,to my opinion.

I have read both the first and second chronicles a couple of times and they still hold up as my favorite fantasy series of all time. To be honest, I'm not normally a fan of the fantasy genre but these books are just so different from others I have read. The two trilogies are similar and different enough that I can't decide which I prefer. I've read the third chronicles once and these installments are excellent as well, but having read them only once, I have yet to decide where they fall in my preferences. I won't bore you by telling the story here but will just say that you root for the title character even though he tends to be so unlikable. It's all in the contradictions, which seems to me what the books are about.

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The Thomas Covenant Chronicles have been compared to Tolkien at his best and are well worthy of the comparison. These epic stories may be fantasy, but they deal realistically with all-too-human dilemmas, exploring themes such as personal responsibility, self-belief, guilt and punishment, love and death. Donaldson has an excellent command of language, and his descriptive prose is rich and evocative.There are six volumes altogether, beginning with Lord Foul's Bane. Read all six volumes if you want to spend a few weeks immersed in another world. It's a dark and dangerous one, but there is light at the end of the tunnel!

The internal angst of the primary characters feels artificial and goes on for very long stretches.The point of view of the two protagonists is often confused.Both the conflicts and the underlying rules of the book's imagined world feel contrived and arbitrary.In the end, this book is an extension of a series that had its logical conclusion at the end of the first trilogy.The second trilogy feels like the author is just struggling to fill pages.There are a few high points, but but the reader has to plough through vast amounts of blather to winnow them out.

Super series of Fantasy books.

Love this series