eahaynes's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
hotsake's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Much Much Much better than the previous book even though this was the epitome of a middle book. Linden while still seriously irritating is balanced by Thomas Covenant even though he was a shadow of his former self. The book is broken into four parts, the first being over 100 pages where nothing really moves forward and yet it was interesting. Parts 2 & 3 move things forward and show devastating consequences for our intrepid band. Part 4 mostly sets up the events for the final book. Donaldson pulls no punches here and I was glad and fully invested in this story for the first time.
elkneedshelp's review
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ronsos's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 stars. Not enough plot for the amount of words, and as a result just felt too slow. Books 1 and 2 of this series really held my attention and this one was a disappointment. Some interesting stuff happened, but stronger editing should have been exercised, particularly earlier in the book. Will still read the 4th and final, just hope that there is a enough plot remaining for an interesting story.
metaphorosis's review against another edition
3.0
First things first - because I bought Against All Things Ending essentially sight unseen, I assumed throughout that it was the final book in this nine book series. Turns out there are ten, so all my wondering about 'how can he possibly tie all this up in time?" was premature. He didn't.
Against is effectively more of the same - if you've read any book in the Thomas Covenant series, you know what's coming: excellent writing, a dash of philosophy, and selfish, frustrating anti-heroes who mostly whine and refuse to act.
I say that as a long-time fan - I read [b:Lord Foul's Bane|219205|Lord Foul's Bane (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, #1)|Stephen R. Donaldson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1333217655s/219205.jpg|958463] not long after it came out, and I've read all the rest as soon as I can get my hands on them. While Donaldson sometimes pushes the anti-hero thing too far (the Gap series was disappointing), mostly he carries it off flawlessly. I enjoyed the previous eight books in the series; the mounting frustration at the protagonists' failure to do anything useful is part of the package. It's amazing that it's stayed attractive for so long.
In Against, it at last begins to pall.It isn't so much the repetition of a somewhat tired theme - the characters have to stay their irritating selves, after all. It's the seemingly endless agonizing about it. That too, of course, is part of the series and the characters. But here it is finally overdone. I carried through because after all, it was the last book in a great series. Of course, it's not, and I await the next (last?) with some trepidation.
Covenant himself improved after the first trilogy, but Linden Avery has taken his place as angst-ridden-character-in-chief, and she more than fills his place. If anything, she got harder to bear after the second trilogy.
We do get a fair amount of interesting background in this book. While certainly many mysteries remain, some questions, at least, have been answered. There are relatively fewer sections where nothing actually happens aside from soul searching and self-doubt.
Donaldson seems to have ramped up the vocabulary as well. I appreciate the fact that he often uses unusual or archaic words - that's part of the charm. Here, though, it started to feel a little much. In particular, the word "condign" (one of Donaldson's favorites) started to wear on me. It seems like every other page, someone is saying something is condign. An "appropriate" or "meet" or "fitting" every now and then would have helped leaven the prose.
With all of that rambling - here's all you need to know. If you haven't read Donaldson or the Covenant series, please don't start here - there's very little chance you'll make any sense of it (though there is a very nice summary of books 1-8 provided). If you have read books 1-8, you're certainly going to read this one. It's not a situation like Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time books where you can just give up. In those books, after a point (book 7?) nothing happened at all. Here, there's actual progress, and we're learning actual mysteries. You may not enjoy it quite as much as book 1 (or even book 7), but you'll still enjoy, and still look forward to learning all the secrets (I hope) in book 10.
Against is effectively more of the same - if you've read any book in the Thomas Covenant series, you know what's coming: excellent writing, a dash of philosophy, and selfish, frustrating anti-heroes who mostly whine and refuse to act.
I say that as a long-time fan - I read [b:Lord Foul's Bane|219205|Lord Foul's Bane (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, #1)|Stephen R. Donaldson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1333217655s/219205.jpg|958463] not long after it came out, and I've read all the rest as soon as I can get my hands on them. While Donaldson sometimes pushes the anti-hero thing too far (the Gap series was disappointing), mostly he carries it off flawlessly. I enjoyed the previous eight books in the series; the mounting frustration at the protagonists' failure to do anything useful is part of the package. It's amazing that it's stayed attractive for so long.
In Against, it at last begins to pall.It isn't so much the repetition of a somewhat tired theme - the characters have to stay their irritating selves, after all. It's the seemingly endless agonizing about it. That too, of course, is part of the series and the characters. But here it is finally overdone. I carried through because after all, it was the last book in a great series. Of course, it's not, and I await the next (last?) with some trepidation.
Covenant himself improved after the first trilogy, but Linden Avery has taken his place as angst-ridden-character-in-chief, and she more than fills his place. If anything, she got harder to bear after the second trilogy.
We do get a fair amount of interesting background in this book. While certainly many mysteries remain, some questions, at least, have been answered. There are relatively fewer sections where nothing actually happens aside from soul searching and self-doubt.
Donaldson seems to have ramped up the vocabulary as well. I appreciate the fact that he often uses unusual or archaic words - that's part of the charm. Here, though, it started to feel a little much. In particular, the word "condign" (one of Donaldson's favorites) started to wear on me. It seems like every other page, someone is saying something is condign. An "appropriate" or "meet" or "fitting" every now and then would have helped leaven the prose.
With all of that rambling - here's all you need to know. If you haven't read Donaldson or the Covenant series, please don't start here - there's very little chance you'll make any sense of it (though there is a very nice summary of books 1-8 provided). If you have read books 1-8, you're certainly going to read this one. It's not a situation like Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time books where you can just give up. In those books, after a point (book 7?) nothing happened at all. Here, there's actual progress, and we're learning actual mysteries. You may not enjoy it quite as much as book 1 (or even book 7), but you'll still enjoy, and still look forward to learning all the secrets (I hope) in book 10.
souljaleonn's review
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
neilsef's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This was a challenging read, both because it is very slow-paced and because the author likes to use as many words as possible, or at least that's the way it seems to me, to describe most things. An example is the following, which is used to describe multicoloured ribbons,
"a personal effluvium of cerise and incarnadine and carbuncle, ecru and ivory, turquoise and viridian and azure, blue as deep as velvet, yellows ranging from the fulvous and the sulphuric to the palest gold."
I found the characters on the whole not to be that engaging or to have much personality, except for a few of the Giants, so I was not invested in any of their fates, in fact, the only character I felt anything for was the Harrows horse.
On the plus side, the story was intriguing enough to keep me reading and it's an education in the English language and its usage.
Currently, I do not plan on reading the final instalment, but that could change as I don't like to leave things unfinished.
"a personal effluvium of cerise and incarnadine and carbuncle, ecru and ivory, turquoise and viridian and azure, blue as deep as velvet, yellows ranging from the fulvous and the sulphuric to the palest gold."
I found the characters on the whole not to be that engaging or to have much personality, except for a few of the Giants, so I was not invested in any of their fates, in fact, the only character I felt anything for was the Harrows horse.
On the plus side, the story was intriguing enough to keep me reading and it's an education in the English language and its usage.
Currently, I do not plan on reading the final instalment, but that could change as I don't like to leave things unfinished.
jknock's review
5.0
This book delivers on all the promises of the series so far. I just can't say much more than that without giving away spoilers for this or previous books.
This is definitely a series to read in order.
This is definitely a series to read in order.
angelahayes's review against another edition
4.0
Against All Things Ending (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant #3)
by Stephen R. Donaldson
Buddy read. Review to come.
by Stephen R. Donaldson
Buddy read. Review to come.