Kevin's desecration
T.I.W. drags Thomas Covenant (quite reluctantly) back into the Land for another dance with the Despiser. Whilst only a couple of weeks has passed for Covenant, forty years have passed for the people of the Land. Lord Foul is ammassing his armies, the giants have gone quiet, and the people are struggling to master Kevin's Lore.
The stage is set to repeat the events of Lord Foul's Bane, but it's so much more this time, and it's for this reason that the second book of the trilogy is better than the first. For a start, whilst Covenant is still self-serving and wanting only to get out of his delusion and back to his real life, you care about him now (Donaldson made sure of that by the end of L.F's.B.). Sure, his constant refusal to use the wild magic, his refusal to take his share of the responsibility is still irritating at times, but you understand his reasons, and desperately want him to find some other way out of his predicament.
Also, the addition of another character from our own world complicates things even further. You question the reality of Covenant's delusion (as does he). Hile Troy's embracing of the Land, and his willingness to get involved, counterpoints Covenant brilliantly.
As before, the book is strongly written, and the descriptions of the land are beautiful and so real it becomes one of the finest realised landscapes in fantasy fiction.
There are a couple of points I had issue with: Covenant's relationship with one of the characters (I won't say which one so as not to introduce spoilers), and the fact that when the climax comes it is over so fast compared to the rest of the book you feel like you've missed a few pages. But, nothing major. Overall, the quality of this piece is almost enough to raise this series into one of my all time favourites. I only hope that The Power That Preserves, when I get around to reading it, can deliver a satisfying conclusion to the story.
Later . . .
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