It started in 1977

We got the first episode in 1977, with many more to follow. Brilliant, imaginative and spectacularly entertaining. Enjoyable on a surface level, but not a superficial work. Interesting and original characters, wondrous settings. Magical. A fully realized universe that is not our own, a work that takes us to another time and place and reality. And now there's a new one.

Star Wars?

No.

Thomas Covenant.

In 1977, Stephen R. Donaldson's Lord Foul's Bane was published. The first book in "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever", it was the first thing that I read that warranted comparison to The Lord Of The Rings. Favorable comparison. I mention Tolkien's masterpiece here on purpose. I've seen criticisms of Donaldson, criticisms that consist of basically calling Covenant a rip-off. They say that everything in the Chronicles is a copy of something in Tolkien. To which I won't even bother making a defense. It's a criticism that doesn't warrant one. But I will make a couple of points.

1) The fact that much of what Tolkien did had it's roots in various mythologies does nothing to diminish what he created. Likewise for Donaldson.

2) Donaldson's two trilogies are roughly twice as long as the entire Ring series, including the Hobbit. It's tough to see how a 2nd-rate "rip-off" of a 1500 page series is going to run 3000 pages.

And as good as the first book was, Donaldson kept topping himself with the subsequent books, as he constructed an epic that spanned not years but millenia. The first trilogy spans about 47 years, the second takes place thousands of years later. Such was the power of the Land when he created it in the first Chronicles, that it was actually hard to read the second, with the changes that had taken place. Together, "The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever" and "The Second Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant" told an epic tale, full of wonder and magic, good and evil, joy and pain, elation and joy. I've told people that even if the first 5 1/2 books were awful (which they aren't - nothing could be further from the truth), it would be worth reading them for the last half of the sixth book.

And, as I was walking through the bookstore yesterday morning, I discovered something that literally made my jaw drop. 21 years after White Gold Wielder, Donaldson has returned to The Land with The Runes Of The Earth. I've not got a copy yet, but I will...