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| White Gold Wielder (The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Book 3) | 
 enlarge | Author: Stephen R. Donaldson
Publisher: Del Rey
Category: Book
Buy New: $7.99 (18.81 RON)
Avg. Customer Rating:  48 reviews
Sales Rank: 68123
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.3 x 1.2
ISBN: 0345348702
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780345348708
ASIN: 0345348702
Publication Date: October 12, 1987
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Product Description
Thomas Covenant knew that despite his failure on the Isle of The One Tree, he had to return to the Land and fight. After a long and arduous journey, fighting all the way, he readies himself for the final showdown with Lord Foul, the Despiser, and begins to understand things he had only just wondered about before....
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| Customer Reviews: Read 43 more reviews...
End of the second Chronicles September 20, 2008
'White Gold Wielder' brings 'The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever' to a close. Covenant, Avery and the Giants return to the Land in order to quench the Banefire and defeat the Clave.
Donaldson manages to wrap things up well, answering most questions adequately, although I would have liked a more thorough explanation for Vain. Looking forward to the 'Last Chronicles'.
 A Slight Disappointment September 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Have just finished Book 3 of the 2nd Chronicle, I'm going to touch upon the first two books here instead of reviewing them individually. Spoilers of varying degree are peppered throughout the review, be forewarned!
I read the 1st Chronicle about 2 years ago and loved it. Yes, Covenant's constant whining is annoying as is generally agreed but the plots, battle scenes, and assortment of well-charactered humans, non-humans, and creatures are enough to nullify the negatives. In series 2, Book 1 is a setup for the journey and it is fine. There is still a lot of goodwill left from Chronicle 1 that I was very happy to revisit the Land and its denizens. Book 2 is the problem. The entire book centers on an ocean journey that takes way too long. Nothing happens that impacts the central story line, not until the end Book 3 that some connections are established. But by and large, Book 2 can be drastically shortened and incorporated into Book 1 and 3. It seems Donaldson wanted another 3-book tome to mirror the 1st Chronicle and so he stretched the subplots out to fill out 3 books of nearly 500 pages each. The first two books also have many words that have archaic or poetically usage as well as jargons only specialists such as metalsmiths, geologists, or dyers would know. He also likes to coin words as there are some words that are not in any dictionary. I've seen the word "analystic" in all 3 books as an adjective, "... anylystic sleep.". Now, analyst is a word, and analytic is also a word, but what in damnation is analystic? Why not just use analytic but I'm not 100% sure that's what he meant. But we all know there is no $20 word that Donaldson doesn't like. Strangely, there are only a smattering of big money words in Book 3. Maybe he ran out of obscure words to use by then.
The trouble with this series is that, like the 1st series, we've to deal with a most uncharismatic, annoying, and whinny hero; a totally original creation from the usual heroic archetype. He has mellowed out a bit here but then the author added a female version of him. The way the two of them whine and moan and complain and fall into depression and catatonia is just too much to bear over almost 1500 pages. It's nonstop, "I am undeserving, I am bad, I am evil, I am broken, I am unclean," etc ad nauseam. They really grate on my nerves. Moreover, the constant psycho-babble sprouted by the author stops whatever action there is on its track. I'm not educated in psychology but I would think that the accomplishments and struggles from the 1st series have changed and enriched Covenant for the better. But nope, he is fundamentally unchanged by his experience. That rings false to me.
There are also two characters, Vain and the Elohim that serve as deus ex machina in the story. As characters, they're inert and opaque except when needed as a plot device. In the end, their hidden agendas are as unexplained as the rationale for their existence. I consider them the weakest yet original creations by the author.
The ending is another problem. I applaud the author for doing something different than the standard climax and kudos to him for that. In exchange for originality, however, the much anticipated cathartic experience never materializes which is disappointing given the buildup over 1500 pages.
On the whole, there are sections of the 2nd Chronicle that are great, many are on the verge of very good, but because of the let down in Book 3, I can only say this series as a whole is just good. I'm disappointed but at least you can't say the author repeat himself. I'm giving this 3 stars and the series as a whole 3.5 stars. Maybe after another couple of years, when nostalgia sets in, I might give the Last Chronicle the chance to amaze me like the 1st series did. At a projected 4 books, that's a big commitment though.
 Just bad writing July 23, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I picked up a copy of this to re-read, remembering having enjoyed it some years past. While the trilogy (the second about Thomas Covenant) does have some good points, there are certain things about the books that make them almost unreadable.
First, the writing is atrocious. Donaldson has a large vocabulary of which he is obviously proud. But I don't like to feel that I've been beaten about the head with a thesaurus when reading a fantasy novel. Nineteenth century pre-Raphaelite poets use language that is less ornate and opaque. Worse yet, when Donaldson discovers one of these words, he can't resist the temptation to haul it out and abuse it over and over again. If you can bear it, read the books and count up the times he uses words like "threnody", "preterite" and other $20-words where a shorter word would not only do, but would be better.
Second, characterization. What Thomas Covenant and Linden Avery need is a truckful of Prozac. I have never read novels starring characters more miserable, depressed and self-doubting than these two. It would be fine if they were ever able to conquer their self-loathing, but this occurs only in the very last pages of the third book. They start depressed and stay that way for hundreds upon hundreds of pages. They lack even flashes of joy or happiness. The lack of character development, along with the depressing and, frankly, boring characters they do have makes reading the books a slog, and further makes it impossible to have any sympathy for these characters. They don't even seem real; no real person could actually survive full of so much self-doubt and -hatred. The other characters, on the other hand, namely the Giants and the Bloodguard, are utterly one-dimensional in their sturdiness, and show no development either. I agree with other reviewers that the mute Sandgorgon, Nom, and the mute Vain, are the most interesting characters of all. That says a lot.
In the end, reading through this trilogy felt like work, not pleasure. If you like reading extravagant, over-wordy descriptions of depressed people arguing with each other while failing actually to work through their self-hatred, then this trilogy is for you. If you'd like to read a fantasy and come to the end feeling less miserable than you did before, then skip it.
Not Free SF Reader April 21, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
We have that sinking feeling.
Having made it out alive of the complete balls up that was the sinking of the One Tree, the main problem still remains, and it is worsening.
The Clave have gone overboard with the whole human sacrifice to the Sunbane thing, chucking whole towns into the pot.
So, what do your fantasy heroes do with what seems to be an overwhelming force opposing them?
Yep, attack, and hope whacky magic and a few monsters etc. can squeak them through.
3.5 out of 5
Well executed, but missing something... September 5, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Having read all of the first six Convenant books in a relatively short ammount of time, I will say that I came away enjoying the saga. White Gold Wielder, for it's part, provides a very good cross-section of the series as a whole. Donaldson's strengths are present in full force. Unfortunately, so are the weaknesses.
I'll mention the strengths first. Foremost is the character development. Thomas Covenant is a character unlike any other in modern fantasy, and Linden Avery is extremely well developed as his foil and complement. Alternating between their respective points-of-view, Donaldson effectively creates reader sympathy and empathy for their sometimes conflicting motives while at the same time advancing their shared cause.
Donaldson's other strength is world building. After the first five novels, "The Land" and it's encompassing world at large are fairly completely developed, so in WGW, Donaldson is able to use his setting as another character to drive the plot and draw the reader in, much as he did in the early part of the first trilogy when Covenant was many times too unlikeable to be engaging. Covenant does not revert to his dispicable past, far from it, but as his future becomes more and more bleak, the future of the land provides the story with hope of a happy ending.
Now, for the negatives. The biggest problem is that the whole thing is just so dark. Like the Despiser, Donaldson assails his characters with blow after blow, failure after failure. That's not a bad thing in and of itself, but in this instance, the darkness is not often enough tempered with moments of light. In spite of everything, we've grown to like Covenant and Linden, and their uninterupted plight is draining. Without giving anything away, while the climax ties up nearly all of the loose ends (not all though), it occurs too close to the end of the book to allow the characters and the reader to soak in the consequences of the saga.
The other problem I'd list as a negative is the overall pacing of the Second Chronicles. The events at the end of The One Tree and the beginning of White Gold wielder render much of the middle book meaningless. The story as a whole could have been more effectively told as two longer books while not leaving out anything significant to the main plot. I spent much of the sixth book waiting for the fifth book to be endowed with some significance, and it just never came.
Despite it's flaws though, White Gold Wielder is a good read and an acceptable conclusion to the Second Chronicles, even though it falls short of matching the level of the previous trilogy. Viewed for what it is, it's a very good book, but as a fan of the series and the genre, it's hard to overlook what the book is not.
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