200+ pages in, the book so far can be summarized as follows:
*Even though he’s been dead for 3000 years, Thomas Covenant is still a major-league pain in the ass. *
Nevertheless, it’s great to be back in The Land.
That’s all for now. 
Fatal Revanant is finally out?
(Heads off to book store to spend money he doesn’t have…)
Yeppers. Came out last Tuesday.
My anticipation of Deathly Hallows this summer was a trivial thing compared to my longing for this book. And for the next two, dammit.
There are a couple of things that bother me about the book so far. Not that they detract much from the joy of being back in The Land, but still:
Remember how, in Runes of the Earth, Covenant talked to Linden through Anele?
Now that Covenant’s (apparently) physically present, but seems, well, off-key (to Linden as well as to the reader), Linden shows no evidence of analytically thinking about this - as in, how to broach the discrepancy with Covenant. You’d expect her to at least think of obliquely asking Covenant, “What do you know about Anele?” if not something more direct. But not so far.
Also, from the first trilogy (The Illearth War in particular), we’re aware that, even at that time, there was a long history of wars between Lord Foul and the people of The Land, which Hile Troy reviews in addressing the question of where Foul’s army will ascend Landsdrop, and how to prepare for the possibilities. But here:
[spoiler]Both Covenant and Esmer give a history of The Land in which Foul stays unrevealed to the people of The Land until Foul declares openly against Kevin (after having been a trusted member of his council). So when can this long sequence of wars take place? Not before Kevin, or even for most of Kevin’s time as High Lord. And not between the Ritual of Desecration and the time of Hile Troy.
This one has me scratching my head.
[/spoiler]
I had no idea this was coming out! Unfortunately, I completely forgot everything that happened in the last one. 
Linden got sucked back into The Land.
She met up with people who knew her and Covenant only from legend.
Big nasty things have reduced The Land to a few clusters of people.
Linden travels with some of these people to get something important.
She makes it back to the Big Stronghold of the people just in time for a really big battle that they almost lost (in fact it’s pretty much a Pyrrhic victory) .
Covenant comes riding up on a horse.
Also, there’s a “what has gone before” section in the book before the story proper begins. It not only covers Runes of the Earth, but the first two trilogies as well.
Do you want to allow spoiler block spoilers/discussion of this book as well?
Because while I’m only 82 pages in so far, I have a couple of observations, guesses and so forth about this book. Definitely spoiler block material.
I’d say any spoilers about Fatal Revenant should be spoiler-boxed. (I’m still reading it too, though I’m a bit further along than you are.) Any spoilers from Runes of the Earth or from the first two trilogies can be out in the open, AFAIAC.
Any discussion/comments about Fatal Revenant that are only trivial spoilers (e.g. the bodily appearance of Covenant and Jeremiah in FR, given that we saw them approaching Revelstone at the end of RotE), or stuff that’s not a FR spoiler at all, are OK in the open.
Observation as of now;
At the very end of the last book, I said “That’s not really Thomas Covenant. There’s some trick here.”, given the warnings that Linden had recieved. I’m only at page 104 of Fatal Revenant, but I’m virtually certain of it now.
Help me out here. I’m desperately looking for some books to read, and Amazon isn’t helping me out on where to start these books. What’s the first book of the first trilogy and would you guys recommend it? Thanks.
The first book of the first trilogy is Lord Foul’s Bane, and yes, I’d recommend it.
The Wikipedia article on Thomas Covenant lists the books in order. They’re a lot better for that sort of thing than Amazon is.
Gaah! I am SO hating The Last Chronicles. *Fatal Revenant * was even more tedious than the Runes of the Earth! I bought it the day it came out, and had to virtually FORCE myself to finish it yesterday. Ordinarily, I would expect to finish a long-awaited (by me) book of that size within three days at the very most. Unfortunately, I am caught in the geas (as Donaldson would say) of my debt to the first Chronicles, and have no choice to continue slogging on toward the end of The Last Chronicles. After all these years, I still wish SRD had stopped after the first Chronicles.
If Linden says “Foul has my SON!” or Stephen R. Donaldson throws in the words “essential” or “theurgy” one more time, I think I’ll shoot myself. Also, I’m starting to wonder what it IS with SRD and blind (and especially eyeless) people (and creatures). They’re EVERYWHERE!
Unfortunately, I am coming to agree with you. Pages and pages of discussion that goes NOWHERE. Look, subterfuge is one thing, but five pages or more of a discussion where someone is looking for answers and the other person refuses to give them anything is fucking monotonous. Can’t you sum that up in a couple of paragraphs???
Then repeat every couple of pages for a new encounter with a new individual who gloats over their knowledge while wasting my (the reader’s) time!
I think that I could condense the last 20 pages I’ve read into maybe 3 without any essential loss of data or flavor.
And hence why the book is sitting on the coffee table while I distract myself with The Essential Calvin and Hobbes instead.