# The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 23, 2008, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chronicles-of-thomas-covenant/434710 "2008-01-23T20:31:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2008, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chronicles-of-thomas-covenant/434710/81 "2008-03-15T19:59:02Z")
[QUOTE=Lightray] So you can probably appreciate now why I can’t recall if I stopped viewing Foul and the Land as wholly within Covenant’s mind _before_ or _after_ the original trilogy. Donaldson dropping Linden in kind of messes with that premise of the original trilogy – I actually think that he retconned his own work to get the second trilogy in. [/quote] Yeah, I can see. I think it was a mistake, too, unless you simply view the Land as a reflection of humanity’s Mind, and that experiences therein are widely applicable to any given person. I know. I’m rationalizing. Avery is confronting a whole different set of personal demons. The way I see it, Covenant’s problem was self-loathing. Avery’s is self-doubt. She doesn’t trust herself to do the right thing on her own. She needs someone else to make the decisions. She’s trying, but she has a big mid-series failure: summoning Covenant back from the Arch was a baaaaaaaad idea. I’m sure she’ll be redeemed at some point, but for now, she made Elena’s choice. It seems like Donaldson is throwing the ultimate setback at her, which will compound her own self-doubt, and that of the _Haruchai_, etc. Despair will set in, and she’ll have to face her shortcomings squarely in the books final climax, but not until we have 800 or so pages of wallowing in doubt and pity. > [@](#): > > I’ll also add that each successive series has caused the _haruchai_ to annoy me more and more. I understand why Donaldson is using them – continuity for the Land with all the long time passage – but they way they’re written they’re damned annoying and unsympathetic. To borrow a comparison, they’re like the Guardians of Oa of the Green Lantern comics… stubbornly stupid. And I used to like the Bloodguard… Yes, I totally agree. Man, what a bunch of robots. Immune to reason, and yet so arrogant. Sheesh. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chronicles-of-thomas-covenant/434710.md?page=4)