[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.
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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.
Yes, I totally agree. Man, what a bunch of robots. Immune to reason, and yet so arrogant. Sheesh.