The Power That Preserves: Book Review

I just finished reading the final book in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever. The Power That Preserves is probably the darkest story in the series, with the first one starting out at the Land's default state. In the second, the reader begins to see the slow decline, with the climax of that coming into full view in this entry. Covenant comes to the Land for his third time, for one last push to stop Lord Foul, something that was hinted at in the very beginning of the first entry. Forty-seven years have passed from that moment, and now everything has come together.

No Spoilers

Characters

As is obvious from the first two entries of this series, as well as from Donaldson's writings on what fantasy is, characters and themes are probably the most important aspects of the story. Worldbuilding, too, but I think that is better covered in the part on themes. This is where Donaldson delivers on his story in spades.

Thomas Covenant

I speculated that Covenant was not the actual focus of the story in my review of the last entry. It turns out that this was rather stupid of me. Covenant takes a place that is so front and center, and that is so natural, that it's almost embarrassing that you would think the focus would be on anything otherwise.

From the very outset, you are beginning to see the stark changes in Covenant. At the very end of the last entry, he is essentially suicidal. He was neglecting his condition to such an extent that he would have to go back into the leprosarium in order to recover. And this is all downstream of his abominable behavior toward his own daughter in the climax of that story. This entry continues that thread. Covenant lets himself degrade, and also shows a newer side of himself as he seeks to take action.

Yes, you heard that right.

Covenant actually wants to become a more active character. And we see this in multiple interesting ways. I was actually surprised and satisfied with the way in which Covenant is called upon by the characters in the Land. It shows how Covenant has changed, and also lays the foundation for everything that comes next.

And the agency is something that we see throughout. This is tied to the fact that Covenant also does not want to be reduced to a mere leper. His leprosy and his inability to detach from that aspect of himself was what made him complacent and resistant to taking up responsibility. As he begins to find that there is more to himself than leprosy, he also takes up the responsibility he had needed to from the beginning.

Upon returning to the land, I think there were some important choices made by Donaldson that helped shape how the character behaved. I won't mention the specifics, but he is essentially more true to himself, which leads him to make better decisions.

The most important part of Covenant's journey is him coming to terms with the consequences of his actions. No matter the reality of the Land, his actions throughout the two prior entries carry into this one in a wide ranging manner, and in ways that are catastrophic, even. This book is incredibly dark, and this lasts for almost the entire duration, as we see more and more death in the moment, and learn more and more horrifying things about what had happened in the last seven years.

Donaldson pulls no punches in this one. Covenant has to go to some very dark places throughout the beginning of the book, and we see his misguided actions, too, as we worry that the wrong decisions are being made.

Lord Mhoram

Lord Mhoram was predicted to take a final stand in the prior entries, and it was obvious at the end of the last one that this was the role he would play in this entry. And Donaldson follows through right from the outset. Revelstone is besieged, and it is up to Mhoram to protect the city and ensure the army of Lord Foul is not able to kill them all.

What follows is probably the most compelling part of the story, in terms of creeping dread. Of course, all of the great character elements are on Covenant's end of the story, but in terms of tension and action and payoff, this sequence makes the reader accelerate through the story.

And the reason this part of the story works so well is because of two factors. From the very outset, the reader learns a terrible truth, something that Mhoram is forced to bear as the events of the story unfold around him. It is essentially a reminder of the stakes that are at play, if Lord Foul actually wins the fight. This is the tension on a more global level.

On a more local—scene-by-scene—level, the tension arises from the fact that this is not simply a series of mindless battles. There is an extended siege sequence, with a number of phases involving a number of escalating threats that come from both within and without. The characters are pushed to the point of desperation, and they have hard choices to make.

One of my favorite moments is both related to character and theme, rather than the actual fighting, or even the tension. In the previous entry, there were questions asked about Covenant's unforgivable act and how the characters interact with Covenant in the face of this. He is their only hope, and so many of the characters kind of look over what he has done. This idea is brought up again in this entry, showing that Donaldson has this factor in mind throughout the series.

Other Characters

There are additional characters that we get to see again that I found to be quite exciting. I cannot mention them here, but rest assured that Donaldson does not forget.

Atmosphere

I think the atmosphere of the story is worth mentioning outright because of just how much the story has changed. The first entry was very much a Tolkien copy-cat, though with the changes that I mentioned in that review. And as with many stories riding the wave of the Tolkien craze, the series takes a much sharper break from Tolkien in the second entry. The story is a bit darker, and it leans a bit more into character psychology.

This entry takes the darker feel of the story to its climax. Gone are the sweeping landscapes of beauty and wonder. Everything is corrupted. Covenant has no reprieve. Truly, the brutality of this story is unrelenting. The world, the people, the events of the story, they all compound on one another to shocking degrees. I heard before that Donalson was one of the original grimdark authors. I did not quite see this in the first entry, the only potential being Covenant himself, but it's now obvious what people are thinking of. This is definitely the start of the much darker kinds of storytelling that we saw in those early years.

Themes

The themes come through very strongly in this story. As you can see in many of the reviews of this book, one of the strongest themes is unintended consequences. In my review of the second entry, I mentioned that the consequences of Covenant's unforgivable act were actually kind of positive, even if the effects were widespread. And they were not praised, to be sure. This entry throws all of that on its head, showing just how much ill Covenant has brought onto the Land for the vast array of reasons he does. Everything from his confrontation with the Bloodguard, to his treatment of Elena, to his commands of the Ranyhyn, to his original unforgivable act, to even an off-handed thing that happened in the first book—all of these seem to conspire to destroy the Land and everything that humanity holds dear.

This helps reinforce the impact Covenant has had on the Land, and it also ties to the reality of the Land. While there is technically still the question of whether the Land is real, at least to Covenant's perspective, his effects force him to consider his actions all the same. It reminds me of one of the questions I asked in my first review, which was what it meant to be "real" in the first place. And also the question of its relationship to morality. "Reality" seems to hold a privileged place over "fantasy," but why? If the Land is consistent, persistent, with lasting consequences, then what exactly is the difference between the Land and reality, other than the origins? We don't even know the origins of our reality, in the first place. For all we know, we're all a "fiction" in God's head.

Donaldson does not lean hard into the question of metaphysics, which I did not really expect him to do, but he does stick with the psychology of the question with respect to Covenant, and I really appreciated the direction he took with it.

Questions/Critiques

I only have mild critiques of this entry/series, and I have already mentioned them before.

The question of how Hile Troy remained in the Land after his summoner died is still unanswered. At least as far as I remember.

And I still don't think the story did enough to justify the amount of faith the members of the Land have in Covenant. Because of the focus on the unintended consequences of Covenant's actions, I still question why people even put Covenant on this pedestal. There are the obvious exceptions, I know. But characters like Mhoram are only paying lip service to Covenant's problems, and they are still risking so much to bring Covenant back. More internal conflict about Covenant is worth exploring.

Ending

The ending was another example of a story having a more or less positive ending without making the rest of the story seem cheesy. I thought The Broken Empire was a major disappointment in the end. The story seemed to lose much of the darkness, and that was only a fraction of the overall issues there. But I thought the ending of the Gap was better by a large margin. And Donaldson was similarly better in this one. Based on what Donaldson wrote in his essays, he thinks the themes and the character struggles at the end of the story need to be bound up with the external struggles (the magic) in the story. And this story shows that perfectly.

Who Covenant is, and the changes he goes through, gives him the ability to address the ills facing the Land—and is for both internal and external reasons.

Conclusion

Overall, I really enjoyed the story. The thematic conclusion is what makes the story work, fitting the story together into an intentional whole, rather than tacking on some ending that the author clearly just threw together in the hopes that it would be satisfying. It is more than just stakes and action. I think I will give it a 9/10.

Upon reflection, I'm changing the rating to an 8.5/10.

Spoilers

Plot

I

One major thing that I wanted to talk about is something related to the second entry, though I could not talk about it until the context of the whole story was provided. Namely, what Hile Troy brought to the plot of the story. His relevance as a character is quite obvious. He is the same and yet the exact opposite of Covenant, believing in the Land and embracing the responsibility that had been thrust upon him.

All the same, the way the story seemed to proceed in terms of plot, I was wondering what the point of his character was. The series seemed to be suffering from middlebook syndrome. The exception might be the other storylines, though they were dwarfed in importance by Troy's impact and length. The problem was especially the case in the beginning of this entry, where the story seemed to have simply reset, with respect to his character specifically. Elena still mattered. She still had an important impact. But Troy was barely mentioned, and Lord Foul seemed to be notably unaffected and even more powerful, in spite of his loss in the second entry's climax. Why was Troy's storyline included at all?

That Hile Troy was barely mentioned is the largest critique.

That said, there is some logic here that I can follow, with regard to Lord Foul's plans. If the story had leaned into the importance of Troy more, and especially referred to it in this last entry, this would have emphasized his loss in the second entry.

Troy should simply be Lord Foul's unexpected bane, taken alongside Covenant. And from there, Lord Foul's plan would be simple. Launch an early attack. Troy would take the helm, as that is his nature. The story plays out as it does, with Foul taking advantage of his nature to force him into a desperate position. Troy then sacrifices himself to save his army. The catch is that Foul manages to dispose of this great and unexpected bane ahead of the battle that actually matters. The Illearth War is essentially a fake attack meant to waste human capital with respect to war.

I am not saying that this was not Donaldson's plan from the outset. If it were his plan, then I think he could have communicated it better, especially by leaning into the loss in this entry, as the characters realize just how significant the loss was. Additionally, in the second entry, he should have leaned more into the terror of Foul launching this early attack and the questions that it provokes: Did Foul lie about their doom seven years from that moment? Or is his attack some ploy? If this had been Foul's ploy, then it would have been unexpected and brilliant.

II

I also like how Donaldson was willing to pull no punches and show how Covenant had completely destroyed Lena's family. He did not have a positive impact on the world in every respect. For the story that was told, it was important to see that consequences were had, and that none of it was brushed over.

III

In one of the reviews, someone mentioned that Covenant's time in Morinmoss was basically an inversion of Gandalf's resurrection in The Lord of the Rings. I'm not really sure what was being referred to here. They talked about the change in attitude, but I did not really know how to connect this to Gandalf. The main thing that stood out to me was the death of the healer, as she was killed by the sheer corruption that had taken Covenant. This works well with the climax of the story, during that final confrontation.

Characters

I was also excited to see the return of multiple characters from the first entry of the series. Foamfollower and Lena, to be specific.

I wish that Donaldson could have done more with Lena, given that she is killed off so quickly, but what he did do is a perfect example of a no-punches-pulled kind of storytelling. Covenant is finally being forced to confront the consequences of what he had done at the outset of the first entry, and she has essentially been damaged beyond repair. She has gone mad, her entire life is ravaged by perpetual longing for a man she ought to hate, and she even has no sense to understand how she has aged.

I just thought she was killed off a bit suddenly.

Foamfollower was the other great addition. He has survived the genocide of the giants, and now he is consumed by anger and hate, hoping to strike back at Lord Foul for all of the despair that he has caused. He is in a familiar place here, and he and Covenant are working together to defeat the dark lord.

Ending

I

One small aspect about the final confrontation is that Covenant's ability to fight back against Lord Foul's attempts to torture him were meaningless in the face of his leprosy. Covenant quite literally says that he can withstand anything. It was a great moment.

II

In prior entries, I have talked about the idea of reality and moral responsibility. Covenant connects the two, saying that his unbelief about the Land is a way of absolving himself from his responsibilities. This is resolved, not by believing in the Land, but by embracing the responsibility in spite of his unbelief. This is similar to what I predicted, though not quite the same. I thought he would believe in responsibility first, and then come to believe in the Land as a consequence. But Covenant states quite unequivocally that he does not believe the Land is real, and he takes responsibility for it.

And it is the conjunction of these two things that leads to Foul's downfall. Covenant's unbelief undermines the eternal threat that is Lord Foul. Covenant loses none of his confidence and is able to resist Foul in spite of everything.

III

One criticism that I have given this story is that Covenant doesn't really do enough to "train" with the white gold. I updated my critique to what I mentioned before, that Donaldson should have made the characters' devotion to him more believable, because I thought that these two things were connected.

But, as it turns out, Donaldson was omitting the training sequences for a simple reason. The white gold is not a weapon. It is not something to be wielded and directed. It is pure willpower. I can't remember the exact wording, but this is the general idea. (The ass within me still demands some misguided training sequences, though).

Tied to this is the best part of the story climax, which is that Covenant beats Lord Foul, not because he is a better fighter, or because of training, but because of his character change. White gold can only truly be used by Covenant as he truly escapes his own self-loathing and hatred for the world around him. The character change is quite literally bound up with the magic system and his ability to defeat the dark lord.

More importantly, the only way to truly beat Lord Foul is by rejecting what he represents. Donaldson has said that fantasy is ultimately about making the internal conflicts of the characters external via the use of magic. Lord Foul is essentially the externalization of Covenant's mental state with leprosy. He is this corrupting element that lives through the hatred and Despite of those who he seeks to destroy. He lives off their hatred of him. And no matter how much they defeat him, he always returns in short order, as these people try to beat him through hatred and Despite.

In the end, Covenant manages to push back Foul's eternal encroachment by rejecting the idea of killing. Foul then regresses back into infancy and beyond, before disappearing. As the story is ultimately about Covenant and his character, this focus on virtue ethics works well, thematically.

The story does not just end with a final showdown. There is an ultimate thematic purpose to all of this.

Conclusion

Overall, I really enjoyed the story. The thematic conclusion is what makes the story work, fitting the story together into an intentional whole, rather than tacking on some ending that the author clearly just threw together in the hopes that it would be satisfying. It is more than just stakes and action. I think I will give it a 9/10.

Upon reflection, I'm changing the rating to an 8.5/10.

Video: https://youtu.be/M7_WTLl2oPo