The Illearth War

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Book 2

By: Stephen R. Donaldson

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 20 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's Summary

After scant days in his “real” world, Thomas Covenant finds himself again summoned to a strange world of magic and Earthpower. There, 40 bitter years have passed, while Lord Foul, immortal enemy of the Land, moves to fulfill his prophecy of doom - his countless minions are already on the march, cutting a devastating swath of destruction across the Land.

The Council of Lords find their spells useless, however, now that Foul the Despiser holds the Illearth Stone, the ancient talisman of evil. High Lord Elena turns in desperation to Covenant and the legendary wild magic of his ring, but nobody knows how to use the white gold - least of all Thomas Covenant himself.

©1977 Stephen R. Donaldson (P)2020 Brick by Brick Audiobooks

The Illearth War

I have loved this series of books since I first read them as a teen. I could not wait for his books to be published.
The narrator does a wonderful job of being both the story and the characters to life.
It is funny that listening to the story, I seem to be hearing parts that I had missed when I first read the books.
Well worth the listen.

Great book by a master performer

I think The Illearth War is the pinnacle of the Thomas Covenant series - which is a little odd since he plays a much smaller part in this book. And Scott Brick is an absolute master at audio books. He does a superb job, especially in capturing the Bloodguards oddly inflected speech.

Lessons of power

Power isn't what Covenant is seeking. Yet even in seeking to evade the responsibility of power, he finds that it corrupts.

Great story. Terrible reading.

I love this story. Seriously. One of the greatest. Having said that, the performance is absolutely terrible.

Outstanding

Flawless narration. He brought new life to a well known story. i was at the edge of my seat.

Love this series

I may be a bit of a Thomas Covenant nerd, Scott Brick is a great audible narrative? Reader? Not sure what you would call it. Anyway third maybe fourth time I've listened. Great series.

Great 70s Fantasy

This is one of the first fantasies I read growing up. It’s a good story albeit with an unlikeable protagonist.

The problem is the narration. Scott Brick’s overwrought, sing songy narration is hard to slog through. Brick can read “it’s raining outside” as though it’s an emotional cauldron. I’ve tried to listen to Brick many times because he reads several of my favorites, but I just can’t get into the flow of a story that Brick reads.

Narration is so important in an audiobook and a bad performance kills any book.

Tough to put difficult bits out of your mind!

Adverbs improved, but casual treatment of rape inciden (Lord Foul's Bane) is ongoing, nauseating & clearly pointing to incest. You won't be able to get away from it in the second novel of the trilogy. I think for today's reader, it mocks the confounding wisdom of The Land more than the author intended. 'Pity' and 'disgust' come to mind.

Although the writer was young, writing in the 70s, the reader cannot simply overlook or forget about the violent and disturbing event from LBF because Illearth centers the event and its many consequences. That makes forgetting tough--more likely, impossible.

ALSO... if you're squeamish about incestuous desire, particularly that of a hero-rapist toward the knowing & adoring adult daughter who is ready to disregard taboos (& her mother's ongoing vain hope that the man will return to her someday with a marriage proposal)... well, you might want to spare yourself...

I pushed through the book but it was not necessary. I cannot go on to book 3 despite my compulsion to complete a series once begun.

great story

I read this in the mid 80s this is as good as I remember.

Meh

While the performance of the narrator wasn't bad (though I do wish he had more range in voices), the story was not the greatest. When it focuses on Troy, who may be the only realistic character in this book, it's not bad. It's even interesting. But then when it's on Thomas, it's so unrealistic and so monotone it becomes really hard to listen to. Then with the only major female character being an unrealistic temptation to Thomas, almost reminiscent of Eve, it's a sad representation of the women in this world once again.