[Mhoram] could sense the remembered presence of the others who had occupied the High Lord's chair ... Kevin, Loric, and Damelon of the Old. Their individual greatness and courage humbled him, made him realize how small a figure he was to bear such losses and duties ... he had not power enough to match the frailest Lord in the weakest Council led by Kevin or Loric or Damelon or Berek Hearththew the Lord-Fatherer.

-- The Power That Preserves

Note: This page was written at least a year prior to the news that there would be the publication of a Third Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

In my mind there is only one thing that Stephen R. Donaldson could do for a sequel to the Second Chronicles that would be as grand, deep and satisfying as the original works. And that is to fashion a prequel capturing the lives, victories, defeats and ultimate destruction of the Old Lords a millenia before Thomas Covenant was first summoned to Kevin's Watch.

The latter-day Land has been Desecrated, ravaged by two Giant-Raver armies and Foul's unnatural winter then continually reDesecrated by the Sunbane; Thomas Covenant's character has passed on to his final reward, the Despiser once again is dissolute, and Linden Avery's mastery in the Land would be incontestable by any conceivable enemy. The theme of re-savaging the Land seems to be mined out, but there is an inconceivably rich lode of potential to be tapped in the history of the ancient Land. I want to read the legends of Berek, Damelon Giantfriend, Loric Vilesilencer and especially the trials and tribulations of Kevin Landwaster in the present tense, or at least in third person. I want to immerse myself in the rawness and newness of it all, the time of Creation, the Land during the reign of the King and Queen, Berek's blood-soaked saga and the surgence of mysterious and puissant Earthpower.

What a magnificent novel Donaldson could craft from that fabric, and perhaps a second novel fleshing out the adventures of Damelon, the appearance of the Unhomed, the defeat of the Haruchai and the majesty of their Vow, and the titanic clashes of Loric and the Viles. I would love for him to expand the action to flesh out inadequately described parts of the Land such as the Northron Climbs and Giant Woods, Westron Mountains, Southron Range and the regions Foul would later corrupt to surround his demesne. Imagine for one second the insidiousness of the Despiser duping High Lord Kevin into placing him in the Council of Lords, how desperately you'd want to scream to the beleagured poor man to beware the snake in the garden. Of course the coup de grace would have to be the blood-splashed apotheosis of Kevin's war against the Gray Slayer and his ultimate act of Desecration. There is not a shadow of doubt in my mind that Stephen Donaldson could leave me shattered by the extravagance of Kevin Landwaster's destruction, the merciless description of the external and internal death struggles propelling him to a howling death. Even though I know it's coming.

There is another reason than sheer reading satisfaction why I'd love to see Donaldson undertake such a project, and that is to expand the depth of the Land to an extent that it begins to feel like the history of an actual world. I feel Tolkien's great accomplishment is the layered authenticity of Middle Earth, the sense of ancient times of tremendous magical power, fabulous creatures and Armageddon-like conflicts eventually giving way to the new order of things in which his current set of heroes labor. For me, the Lord of the Rings didn't achieve that sense of completeness and grandeur until I absorbed the epic scale of the Creation, the First and Second Ages in the Silmarillion. When each character, event and locale in the Lord of the Rings had an appreciable history and provenance affiliating it with a vast and glorious (or heinous) past, the novels began to involve me on many different levels. No one else has even come close to reaching Tolkien's level of detail and authenticity ... but Stephen R. Donaldson has the opportunity. I hope he grabs it and runs.