One Tree

The Second Chronicles of Thomas Convenant Book 2: The One Tree

Stephen R. Donaldson

DelRey Books

Summary – After returning to the Land and escaping the Clave at Revelstone, Covenant, Avery and the mysterious ur-vile, Vain, met with a group of Giants that had come from across the seas to find out what happened to their brethren at Coerci. Realizing that they could not defeat Lord Foul without a new Staff of Law, and that the only way to make one would be to find the mythical One Tree and saw off one of its branches, they set out in the Giants’ ship to search for it.

What follows it a series of adventure across the oceans of the world. The group meet the Elohim, mysterious spiritual creatures with incredible control of Earthpower. They then travail to Sandhold, a large port on the edge of a demogorgon-infected desert. Finally they reach the island where the One Tree grows but their challenges to bring a successful conclusion to their mission are just beginning.

Review – Although I got through this book without a problem, I know other people who finally gave up on Stephen Donaldson at this point and I can understand why. The first four books of the Chronicles are all about the Land. This book, however, finally takes us beyond the eastern shores of all we have known until now and shows up the legends that the Giants of the first four books have gone on and on about. And boy, are these legends disappointing.

The Elohim, for starters, are like the Swiss: incredibly powerful, possibly omniscient, and totally neutral. Evil and good mean nothing to them and they’ll happily deal with both as long as it’s in their interest. Is Lord Foul using the Earthpower to corrupt the land? They don’t care because he’s not bothering them. Do they have the power to defeat him and end the curse of the Sunbane? We’ll never find out because they’ll never try. There’s nothing in it for them. Covenant and the others arrive hoping to receive help but the group is harmed and hindered more than anything else.

Sandhold is another story. This is possibly the weakest part of the first six books, reading like a standard fantasy adventure. Gone are any mystical or original features of magic and life in the world. The monsters are typical orc-substitutes, the evil wizard is just that, and the dramatic tension – Will Covenant lose his ring? Will the main characters all survive – is missing. You know they’ll run around, have a little adventure and then escape intact.

The book does redeem itself at the end, though, when they find the One Tree. I’m not going to go into all the complex symbols, eg. The Tree of Life analogies, but what happens in the final pages is more than enough to get the reader back into the trilogy and eagerly anticipating the final part.