When the 3rd Thomas Covenant series started I was ecstatic. I pre-ordered the hard cover version of the first book, The Runes of the Earth, and upon its arrival I instantly dove right in. Unfortunately, I quickly began to feel like this book was written to take financial advantage of my love for the Land rather than to tell me a good story. The book was full of uber-beings that supposedly always existed in the Land but had never revealed themselves before. These powerful beings had always been there but never surfaced even when the Land was on the brink of annihilation. WTF? My beloved Giants, which were so memorable in the first two series, had now become bland, expendable and boring. The same could be said for the stalwart Haruchai who were now corrupted and uninteresting shadows of themselves. It appeared that Donaldson had done what Lord Foul never could and desecrated the Land. Now I had become the Unbeliever.
In book 2, Fatal Revenant, Linden once again summons Covenant from beyond the grave (been there, done that) and I felt like a fool for continuing to read on. I hoped beyond hope that Donaldson would turn it around and make it all worth my time. Then the 3rd book was published and it was also revealed that it would not complete the series and there would be a 4th book as well. $tephen Donald$on and his litany of uber-beings, time travel, and deus ex machina just didn't know when to stop. The 3rd book, Against All Things Ending, was by far the worst of the bunch and felt like it was filled with time wasting distractions. I had pretty low expectations for book 4 but I just just couldn't walk away...
With book 4, The Last Dark, Donaldson finally returns to his old self and once again I found myself rooting for the defenders of the Land to succeed against heavy odds. I started to care about the Giants and the Haruchai again and it finally felt like I was reading something worthy of my time and money. The finale felt more like the original books than any other book in the final series and it brought back some great memories for me. Like Covenant, my unbelief could not last, and the series ended on a high note. One out of four ain't bad. Actually, no, it is bad. =P
As far as the audiobooks go, like the last series itself, it is a bit of a mess. Books 1 and 4 are narrated by Scott Brick, book 3 is narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds, and book 2 isn't available as an audiobook. All narrations are well done but since you can't listen to the entire series it is probably better to just read the series if you decide to give it a try.
The first two series are classics and just writing this review makes me want to read them again. The Last Chronicles, however, is for true fans only. So read the first 6 books and then make the call on whether or not you want to be summoned to the Land for one final time.