The Illearth War
- 479
- Pages
- about 9 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“The Illearth War” sets a full-scale war beside the inner struggle of Thomas Covenant, a protagonist who is no hero. Donaldson makes a world in need of a saviour depend on a selfish man, and sets a new character against him as a foil. Some readers find Covenant’s self-pity hard to bear, and others lose patience with long stretches of councils and marching. It follows “Lord Foul’s Bane”.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Illearth War is a fantasy novel by American writer Stephen R. Donaldson, the second book of the first trilogy of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series. It is followed by The Power that Preserves.
Reading order · The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
Full order & progress →- Lord Foul's BaneStart here
7.27.2 / 10 - The Illearth WarThis book
7.97.9 / 10 - The Power that Preserves
8.08.0 / 10 - The Wounded Land
7.97.9 / 10 - The One Tree
7.97.9 / 10 - White Gold Wielder
7.97.9 / 10 - The Runes of the Earth
–Not ranked yet - Fatal Revenant
–Not ranked yet - Against All Things Ending
–Not ranked yet - The Last Dark
–Not ranked yet
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.9 across 122 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 45% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Fantasy average of 8.0. That is how 7.9 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.4 | 5 | 4% |
| Hardcover | 7.8 | 117 | 96% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Illearth War?
It has 479 pages — shorter than 61% of the ranked books in Fantasy.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Fantasy — and a score of 7.9, the closest to this book.
