The Wounded Land
First edition cover
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| Author | Stephen R. Donaldson |
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| Cover artist | Darrell K. Sweet |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Del Rey |
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Publication date
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1980 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 497 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 5353176 |
| Preceded by | The Power that Preserves |
| Followed by | The One Tree |
The Wounded Land is a fantasy novel by American writer Stephen R. Donaldson, the first book of the second trilogy of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series. It is followed by The One Tree.
The book is dedicated to Lester del Rey with the cryptic appendation: "Lester made me do it." Donaldson has explained on his website that del Rey, his editor-publisher, was the "King of Sequels" and pestered Donaldson incessantly with ideas for a follow up to the first trilogy, all of which were quite bad, to the extent that Donaldson was driven to conceive workable ideas for both the second and third trilogies. [1]
Ten years have passed since the end of the first Chronicles. After his experiences in the Land, Thomas Covenant has resumed his career as a writer. He is still isolated from society, but he has come to terms with that and with the other mental and physical consequences of his leprosy.
The story begins by presenting us with a new main character; the prologue is told entirely from her point of view, as is much of the main narrative. Linden Avery is a doctor who has moved to Covenant's hometown to take a position at the local hospital. Her traumatic childhood and rigorous medical training have left her emotionally isolated from other people. In her own way, she is as much an outsider in society as Covenant.
The chief of staff at the hospital (who appeared briefly in the first Chronicles) asks her to check up on Covenant. Linden, reluctantly, drives to Covenant's house outside of town. On the way, she sees an elderly man in an ochre robe collapse by the side of the road. Using CPR, she revives him: he makes a number of cryptic pronouncements and walks off, telling her to "be true".
Confused and disturbed by this strange encounter, Linden continues on to Covenant's house. Although he initially brushes her off, she is persistent, and finds that Covenant's estranged wife has returned to him, but that she is under the influence of a cult of worshippers of Lord Foul, who has found a way to exert his influence in Covenant's world.
After Covenant is stabbed in the chest by one of Foul's dupes in the "real" world, he loses consciousness and hears a familiar voice: Lord Foul's. Taunting Covenant that there is "more despair bound up for you than your petty mortal heart can bear", Foul vows that he will have his final revenge on Covenant and the Land.
He awakes to find that both he and Linden have been transported to the Land - to Kevin's Watch, the mountain at the Land's south frontier where he was first summoned by Drool Rockworm. His wound has been healed - somehow Covenant was able to use the "wild magic" of his white gold ring, although he had no conscious control over the process. Descending from the Watch, he also finds that a terrible change has transpired: four thousand years have passed, the Earthpower is gone, or nearly gone, and the people of the Land are out of touch with what remains of it. The Land is afflicted with the Sunbane, a disruption of the physical order which alternately causes rain, desert, pestilence and unnatural fertility to wreak havoc on man, animals and nature.
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