Back Cover:
Praise For
Fatal Revenant
"This complicated and emotional continuation of the Thomas Covenant saga is exactly what Donaldson's fans have been hoping for."
- PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY

Praise For
The Runes of the Earth
"An epic with page-turning intrigue."
- DETROIT FREE PRESS

Praise For
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
"Will certainly find a place on the small list of true classics."
- THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD

"Covenant is Donaldson's genius."
- THE VILLAGE VOICE

Inside flap:
Attempts must be made, even when there is no hope.  And betimes some wonder is wrought to redeem us....

Thomas Covenant is alive again, restored to his mortal body by the unimaginable combines power of hos own white gold ring, Linden Avery's Staff of Law, and the ancient dagger called High Lord Loric's krill.  His resurrection is Linden's defiant act of love, despite warnings from mortals and immortals that unleashing this much power would destroy the world.  She brought his spirit back from its prison in the Arch of Time, and restored his slain body, so precious to her, his wild white hair like flame, his face now etched with lines of pain.  Thomas Covenant is returned to her.

But the truth is inescapable: the thunderclap of power from Linden's action has awakened the Worm of the World's End, and all of them, and the Land itself, are forfeit to its devouring.  If they have any chance to save the Land, it will come from unlikely sources - including the mysterious bot Jeremiah, Linden's adopted son, whose secrets are only beginning to come to light.  And it will come from sacrifices, some freely offered by friends who have traveled far and trusted much, and some taken by force that can be recognized only later as compassion.

Dimly, but holding on to whatever hope leaves behind when hope itself has failed, Linden clings to one prophecy: You would not be driven by mistaken love to bring about the end of all things.

Back flap:
STEPHEN R. DONALSON is the author of the six volumes of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, a landmark in modern fantasy.  Every volume, beginning with Lord Foul's Bane in 1977, has been an international bestseller.  Donaldson returned to the series with The Runes of the Earth in 2004.  He lives in New Mexico.

THE CREATOR OF THOMAS COVENANT ADDS EIGHT NEW WONDERS TO THE WORLD

In his first collection of short fiction, the bestselling author of White Gold Wielder presents eight superb stories, including "Gilden-Fire," the famous "outtake" from Illearth War, and two brand new novellas written especially for this edition.  Enter a world of mystics and unicorns, angels and kings - all realized with the same dazzling style and imagination that has made Stephen R. Donaldson a modern master of the fantasy genre.

Daughter of Regals
A fantasy novella concerning a unique royal line and an unusual conception of magic.

The Conqueror Worm
A deliciously creepy "horror" piece in which havoc is wreaked by one lowly centipede.

Ser Visal's Tale
Beginning as a simple story told over several flagons of wine at the local inn, this novella ends with a surprising twist.

Gilden-Fire
The famous chapter about Korik of the Bloodguard and his mission to Seareach that was part of the original manuscript of The Illearth War, but omitted from the published version.

WITH THESE, PLUS FOUR MORE STORIES - EACH AS ENTERTAINING AND UNIQUE AS THOSE ALREADY DESCRIBED - STEPHEN DONALDSON AGAIN PROVES THE BREADTH OF HIS TALENT AND THE RANGE OF HIS NARRATIVE SKILL.

Be cautious of love.  It misleads.  There is a glamour upon it which binds the heart to destruction...

Linden Avery, who loved Thomas Covenant and watched him die, has returned to the Land in search of her kidnapped son, Jeremiah.  As Fatal Revenant begins, Linden, watching from the battlements of Revelstone, sees Jeremiah and Covenant himself, apparently very much alive.  Linden has heard his voice in her dreams, has heard him urge her on - "Linden, find me."  But the prospect of being reunited with Thomas Covenant drives her to her knees in shock and disbelief.

Here in the Land, Jeremiah is healed of the mental condition that kept him mute and unresponsive for so many years.  He is full of life, and devoted to Covenant.  But Covenant is strangely changed: he no longer seems like the man she adored.  And yet he says he has a plan - and plan that will save the Land as well as both Linden and Jeremiah - but he refuses to explain.  Instead of trying to win her trust, he insists that he needs her help.  He is Thomas Covenant.  How can she make any choice except to aid him?

But is he still the man who twice saved the Land, or has he been twisted by death and time into something darker?  Fighting for her life against new enemies and old, across appalling distances, Linden Avery is inexorably forced toward a terrible leap of faith that could cost her everything, including Covenant and her son.

Praise for the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

"Will certainly find a place on the small list of true classics."
- The Washington Post Book World

"Covenant is Donaldson's genius."
- The Village Voice

Stephen R. Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant is one of the most acclaimed fantasy series of our time, with penetrating insight into the darkest secrets of the human soul.  Now Donaldson turns his storytelling mastery to an intense new five-volume series of the far future, beginning with...
THE GAP INTO CONFLICT:
THE REAL STORY

Angus Thermopyle was an ore pirate and a murderer; even the most disreputable asteroid pilots of Delta Sector stayed out of his way.  They muttered that everyone who had ever gotten close to Thermopyle had ended up dead - or in the lockup.  But when he arrived at Mallorys Bar & Sleep with a gorgeous woman by his side, the regulars had to take notice.  She was too beautiful, to obviously from a different class.  Her name was Morn Hyland, and she had been a police officer - until she showed up with Thermopyle.

One person in Mallorys Bar wasn't frightened.  Nick Succorso had his own ship, a sleek frigate fitted for deep space.  He had a reputation as a bold pirate, but not a bloodthirsty one.  And he had the kind of charisma that made men follow him and women want him.  Only the scars beneath his eyes - brutal knife cuts that darkened when his blood rose - indicated that he'd ever known defeat.  You could almost feel the tension when he first saw Morn Hyland.

Everyone knew that Thermopyle and Succorso were on a collision course.  What nobody suspected was how quickly it would all be over - or how decisive the victory would be.  It was a common enough example of rivalry and revenge - or so everyone thought.  But the real story was something entirely different... something none of them would have believed.  Here is that story, as told by one of the modern giants of imaginative fiction.

The Real Story takes us to a remarkably detailed world of faster-than-light travel (known as "crossing the Gap"), politics and betrayal, extraordinary technological development, and a shadowy presence just outside our view.  It confirms Stephen R. Donaldson's deep awareness of the wellsprings of the human condition and the implacable conflict of good and evil within each of us.  It begins the fiercest, most profound story that he has ever written.

Includes a special afterward from the author.

STEPHEN R. DONALDSON was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1947, and as the son of an American missionary spent his early years in India.  After serving as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, he attended Kent State University, where he earned a master's degree in English.  Donaldson made his writing debut in 1977; the series quickly became an international bestseller.  He was awarded the prestigious John W. Campbell Award as Best New Writer in 1979.  He currently lives in New Mexico, where he is working on the next book in the Gap series.

Stephen R. Donaldson has earned a worldwide reputation as one of the bestselling imaginative authors of all time.  His thrilling science fiction cycle - The Real Story, Forbidden Knowledge, and A Dark and Hungry God Arises - has introduced us to an adventure as vast as the galaxy and as unpredictable as the human heart.  Now the adventure continues in the next to last chapter of one of the most powerful science fiction epics ever told...

THE GAP INTO MADNESS:
CHAOS AND ORDER

As the planetoid Thanatos Minor explodes into atoms, a specially fitted cruiser escapes the mass destruction and hurtles into space only a step ahead of hostile pursuit.  On board Trumpet. is a handful of bedraggled fugitives from an outlaw world, old enemies suddenly and violently thrown together in a desperate bid for survival.

Among this unlikely crew allies are Morn Hyland, once a UMCP cop, now a prisoner to the electrodes implanted in her brain; her son Davies, "force-grown" to adulthood by the alien Amnion and struggling to understand his true identity; the amoral space buccaneer Nick Succorso, whose most daring act of piracy could be his last; and Angus Thermopyle, unstoppable cyborg struggling to wrest control of his own mind from his UMCP programmers.

Locked in lethal battle against one another for control of Trumpet, they also find themselves the target of Punisher, a police ship whose human captain, Min Donner, is torn between her duty and her sympathy for the outlaw crew she's been ordered to capture.  Yet as Min races to reach Trumpet in time, Warden Dios, the director of the UMC Police, receives a darker directive from the mysterious semi-immortal Dragon, ruler of the UMC: Kill everyone aboard Trumpet except for the one person whose blood carries the mutagenic key to ultimate Amnion triumph - the ability to appear perfectly human.

In a final titanic showdown in space amid uncharted comets, planets, and asteroid swarms, these forces will converge in a contest of skill and survival on which their future - and the future of the galaxy - depends.  In Chaos and Order Stephen R. Donaldson has created his most powerful and labyrinthine tale yet, peeling away layer upon layer of intrigue and double cross to lay bare the chilling plan for the conquest of humanity.

STEPHEN R. DONALDSON made his writing debut in 1977 with the first Thomas Covenant books; the series quickly became an international bestseller and earned him worldwide critical acclaim.  Stephen R. Donaldson was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and currently lives in New Mexico, where he is working on the fifth and final novel in the Gap series.

A master storyteller, Stephen R. Donaldson established himself worldwide with his unforgettable bestselling fantasy series The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.  Then, with The Real World and Forbidden Knowledge, he launched a thrilling new science fiction cycle.  Now the galactic epic continues as humanity struggles against the forces of ultimate evil - and its own dark nature.

THE GAP INTO POWER:
A DARK AND HUNGRY GOD ARISES

Billingate: illegal shipyard, haven for pirates and brigands, where every vice flourishes and every appetite can be sated... gateway to the alien realm of the Amnion and clearinghouse for all they require to fulfill their mutagenic plans against humanity.

It is here that beautiful UMCP cop Morn Hyland is about to be traded to the Amnion by the buccaneer Nick Succorso - an act of profiteering and revenge that pushes his crew to mutiny.  Now Nick's survival depends on retrieving Morn's sixteen-year-old son "force-grown" by the Amnion, a boy struggling to gain his identity.  To accomplish the rescue, Nick must turn to his mortal enemy, Angus Thermopyle.  Irrevocably altered, programmed for an unknown purpose, Thermopyle has apparently escaped captivity and fled to Billingate with the infamous double-dealer, Milos Taverner.  Together they will mount a raid against a man called the Bill, illegal spaceport owner and traitor to the human race - and into the center of the most heavily defended shipyard in the universe.

At Billingate the stage is set for confrontation, when the fate of Morn Hyland is to be decided in a kaleidoscopic whirl of plot and counterplot, treachery and betrayal.

In A Dark and Hungry God Arises, nothing is as it seems.  As schemes unravel to reveal yet deeper schemes, the lives of Morn, Nick, and Angus may all be forfeit as pawns in the titanic game played out between Warden Dios, dedicated director of the UMC Police, and the Dragon, greed-driven ruler of the UMC.  Here, the future of humankind hangs on the uncertain fortune of Morn Hyland in a daring novel of epic power and suspense, relentlessly gripping from first page to last.

STEPHEN R. DONALDSON was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1947, and as the son of an American missionary spent his early years in India.  After serving as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, he attended Kent State University, where he earned a master's degree in English.  Donaldson made his writing debut with the first Thomas Covenant books in 1977; the series quickly became an international bestseller.  He was awarded the prestigious John W. Campbell Award as Best New Writer in 1979.  He currently lives in New Mexico, where he is working on the next book in the Gap series.

Stephen R. Donaldson has won a worldwide reputation for his bestselling, critically acclaimed work of imaginative fiction.  In a stunning science fiction cycle, the Gap series, he has created a vast panorama of characters and events, an epic adventure of galactic struggle amid the uncertainties of human destiny.  Now this tumultuous saga comes to a shattering climax in its final, apocalyptic chapter...

THE GAP INTO RUIN:
THIS DAY ALL GODS DIE

As the crippled starship Trumpet drifts in space, its drives sabotaged from within by a crewman tainted with an alien mutagen, a deadly game is being played out on a satellite near Earth in the headquarters of the UMC Police.  In the wake of a suicide attack in the chambers of the Governing Council for Earth and Space, UMCP Director Warden Dios is preparing to expose the secret machinations of the Dragon, the corrupt head of the United Mining Companies.  But Dios's own dangerous actions are about to come to light and may precipitate all-out war with the Amnion, leaving Dios - and all humanity - to pay a terrible price for what could be termed treason.

Though dead in space, Trumpet broadcasts to any ship in range the formula of the mutagen's antidote - a drug the UMC has suppressed for its own sinister purposes.  A small band of battered survivors, these fugitives hold the key to Earth's future: Morn Hyland, a former UMC cop whose obsession with the Amnion has grown so fierce she is becoming something even her son doesn't recognize; Angus Thermopyle, cyborg tool of the UMCP, released from his cybernetic enslavement and now testing the boundaries of his new freedom; Ciro Vasaczk, tormented by the damage done him by the Amnion mutagen - and by the damage he himself has done Trumpet while in thrall to the drug.

Their escape from the Calm Horizons will prove to be only a temporary triumph if the alien combat craft survives its battle with the UMCP ship Punisher and returns to the Amnion with the antidote's formula - and the key to the destruction of all human life.  Morn Hyland can see just one way out of their situation.  As Min Donner and Punisher close in on the disabled Trumpet to arrest the fugitives, Morn prepares for a desperate gamble.  To commandeer the police craft by any means necessary... and take it back to Earth.

As Dios in Earth's orbit and Morn in deep space each make dire, far-reaching decisions, the Amnion act with swift fury, and suddenly Earth stands threatened with fiery destruction.  This Day All Gods Die is a thrilling tale of high adventure, powerful emotion, and labyrinthine intrigue, as humans and aliens collide in the cataclysmic showdown that will mean either the survival of all humankind... or its absorption and annihilation.

STEPHEN R. DONALDSON made his writing debut in 1977 with the first Thomas Covenant books; the series quickly became an international bestseller and earned him worldwide critical acclaim.  Stephen R. Donaldson was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and currently lives in New Mexico.

First Stephen R. Donaldson gave us The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the critically acclaimed and wildly popular fantasy series that established this master storyteller as one of today's most insightful novelists.  Then came The Gap into Conflict: The Real Story, the suspenseful beginning of a brand-new science fiction series.  Now the story continues in an even more powerful tale of dark passions, perilous alliances, and dubious heroism.

THE GAP INTO VISION:
FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE

Morn Hyland, United Mining Companies police officer, is beautiful, brilliant, dedicated, and dangerous.  Two ruthless men think they can possess her, but Morn is no one's victim, no one's pawn.

Charismatic ore-pirate Nick Succorso, for example, sees Morn as booty wrested from his vicious colleague, Angus Thermopyle.  But he soon finds himself engaged in a deadly power struggle with the supposedly helpless captive, as she strives to retain her identity, her integrity, and ultimately her life.  Angus Thermopyle, too, once made the mistake of underestimating Morn, and he is about to pay the ultimate price - by falling prey to the twisted aims of the very authorities he has battled since boyhood.

And beyond them all, within the borders of Forbidden Space, wait the Amnion, an alien race embodying all that humanity knows of horror, a race capable of transforming humans into mutated, unrecognizable forms.  The Amnion want something from the human race - and will go to unthinkable lengths to get it.

In Forbidden Knowledge Stephen R. Donaldson spins a galaxywide web of intrigue that entangles Morn, Nick, Angus, the UMCP, and even the Amnion in loops of deception and betrayal that none of them can escape - and that tightens with inexorable strength around characters and readers alike.

STEPHEN R. DONALDSON was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1947, and as the son of an American missionary spent his early years in India.  After serving as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, he attended Kent State University, where he earned a master's degree in English.  Donaldson made his writing debut in 1977; the series quickly became an international bestseller.  He was awarded the prestigious John W. Campbell Award as Best New Writer in 1979.  His newest work is a five-volume cycle of novels that began in early 1991 with Bantam Spectra's publication of The Gap into Conflict: The Real Story.  He currently lives in New Mexico, where he is working on the next book in the Gap series.

Any reader familiar with the Land, Stephen R. Donaldson's setting for the Chronicle of Thomas Covenant, will be pleased to learn of this new story: a previously untold episode of The Illearth War.

This is the tale of Korik Bloodguard, the Lords Shetra and Hyrim, and their company, on their mission to Seareach.

Many dangers and many hard decisions await them on their journey, as they travel through Grimmerdhore Forest and encounter ur-viles, a pack of wolves, and Gilden-Fire.

In this story we gain more background and understanding into the lives and motivations of the dwellers of the Land, as well as the history of the Bloodguard - of great interest to anyone who enjoyed the Thomas Covenant novels.

WHILE THE EVIL DAYS COME

After scant days in his "real" world, Thomas Covenant found himself again summoned to the Land - the strange world of magic and earthpower.  There forty bitter years had passed, while Lord Foul, moved to fulfill his prophesy of doom.  Foul's countless minions, led by a Giant Raver, were already on the march of destruction.  They were opposed only by the untried war skill of Hile Troy, blind and bitter exile from "reality."

The Council of Lords found their spells useless, now that Foul the Despiser held the Illearth Stone, ancient source of evil power.  High Lord Elena turned in desperation to Covenant and the legendary white gold magic of his ring.  And nobody knew how to use the white gold - least of all, Thomas Covenant.

Thus continues one of the strangest epic fantasies ever written...

THE CHRONICLES OF
THOMAS COVENANT THE UNBELIEVER

Book One LORD FOUL'S BANE
Book Two THE ILLEARTH WAR
Book Three THE POWER THAT PRESERVES

Ater more than three decades, having attained bestseller status all over the world, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant reaches its conclusion.  This is a truly historic moment in fantasy, as Stephen R. Donaldson's innumerable fans learn of the final fate of the Land.

The worm of the World's End is roused, seeking the ruin of all things....

Compelled step-by-step to actions whose consequences they could neither forsee nor prevent, Thomas Covenant and Linden Avery have fought for what they love in the magical reality known only as "the Land."  Now they face their final crisis.  Reunited after their separate stuggles, they discover in each other their true power - and yet they cannot imagine how to stop the Worm of the World's End from unmaking Time.  Nevertheless, they must resist the ruin of all things, giving their last strength in the service of the world's continuance.

You risk much, as you have ever done.  Mayhap you will prevail.  If you do not, your worth is not thereby diminished.

"Donaldson build toward a staggering resolution of love, endurance, and self sacrifice."
- TOR.COM

[Donaldson's] work is remarkably distinct in its hero, its themes, its relationship to the real world."
- THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Donaldson's landmark historical fantasy series marks a milestone of epic storytelling."
-LIBRARY JOURNAL

THOMAS COVENANT, UR-LORD

He called himself Covenant the Unbeliever, because he dared not believe in this strange alternate world on which he suddenly found himself.  The magic of the Land could not be real.  Loremasters could not draw fire from wood that never burned, not force stone to flow freely under their fingers.  Yet they did.  Hurtloam could not regenerate ruined nerves.  Yet, miraculously, it did.

The Land tempted him.  He had been sick; now he seemed better than ever before.  Through no fault of his own, he had been outcast, unclean, a pariah.  Now he was regarded as a reincarnation of the Land's greatest hero - Berek Halfhand - armed with the mystic power of White Gold.  That power alone could protect the Lords of the Land from the ancient evil of the Despairer, Lord Foul.  Only... Covenant had no idea of how the power could be used!

Thus begins one of the strangest epic fantasies ever written...

THE CHRONICLES OF
THOMAS COVENANT THE UNBELEIVER

Book One LORD FOUL'S BANE
Book Two THE ILLEARTH WAR
Book Three THE POWER THAT PRESERVES

Someone will stop you," she said as if she were acustomed to defiance.  "If Geraden doesn't do it, I will.  You're going to be stopped."

"Geraden?" spat Gilbur.  "You?  How are you going to stop me?"

How?

Like this.

She didn't need to say it aloud.  He was still bearing down on her with his bloody hands when he seemed to run into a wall.  Surprise wiped the violence from his face: his eyes sprang wide as he saw what was happening to the mirror behind her.

She didn't look.  The last time she had done this, she had done it entirely by accident, without knowing what she was doing; she didn't try to coerce it now.  IN any case, at the moment she didn't care whether she lived or died.  She only cared about escape.

Still astonished, but recovering his wits, Master Gilbur reached for her.

Gently, Terisa closed her eyes and drifted backward into the dark.

Terisa Morgan despoerately needed to escape.  Gilbur was trying to kill her, Castellan Lebbick wanted to torture her, and she needed to find Graden.  Orison was being attacked by the Alend army poised at the gates... Eremis, the traitor, was working with Gilbur in league with the hated Cadwals and the Arch-Imager Vagel... King Joyse's actions could not be explained.

Everything that Geaden loved was about to be destroyed - unless the two of them could find a way to prevent it by using the talent for mirrors and Imagery that Terisa now ken they both possesed... a talent that made them extremely powerful and extremely dangerous to Eremis.  And Terisa knew that Eremis would use all tghe evil means at his disposal to insure the success of his master plan, which meant that the kingdom would be lost and she and Geraden would surely die.

A MAN RIDES THROUGH is the stunning conclusion in the compeling saga that began with THE MIRROR OF HER DREAMS.  It is a thrilling, action-packed, and complex novel that will delight readers everywhere... and reaffirm Stephen R. Donaldson position as the foremost practicioner of the epic fantasy form in the world today.

A TALE OF A HERO'S DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL

Mick Axbrewder has enough problems to kill any ten lesser men.  He's a recovering alcoholic.  He's also healing - painfully and slowly - from a gunshot wound that nearly killed him.  His working partner, Ginny, seems to want as little to do with him as possible.

Now Axbrewder - "Brew" to his friends - is trying to make his way back to self-respect.  It isn't easy.  It doesn't help Ginny has moved him and her to the sprawling, heartless Sunbelt city of Carner, where he can't get the "feel" of the streets.  At least he has work, handling security in the booming martial arts industry centered in Carner.  A world of modern commercial competition and ancient resentments.  A world with hidden stakes, over which someone is evidently willing to kill.

But Brew's real job isn't the one for which he's been hired.  His real job is regaining his own self-respect.

Cover design by Drive Communications, New York

Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
www.tor.com

"Authoritative."
Publishers Weekly on
The Man Who Fought Alone

"Fun...  He ought to follow this up."
San Jose Mercury-News on
The Man Who Fought Alone

Mick "Brew" Axbrewder was once a great P.I.  That was before he accidentally shot and killed a cop - worse, a cop who happened to be his own brother.  Mow he only works of and on, as muscle for his old partner, Ginny Fistoulari.  It's a living.  And it provides an occasional opportunity for him to dry out.

But their latest case demand more than muscle.  Brew's dead brother's daughter has disappeared.  His brother's widow wants him and Ginny to investigate.  And both of them seem to expect him to sober up.  Because the darkness they're finding under the surface of Sunbelt city Puerto del Sol goes beyond one missing teenager.

Axbrewder will need all his talents to confront that darkness.  Most of all he'll need to confront his own worst enemy - himself.

More than two decades ago, bestselling author Stephen R. Donaldson published three novels about Mick Axbrewder and Ginny Fistoulari as paperback originals under the pseudonym Reed Stephens.  More recently, under his own name, Donaldson published a new novel in the sequence, The Man Who Fought Alone.  Now, for Donaldson's millions of readers worldwide, the first of the original books, The Man Who Killed His Brother, appears under Donaldson's own name in revised form.

The author of eight New York Times bestsellers, including the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Stephen R. Donaldson lives in northern New Mexico.

Jacket design by
Drive Communications, New York

Author photo by Beth Alice Edelstein

"As he's done so vividly with Thomas Covenant, Donaldson uses Axbrewder as a vehicle to demonstrate that people, even at their lowest and most wretched, can find transcendence through community, concentration, and disciplined self-cultivation."  The Daily Camera (Boulder, Colorado)

HIS NAME IS MICK AXBREWDER.  HE'S THE MAN WHO RISKED HIS PARTNER, BUT HE DID IT FOR A GOOD REASON.  TO SAVE HER LIFE.

Her name is Ginny Fistoulari, head of Fistoulari Investigations.  He thinks she's gorgeous.  Everybody thinks she's got a bad temper.  He pushed her out on a limb because she was ready to call it quits - to give up on business, life, whatever.

He insisted that they be Reg Haskell's bodyguards, even though Haskell had a gambler's eyes and a lady-killer's smile.  Even though people kept taking shots at Brew with all kinds of artillery - shot guns, M-16's, even a .38 or two for good measure.  And even though there was only one person who was more likely to get killed than he was.

His partner.  But he insisted, because it was the only chance he had to get her going again.  A chance so small most fools would have turned it down.

From amazon.com:

Running away from yourself never works. You'll always catch up.

"Donaldson, at his trademark best, fleshes out the characters to the max...and it's all wrapped around a well-paced, cleverly-plotted mystery that will leave readers wanting more."
- Charleston Post on The Man Who Killed His Brother

Mick "Brew" Axbrewder was once a great P.I. That was before he accidentally shot and killed a cop--worse, a cop who happened to be his own brother. Then Mick's partner, Ginny Fistoulari, blew off her own hand protecting him from a confrontation brought on by his alcoholism. Unsurprisingly, Mick and Ginny aren't on great terms any more.

Now, a week after an incident in which he was shot, barely back on his feet, Mick has agreed against his better judgement to join Ginny in providing security at a "murder mystery camp", where a dozen people stay in an isolated, snowbound lodge to play at being detectives. Then a real killer starts bumping people off, one by one...

As ever, Stephen Donaldson shows why he's regarded as one of America's greatest storytellers, with a tale of human pain and human triumph in The Man Who Tried to Get Away.

"The need is real," Geraden said.  "And it's urgent, my lady.  Somewhere in the realm there are renegade Imagers, Masters of mirrors, and they're opening their glasses more and more to every kind of horror and foulness.

"I don't have any power to compel you.  If I did, it would be wrong to use it.  And you aren't the Champion the Congery expects.  But I might be right.  You understand mirrors.  You might be the help we need.

"Please.  Will you come with me?"

Terisa Morgan had no idea what to make of all this.  She had been preparing to spend another evening alone in her apartment when, without warning, he appeared in the mirror.  Not as a reflection - he was in the mirror.  At once the glass shattered soundlessly, and then a young man calling himself Geraden lay on the floor in her living room.  To her astonishment, he began babbling a story about "Mordant's need" - a strange kingdom in dire trouble.  He wanted her to return with him to save his world from destruction.

She didn't understand what he was talking about.  She was only a mission secretary - not the sort of woman who saved worlds.  Yet his eyes were so full of light and laughter, appeals and promises, that she accepted his invitation... and thereby changed her life forever.

THE MIRROR OF HER DREAMS is the story of Terisa and Geraden in the strange land called Mordant.  It is a rich and finely textured novel of love and lust, power and court politics, in a place where nothing is ever what is seems... and reality intertwines with powerfully seductive illusion.

THE MIRROR OF HER DREAMS is the new novel by Stephen R. Donaldson.  It is a shining example of his gift as a master story teller, a gift that mesmerized millions in the bestselling Chronicles of Thomas Covenant... a gift that will continue to enchant everyone for years to come.

Born in 1947 in Cleveland, Ohio, Stephen R. Donaldson made his publishing debut with the first Thomas Covenant Trilogy in 1977.  Shortly thereafter, he was named Best New Writer of the Year and given the prestigious John W. Campbell Award.  He graduated from the College of Wooster (Ohio) in 1968, served two years as a conscientious objector doing hospital work in Akron, then attended Kent State University, where he received his M.A. in English in 1971.  Donaldson now lives in New Mexico.

"...I'M GOING TO LEAVE THE LAND - TRY TO FIND THE ONE TREE.  SO I CAN REPLACE THE STAFF OF LAW.  I DON'T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO," COVENANT SAID.  "I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG I'M GOING TO BE GONE, AND EVERY DAY THEY KILL MORE PEOPLE.  SOMEBODY HAS TO STOP THEM."

Thus Thomas Covenant, accompanied by Linden Avery, begins his search for the One Tree aboard the giantship Starfare's Gem.  Armed with the knowledge given to him in Andelain by his trusted friend, the Forestal Hile Troy, Covenant was determined to succeed.  He was the last hope for the salvation of the Land.  Only he had the power to forge a new Staff of Law and return to the Land to stop the encroaching desecration of the Sunbane and the bloody sacrificial rites of the Clave.

But fate decreed that the journey was to be long, arduous, and fraught with danger as Covenant and his companions are assailed by powerful forces whose sole purpose is to ensure the failure of their quest.

THE ONE TREE, the long-awaited sequel to The Wounded Land, continues the extraordinary saga that has become an international bestseller.

THE FINAL CHALLENGE

Twice before, Thomas Covenant had been summoned to the Land, the strange other-world where magic worked.  Twice he had been forced to join with the Lords of Ravelstone in their war against Lord Foul, the ancient enemy of the Land.  Thomas Covenant, pariah on Earth, was a reincarnation of the Land's greatest hero, armed with the wild magic of White Gold - and without knowledge of its power!

Now he was back - to a Land ravaged by the armies of Lord Foul.  The Lords were besieged and helpless.  No place was safe for men.  Foul's victory seemed certain.  Only Covenant could avert it.

Desperately and without hope, he set out to confront the might of the Enemy.  With him went a Giant, a Bloodguard and the madwoman he had wronged.  And in Foul's Creche, Lord Foul grew in power with each new defeat for the Land.

THE CHRONICLES OF
THOMAS COVENANT THE UNBELIEVER

Book One LORD FOUL'S BANE
Book Two THE ILLEARTH WAR
Book Three THE POWER THAT PRESERVES

Stephen R. Donaldson's unique talents have placed his work alongside that of J.R.R. Tolkien and established him as a writer with the rare ability to expand readers' imaginations.  Now he presents a magnificent new collection of eight stories and novellas - three of which have never before been printed.

"BEGUILING... INTELLIGENT AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING."  - World-Herald, Omaha

This outstanding volume commences with the fablelike title story, "Reave the Just," which highlights one of Donaldson's favorite themes: the individual's power to overcome adversity.  This collection also introduces the morbid, soul-taking hero of "Penance," the mysterious beggar woman in the dark fairy tale "The Woman Who Loved Pigs," and the pampered antihero forced to make a choice between virtue and vice in "The Djinn Who Watches Over the Accursed."

"'REAVE THE JUST' IS A FIRST COUSIN TO THE CLASSIC PRINCESS BRIDE"  - BookPage

Boasting exotic settings and suspense fueled by sudden plot twists, Reave the Just and Other Tales is a testament to Stephen R. Donaldson's talent to spin unforgettably spellbinding stories, and the astonishing scope of his mastery of magic and myth.

"EACH (TALE) IS INSIGHTFUL AND MORAL, MOVING WITH A PROCESSIONAL PACE AND MOOD."  - San Jose Mercury News

"Fans can celebrate." - The Kansas City Star

"Donaldson's saga has transformed tremendously since the initial volumes offered startlingly original antiheroic fantasy resonating with echos of both Tolkien and Philip K. Dick... fans will welcome a return to the Land." - Publishers Weekly

More than twenty years ago, Stephen R. Donaldson set a literary landmark with his first fantasy bestseller.  His New York Times bestselling series, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, transformed modern fantasy.  Now, at long last, Donaldson shows he "still has the power to surprise in this richly imagined" (Publishers Weekly) first novel of the long-awaited, four-volume finale to the series that's sold more than ten million copies...

Thomas Covenant lost everything.  Abandoned by his wife and child, sick and alone, he was transported while unconscious to a magical, dreamlike world called the Land.  Convinced it was all a delusion, Covenant was christened The Unbeliever by the Land's inhabitants - but gave his life to save this newfound world he came to regard as precious.

Ten years after Covenant's death, Linden Avery still mourns for her beloved companion.  But a violent confrontation with Covenant's son, who is doing the evil Lord Foul's bidding, forces her back to the Land, where a dark malevolence is about to unmake the laws of nature - and the laws of life and death...

"Donaldson has met [readers'] high expectations... you might utter at book's end: 'I want the next book right now!'" - Detroit Free Press

"Impressive... Filled with splendid inventions." - Booklist

From audible.com:

The acclaimed author of the Thomas Covenant Chronicles launches a powerful new trilogy about a prince's desperate quest for a sorcerous library to save his people.

Fire. Wind. Pestilence. Earthquake. Drought. Lightning.

These are the six Decimates, wielded by sorcerers for both good and evil.

But a seventh Decimate exists - the most devastating one of all....

For centuries, the realms of Belleger and Amika have been at war, with sorcerers from both sides harnessing the Decimates to rain blood and pain upon their enemy. But somehow, in some way, the Amikans have discovered and invoked a seventh Decimate, one that strips all lesser sorcery of its power. And now the Bellegerins stand defenseless.

Prince Bifalt, eldest son of the Bellegerin King, would like to see the world wiped free of sorcerers. But it is he who is charged with finding the repository of all of their knowledge, to locate the book of the seventh Decimate - and reverse the fate of his land.

All hope rests with Prince Bifalt. But the legendary library, which may or may not exist, lies beyond an unforgiving desert and treacherous mountains - and beyond the borders of his own experience. Wracked by hunger and fatigue, sacrificing loyal men along the way, Prince Bifalt will discover that there is a game being played by those far more powerful than he could ever imagine. And that he is nothing but a pawn....

"...I WANT YOU TO GO BACK TO THE LAND.  TO REVELSTONE.  AND STOP THE CLAVE.  PUT OUT THE BANEFIRE.  IF YOU DO THAT, THE SUNBANE'LL SLOW DOWN.  MAYBE IT'LL EVEN RECEDE.  THAT'LL GIVE US TIME TO LOOK FOR A BETTER ANSWER."

Thomas Covenant was shocked by Linden Avery's demand; but he realized that, despite their awful failure on The Isle of The One Tree, there was no alternative but to return and fight.  Mhoram had warned him: "...In the end, you must return to the Land."

After a long and arduous journey overland, the company reaches Revelstone.  Following a fiery showdown with Gibbon Raver, Covenant discovers that he can come to terms with - and control - his awesome power.  As he readies himself for the final showdown with Lord Foul, the Despiser, Thomas Covenant knows he has the answer at last.

WHITE GOLD WIELDER, Book Three of The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, is the stunning conclusion to the extraordinary saga that has become a major international bestseller.

IT ALL BEGAN WITH THE CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT THE UNBELIEVER...

"At the age of 30, Stephen R. Donaldson makes his debut before an audience created and spoiled by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien with a trilogy of remarkable scope and sophistication that conquers almost as much territory as it claims."
- Los Angeles Time

...AND NOW THE STORY CONTINUES IN THE WOUNDED LAND

4000 years have passed since Covenant first freed the Land from the devastating grip of Lord Foul and his minions.  The monstrous force of Evil has regained its power, once again warping the very fabric and balance of the Land.  Armed with his stunning white gold, wild magic, Covenant must battle not only terrifying external forces but his own capacity for despair and devastation.  His quest to save the Land from ultimate ruin is as exciting and heroic as ever.