THE MIRROR OF HER DREAMS

A new fantasy from the immensely popular author of the six-part Thomas Covenant chronicles. Neglected nonentity Terisa Morgan lives alone in an apartment decorated entirely with mirrors. One day, out of one of the mirrors pops Geraden, an inept sorcerer's apprentice from the fantasy-land of Mordant, where mirrors have various magical properties. Geraden has been sent by the Congerie of Imagers to find and bring back a champion to defend Mordant against its enemies, both Imagers and armies. Terisa isn't the champion Geraden has been sent to fetch; still, she agrees to return with him through the mirror. Then, in Mordant, Terisa is plunged into a seething mass of conflicts. The Congerie don't regard her as real. Geraden insists that she's an Imager and Mordant's true champion, even though Terisa denies all such ability. Master Imager Eremis tries to seduce her. Old King Joyse takes a shine to her, but others despair of the King's seeming inattention and indecision. Various bad guys materialize through mirrors to try and kill Terisa. There's a traitor in the Congerie. And so forth: the plotting is furiously complicated and reasonably well handled, the narrative moves along at a goodly clip, the mirror-ideas show much promise—though there's not even a token ending. (A sequel is promised.) All well and good. The problem here is one of technique: this isn't so much a novel as a description of one. The characters don't talk or even make speeches; instead, Donaldson describes their dialogue. He describes events. In the appropriate places, he even describes description. And the overall effect—while infinitely more tolerable than the execrable Covenant yarns—is numbing. Still, Donaldson has a huge and fanatical following.