A good sequel. I hoped to see more of the people we met in Lord Foul's Bane, but alas, forty years have passed. High Lord Prothall's long gone. Saltheart Foamfollower is missing. But Lord Morham's back and on track; Donaldson isn't dumb enough to get rid of everyone's favorite character. Covenant is himself again. Cynical and rude as ever.

And of course, Covenant was right all along. Foul wanted them to get the staff of law from Drool. However, I did like the hightened pressure in this one. There was more drive to the story. In the last one, it seemed like they were dawdling along to mount thunder and when they got there, they trotted in and got in a cat-fight with Drool. It was pretty low-key. But this one is more eventful. A LOT more happens. However, it suffers from the LOTR syndrome. In LOTR, after the fellowship split, the books were split in fourths. Each fourth was one point of view. There's no juxtaposition, which is frustrating. However, each POV was satisfyingly eventful, so if you were bored by the first one, you'll be relieved to know that Donaldson planted his feet in this one. The story gets more complex and believable. Better quality.

As for the rest of the book, I thought the whole giant thing was disappionting in a good way. We wanted to see the giants, but their eradication made the reader more involved with the story. The father-daughter-lover thing between Covenant and Elena helped drive the story. The whole time you were wondering what Covenant would do. There was some really good character development in this one with Hile Troy and Elena. And the ending was a cliff-hanger! I picked up the third book and read a chapter right after I finished Illearth War because I wanted to know what happens next.

I was relieved when we saw Morham again. It would have been terrible if they didn't have at least one person we knew and liked carry through the trilogy. And they made Morham all the cooler in this one. He's older and wiser. And, of course, Bannor is back and as tough as ever.

Overall, The Illearth War was a satisfying sequel to Lord Foul's Bane.