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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
Revisit the amazing world of Shannara!
Grianne Ohmsford, struggling with the inner demons of her former evil life as the Ilse Witch, also wrestles with the politics of her new role as Ard Rhys, High Druid of Paranor, responsible for the unification of the third Druid Council. Peace and harmony among the races of the four lands seems a distant, faint hope as her enemies on the council, the dissenting druids led by Shadea a'Rhu, refuse to accept the reality of Grianne's redemption and plot to bring her down, each striving to achieve their own ends and bring their own agenda to completion. When Grianne vanishes, seemingly defeated by the circle of treasonous plotters surrounding her and locked behind impenetrable magic walls in the land of the Forbidding, her trusted servant and aide, Tagwen, realizes that his own life hangs in the balance and narrowly escapes Paranor himself. Relentlessly pursued by Terek Molt, another rebellious Druid on the Council and Aphasia Wye, a deadly assassin, Tagwen seeks help from the only people he can think of - Pen Ohmsford, Grianne's resourceful, young nephew and Ahren Ellesdil, a self-exiled elf Druid and master of no small amount of magic himself!
The thrilling chase is on as the Druid Council seeks to eliminate the only loose ends that can spoil their nefarious plans and Pen and Ahren seek to release Grianne from her hellish prison in The Forbidding and seal what appears to be a hole in the magic wall that might well see the re-appearance of the evil warlock in the Four Lands!
With THE HIGH DRUID OF SHANNARA, Brooks has once again burst onto the fantasy scene and re-established himself as a master of the genre! As a reader who first fell in love with THE SWORD OF SHANNARA over twenty years ago, I felt like Brooks was making me the gift of that experience all over again - good vs evil; battles; treachery; magic of a bewildering array of flavours and strengths; love and loyalty; a beautifully crafted landscape replete with its dazzling population of fantasy inhabitants; and the imaginative, unique device of a cruelly, twisted "copy" of the Four Lands called The Forbidding that serves as a magical prison for the banished shade of Brona, the dreaded warlock lord.
While JARKA RUUS is primarily a plot-driven book that moves headlong at the pace of the finest thriller, Brooks has not neglected to provide a richly detailed cast with a fully developed range of emotions, strengths, failings, foibles and habits. I smiled as I watched Pen struggle with the conflict between his first young love for Cinnaminson, daughter of the Rover Captain, Gar Hatch, and the duties he knew he had assumed in the search for his aunt. Barely out of girlhood, Khyber Ellesdil, granted the genetic gift of magic and control over the Elfstones, seems overcome with typical teenage doubt and angst over her abilities and her place in the world. Tagwen, brave, loyal and well-intentioned, seems ... well ... simply overwhelmed, over-matched and out of his league!
The choice of endings for this novel, the first installment in a trilogy, is unfortunate and ill-conceived! In fact, it is no ending at all and every sub-plot and narrative thread is simply abandoned in mid-stream because, I expect, Brooks and the publishers wanted this novel to be a particular length. A minor aggravation in the overall scheme of things, I expect, because I've already pick up the next part - TANEQUIL - and started to eagerly read on!
Two thumbs up - more if I had `em!
Paul Weiss
Grianne Ohmsford, struggling with the inner demons of her former evil life as the Ilse Witch, also wrestles with the politics of her new role as Ard Rhys, High Druid of Paranor, responsible for the unification of the third Druid Council. Peace and harmony among the races of the four lands seems a distant, faint hope as her enemies on the council, the dissenting druids led by Shadea a'Rhu, refuse to accept the reality of Grianne's redemption and plot to bring her down, each striving to achieve their own ends and bring their own agenda to completion. When Grianne vanishes, seemingly defeated by the circle of treasonous plotters surrounding her and locked behind impenetrable magic walls in the land of the Forbidding, her trusted servant and aide, Tagwen, realizes that his own life hangs in the balance and narrowly escapes Paranor himself. Relentlessly pursued by Terek Molt, another rebellious Druid on the Council and Aphasia Wye, a deadly assassin, Tagwen seeks help from the only people he can think of - Pen Ohmsford, Grianne's resourceful, young nephew and Ahren Ellesdil, a self-exiled elf Druid and master of no small amount of magic himself!
The thrilling chase is on as the Druid Council seeks to eliminate the only loose ends that can spoil their nefarious plans and Pen and Ahren seek to release Grianne from her hellish prison in The Forbidding and seal what appears to be a hole in the magic wall that might well see the re-appearance of the evil warlock in the Four Lands!
With THE HIGH DRUID OF SHANNARA, Brooks has once again burst onto the fantasy scene and re-established himself as a master of the genre! As a reader who first fell in love with THE SWORD OF SHANNARA over twenty years ago, I felt like Brooks was making me the gift of that experience all over again - good vs evil; battles; treachery; magic of a bewildering array of flavours and strengths; love and loyalty; a beautifully crafted landscape replete with its dazzling population of fantasy inhabitants; and the imaginative, unique device of a cruelly, twisted "copy" of the Four Lands called The Forbidding that serves as a magical prison for the banished shade of Brona, the dreaded warlock lord.
While JARKA RUUS is primarily a plot-driven book that moves headlong at the pace of the finest thriller, Brooks has not neglected to provide a richly detailed cast with a fully developed range of emotions, strengths, failings, foibles and habits. I smiled as I watched Pen struggle with the conflict between his first young love for Cinnaminson, daughter of the Rover Captain, Gar Hatch, and the duties he knew he had assumed in the search for his aunt. Barely out of girlhood, Khyber Ellesdil, granted the genetic gift of magic and control over the Elfstones, seems overcome with typical teenage doubt and angst over her abilities and her place in the world. Tagwen, brave, loyal and well-intentioned, seems ... well ... simply overwhelmed, over-matched and out of his league!
The choice of endings for this novel, the first installment in a trilogy, is unfortunate and ill-conceived! In fact, it is no ending at all and every sub-plot and narrative thread is simply abandoned in mid-stream because, I expect, Brooks and the publishers wanted this novel to be a particular length. A minor aggravation in the overall scheme of things, I expect, because I've already pick up the next part - TANEQUIL - and started to eagerly read on!
Two thumbs up - more if I had `em!
Paul Weiss
Starting into the next series-set of the Shannara world, we get started with some familiar faces - which I love. Grainne was redeemed in the previous series, and she is now the High Druid. But not everyone has forgiven and moved on. Her past still haunts her, and it's about to lead to some really nasty magic. Her own druids are set against her, and when she disappears mysteriously, there are none that seem to really care.
There are a few people loyal to her though, and they instantly set off on the quest to find Grainne's family and friends from her previous story. There's a lot of building blocks in this story, and not a ton of action. It comes in bits and pieces as the druids try to stop Grainne's friends from finding her or finding out what was done to her. But the Ohmsford family has always been a resourceful one, and they slip through tight places by the skin of their teeth.
At the end of the story, we're left with a little knowledge, but not a lot was done. I loved some of the characters, especially the new seer Pen meets on the way. There are betrayals and new friends, wins and losses, everything you might expect in a high fantasy story. I'm liking the groundwork laid so far, and this may be one of my favorite sets of characters yet. I'm excited to see what happens to Grainne next.
There are a few people loyal to her though, and they instantly set off on the quest to find Grainne's family and friends from her previous story. There's a lot of building blocks in this story, and not a ton of action. It comes in bits and pieces as the druids try to stop Grainne's friends from finding her or finding out what was done to her. But the Ohmsford family has always been a resourceful one, and they slip through tight places by the skin of their teeth.
At the end of the story, we're left with a little knowledge, but not a lot was done. I loved some of the characters, especially the new seer Pen meets on the way. There are betrayals and new friends, wins and losses, everything you might expect in a high fantasy story. I'm liking the groundwork laid so far, and this may be one of my favorite sets of characters yet. I'm excited to see what happens to Grainne next.
Eh, I know it was supposed to be a trilogy from the get go, but you're not too far into the book before it's obvious nothing is going to be resolved. Nothing. Not a lot of focus on Grianne here. Her chapters are few and could have been solved with a spirit world email basically. So far this doesn't seem to be the strongest entry in the series of series, but we'll see.
Aside from being a little tired of having the main character be a teen in these books, I found this book to be a refreshing change of pace from the previous stories. I was also a fan of the fact that the book seems to lead directly into the next book.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
adventurous
slow-paced
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish
I wanted to like this book. But I couldn't.
The story is severely lacking. The idea of Jarka Ruus seems pretty interesting. Unfortunately, only a few chapters of the book actually deal with it. The rest is made up of a never ending game of cat and mouse that is just boring.
There is a lot of conflict between the druids that isn't really accounted for. Some of it is finally explained near the end of the book, but at the start of the book it makes no sense why everyone hates each other. This makes it hard to care about any of the characters as they just come across as petty whiners.
The story is severely lacking. The idea of Jarka Ruus seems pretty interesting. Unfortunately, only a few chapters of the book actually deal with it. The rest is made up of a never ending game of cat and mouse that is just boring.
There is a lot of conflict between the druids that isn't really accounted for. Some of it is finally explained near the end of the book, but at the start of the book it makes no sense why everyone hates each other. This makes it hard to care about any of the characters as they just come across as petty whiners.
This was a good, but not great place to start reading a Terry Brooks series.
I think most of the recurring characters (just a guess at which they were) were reintroduced sufficiently but I will not be continuing with this series until I go back to the beginning.
I think most of the recurring characters (just a guess at which they were) were reintroduced sufficiently but I will not be continuing with this series until I go back to the beginning.