Reviews

The Talismans Of Shannara by Terry Brooks

judenoseinabook's review against another edition

4.0

Finally finished this mini series, this is the 4th volume, and feel a huge relief it all came out ok. The whole series is quite dark and gloomy with lots of self questioning but it kept my interest and overall I got quite into it.

jovvijo's review against another edition

2.0

This book was a little disappointing...
The other three before it were so epic that I expected some super finish with a florish!
But it went sort of how you expected it would and all your favourite characters are reduced to more 2-D, meh, versions of themselves as Mr B tries to tie up everything neatly in this one book.
It's not awful, you won't cry in your sleep six months after reading it or anything, but I just felt there was a lot of wasted potential there!
Ah well, it was still fun!

faorink's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

octavia_cade's review against another edition

2.0

The characters and quests of the first three books come back together in an attempt to get shot of the Shadowen. On the bright side, because so much of this is plot and there's so much that needs to be covered, there's just not room for Brooks to waste on the miserable never-ending navel gazing that characters such as Par and Walker are all too prone to indulging in. (Hooray!) There is still far more than is warranted, however, and the rot spreads to Wren as well. My favourite of the three main characters, she's barely served in here, getting a much shorter role than the men, and not much of what she has is complimentary. She's fooled by the most obvious trap in the history of traps, and spends far too much time hand-wringing about how it sickens her to kill. (It probably sickens the men in your Elven army too, madam, but carry on letting them sicken themselves to death so that you don't have to compromise yourself, by all means.)

I did like the pace and breadth of this, and I always enjoy a moor cat. Walker was much improved from The Druid of Shannara, I liked him. The ending was a little rushed, however, and I just cannot take the romance between Plum and Golf Boy seriously.

dsskipper's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

reuben_books's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

An uncharacteristically fast paced Shannara installment! Very much enjoyed. Only let down by a rather on the nose 'explain it all' ending, and of course the name Eton Shart which I couldn't take seriously at all. 

conorjg's review against another edition

adventurous challenging medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

smcscot's review against another edition

2.0

After two lackluster books within this series, I was hopeful for this one to get back to the basics, like the first book, but I found myself bored for most of the book.

The biggest problem with these books happens in the end of the first book. When Coll dies, it brings about a gravity...a danger for all the other characters, but then Brooks ruins that by revealing that he is still alive, just being held captive.

Once this happens, then there is no real danger for the rest of the series. Yes characters die, but for the most part they die within 100 pages of being introduced. I never felt that any of the main characters were in any real danger because of the writing style. That means that each of their quests were going to succeed, and that they ultimately would succeed without any real issues. That is the case with this last book as well.

On top of that, the characters hem and haw about everything and it gets really old after a while. This series would have been great if it were cut down into a single book and the constant second guessing was cut out.

Ultimately, I'm glad to be done with this series and ready to move onto the next one in the Shannara chronicles. Though if The Word and the Void trilogy is anything like this one, it might be my last few books I read from Books.

shardan's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

3.5

bookwyrmknits's review against another edition

I know I read this, but don't remember when or what I thought of it.