A great selection of books arrived this week, this time from Orbit Books (a publisher I feel I’ve been neglecting somewhat of late – through no conscious intent, I should stress). One of these is on my list of highly-anticipated novels of 2011, as it is the final book in a series I very quickly became hooked on.
Reviewed by Shevaun Fergus
A new chapter in the Shannara chronicles
Five hundred years have passed since the devastating demon-led war that almost exterminated humankind. Those who escaped the carnage were led to sanctuary by the boy saviour known as Hawk: the gypsy morph. But now, the unimaginable has come to pass: the cocoon of protective magic surrounding the valley has vanished.
When Sider Ament, last surviving Knight of the Word, detects unknown predators stalking the valley, and Trackers from the human village of Glensk Wood, find two of their own gruesomely killed, there can be no doubt: the once safe haven of generations has been laid bare. Together, the young Trackers, the aging Knight, and a daring Elf princess race to spread word of the encroaching danger. But suspicion and hostility among their countrymen threaten to doom their efforts from within, while beyond the breached borders, a ruthless Troll army masses for invasion. Standing firm between the two, the last wielder of the black staff and its awesome magic must find a successor to carry on the fight against the cresting new wave of evil…
First there was the Word and the Void, then there were Armageddon’s Children. The Great Wars are over, a small group of the Races, led by the boy Hawk, have been sheltered by magic in a hidden valley for five centuries, and the walls are coming down. Now the valley’s sheltered charges must face the outside world and all the dangerous creatures that have evolved in five hundred years of radiation and toxic waste. They must learn fast in order to survive.
Master storyteller Brooks returns to exceptional form with this latest instalment in his epic tale. Bearers of the Black Staff is the first in a new sequence, The Legends of Shannara.
The world we know from previous books in the series is gone, and this new chapter tells of the birth of the world we know as the world of The Sword of Shannara. As can be expected from a Brooks novel, we get engaging plot twists and a host of interesting new characters and peoples to explore. The characters are all too human, with real failings and strengths, unlike those in many fantasy novels, and you find yourself cheering them on their endeavours.
Recommended.
Reviewed by Shevaun Fergus
Brooks returns to his lighter fantasy series, with mixed results
Princess Mistaya Holiday hasn’t been fitting in too well at Carrington Women’s Preparatory. People don’t seem to appreciate her using her magic to settle matters in the human world. So when she summons a dragon to teach a lesson to the snotty school bully, she finds herself suspended.
But Mistaya couldn’t care less – she wants nothing more than to continue her studies under Questor the court magician, and Abernathy the court scribe. However, her father Ben Holiday, the King of Landover, has rather different plans in mind for her. He thinks he’ll teach her about perseverance and compromise by sending her to renovate Libiris, the long-abandoned royal library. How horribly dull.
But before long, Mistaya will long for the boredom of cataloguing an unfeasible number of derelict books – for deep within the library there lies a secret so dangerous that it threatens the future of Landover itself...
As a big fan of Terry Brooks’ Shannara saga and The Word and the Void, I loved the previous books in the Magic Kingdom series, and have been eagerly looking forward to the next instalment.
The story joins Mistaya, daughter of former lawyer, and current King of Landover, Ben Holiday and Willow the wood nymph, as she reaches fifteen and is trying to find her own place in both the human world of her father and the magical kingdom of her birth. Over the course of some very human teenage rebellion she encounters new friends and enemies, and has the support of many familiar faces along the way.
Not as dark as other books by Brooks, this novel is a fun read, and anyone who enjoyed the previous novels should enjoy revisiting the Magic Kingdom of Landover. However, the overall feel was that of a “filler” novel, one that was written to pave the way for a later story the author had in mind, but had to close some gaps first to get there.
It was not a total disappointment, by any means, but it lacked the richness of detail and background we have grown accustomed to, and the ending felt a bit too easy compared to others in the series.
I can only hope that I am right, and that this will be followed by the kind of epic adventure we have come to expect from the very talented Mr. Brooks.
