Terry Brooks is by far my favorite author. I just finished reading his most recent book,
The Wards of Faerie. I’m going to make some general comments, then I’m going to
talk specifically about The Wards of Faerie with mega spoilers, so if you ever
intend on reading some Brook’s books (and I hope you do!), please skip the end
of this post.
First, the non-spoiler stuff: I started reading Terry Brooks’
work when I was in Junior High school when I got a copy of The Sword of Shannara
from my cousin. The Sword is a great
high-fantasy book in the tradition of Tolkien.
Some say it’s too Tolkien, but I think it’s got way too much exciting
action to be too Tolkien. Action is one
of the aspects of Brooks’ writing that I think makes him the best. No matter how many times the protagonist gets
in jams, he makes it out, and I feel surprised they pulled it off. Speaking of surprise, the next aspect of
Brooks’ writing that keeps me intensely involved is the mysteries and plot
twists. Every book has some secret that
the good guys have to uncover and often it is ends in a way I don’t
expect. I think I’ve gotten better at
anticipating some of the twists over time, but I still get surprised by Brooks
all the time. The final and most
important aspect of Brooks’ writing that draws me into the story is the
characterization. The characters in his
books are very well developed and I really end up feeling for them and caring
about them. A book just isn’t exciting
to me if I’m not rooting for the good guys and cursing the villains. In my humble opinion, no one does this better
than Terry Brooks!
Now on to the spoilery stuff. You have been warned!!
The Wards of Faerie is an intense book! The beginning reading of the diary caught my
interest and I absolutely did not want to put the book down once. It’s hard to rank what I liked the best, so I’ll
just mention things as I think of them.
I was amazed at how the story takes so many concepts from previous books
and weaves them all together. It reads
like it was part of some plan Terry had 25 years ago, though I’m sure it isn’t. The most touching part to me is the Elcrys,
and the approaching demise of Amberle Ellesedil. Even though she hasn’t been a “real character”
since her first appearance, I always experience a bit of sadness whenever I
think about her or the Elcrys is mentioned.
It seems like her reign as Elcrys was rather short. I wonder if it was affected by events such as
the elves moving her in the Heritage series or the recent crossing over the
Forbidding in High Druid. I’m also convinced
that the Elven girl who wrote the diary was the first Elcrys. The Ohmsford
twins are an interesting duo, and I didn’t foresee their separation. In fact, the most surprising part was how the
group ended up split apart in the end.
The advance of science in the World of Shannara is interesting, and the
abandonment of Paranor was well done.
Finally, I figure the real bad guys in this adventure are probably
demons. The Elfstones may have become detectable
due to the hole in the Forbidding, and perhaps the diary was planted to be
found to lure the Druids from the Elcrys when she’ll need the protection.
Well, it looks like this will be another grand adventure,
and I’m eagerly anticipating the next installment! Be sure that I’ll be commenting more after I read
it!
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