Series Review: The Heritage of Shannara by Terry Brooks

Although loosely connected Brook's first three novels were most defintely standalone and I was interested to see how he would handle the challenge of a series.

The first book does a reasonable job of setting things up; The shade of Allanon has charged the Ohmsfords with fulfilling quests in order to save Shannara from the threat of the federation and the mysterious Shadowen that are pulling their strings. The only major problem was the glaring sameness that some of the characters share with previous incarnations. Especially Par and Coll who are strikingly similar to Shea and Flick from the original Sword of Shanara and Morgan Leah who is just like all of his ancestors. Also all of the characters had far too obvious motivations to be all that interesting.

Brooks rectified this in the two subsequent novels by introducing a few rather intriguing characters, including Quickening and Pe Ell, who were definitely painted in shades of grey and kept me guessing right until the end. The greater focus provided by following only a few characters was also welcome and allowed major story arcs to be resolved, thus avoiding an obvious pitfall of many such series.

The final volume didn't tie things together as well as I would have liked with Brooks over relying on repetitive events to bring the characters together. How many times can these characters get captured? Wren and Walker Boh's developing characters really saved the show here for me.

Overall the Heritage of Shannara was a solid series but it is obvious at this stage in his development there were still certainly areas for Brooks to work on to complete the transition from standalone novels to writing a series. 7.25/10

The Scions of Shannara 7.25/10
The Druid of Shannara 8/10
The Elf Queen of Shannara 8/10
The Talismans of Shannara 7/10

Review: The Talismans of Shannara by Terry Brooks

The charges that the shade of Allanon placed on the Ohmsford’s have now all been complete. Wren has brought the elves back to the four lands and become their queen. Walker Boh has restored the druid’s lost citadel of Paranor and become the first of a new lines of druids and Par has recovered what he believes to be the Sword of Shannara. Despite all this they are far from safe. Rimmer Dall, leader of the Shadowen, has tailor made traps for each of the Ohmsfords to ensure they cannot pool the talismans they have painstakingly obtained.

After having really enjoyed the focus of the previous two novels in the series I was curious to see how well Brooks would handle bringing all the branching storylines back together. Unfortunately he couldn't quite pull it off as well as I’d hoped and left me feeling a little disappointed. Almost every major character gets captured at some point during the story and this becomes really old really quickly as plot device to draw characters together. Also I felt that the passages with Wren and the elves didn’t quite fit with the rest of the story seeming very out of place.

One thing though I was very impressed with was the character development of Wren and Walker Boh. Walker especially had some inspired scenes where he seemed to hint at falling back to his ‘angry young man’ persona despite all he learned and grown almost like the struggles of a smoker who has just recently given up cigarettes.

While far from a bad book Talisman's fails to deliver on the promise of the previous two novels. 7/10.

Review: Blood Rites by Jim Butcher

Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard, is in trouble. Again. Thomas, a white court vampire, has called in a favour and sent Harry to investigate some strange goings on the set of an adult film. The film’s producer believes he is the target of a sinister entropy curse and the women about him are dying in ever more unlikely ways. Thomas seems to have a stake in the case that Harry can’t quite figure out what and that makes him nervous. Meanwhile Marva, a particular vicious blackcourt vampire, is in town and intent on finishing Harry off and Harry’s hired help might prove just as deadly. To top it all off Harry finds himself dog sitting a boisterous puppy dog.

I think the most evident thing about the six installment of the Dresden files is that Butcher really puts Harry through his paces. No really. I know Harry usually finds himself in the deep end but this time Butcher has thrown everything at him including the kitchen sink to see how he reacts. Not even counting the obvious threats to Harry’s physical wellbeing, the beliefs he holds about his mentor Ebenezer and the white council, beliefs he has based his life on are turned on their head and Harry has to face some shocking revelations about his own family. The Dresden files are often seen as episodic but there some definite underlying plots throughout the series as evidenced by the aforementioned. Harry doubted, got very angry and of course soldiered on.

There was also a good focus on the development of a couple of support characters, namely Murphy and Thomas. It was certainly interesting to see a more vulnerable side to the cocky and calm playboy, while Murphy’s issues from previous books are dredged up and it is interesting to see how she copes and has ultimately grown as an individual.

Overall another solid offering from Butcher 8/10.

Review: To Green Angel Tower:Siege by Tad Williams

Prince Joshua, Simon and their allies find themselves under siege at the Stone of Farewell as King Elias sends a large force to route them out of their refuge. Meanwhile Miriamele finds herself in a precarious position, trapped aboard the Eadne Cloud it is revealed that Earl Aspitis is aware that she is King Elias’ daughter and has decided to force her into marriage and put himself inline for the throne.

This is the book in the series where everything just clicked into place for me. The growing up Simon and Miriamele have done throughout the earlier books really comes to the fore here and can be seen both through their own perspectives and through the way other characters regard them. Aside from the main protagonists the side stories are intriguing especially that of Rachel and earl Guthwulf and I’m curious to see where that leads. The previous volume has often been criticized as slow paced with not too much happening in terms of major events. Williams makes up for it here in a big way. Bloody sieges, night time skirmishes with outlandish monsters on a ship caught in a fierce storm, you name it and its in here.

Overall this book worked for me in a big way. 8.5/10

Review: The Desert Spear by Peter V. Brett

The world is about to change. For centuries mankind has huddled in their homes under the scant protection of magical wards as demons roamed the night. Now two men have both been proclaimed deliver, mankind’s savior destined to lead them against the demons. Ahmann Jadir has united the desert-dwelling tribes of Krasia under his control and is now marching his forces North intent on bringing the scattered Greenland city states into his war by any means necessary. The northerners however have their own deliverer, the painted man. The painted man spurns the title however, content with spreading the previously lost battle wards amongst his people and then fighting his own war against the demons. The painted man fears that he has absorbed too much power from the demons and is slowly losing his humanity and becoming a demon himself. Meanwhile Leesha must decide if she should sacrifice her independence and become one of Jadi's wives in order to ensure Deliver's Hollows safety and facedown her own issues with letting another person love her.

Ahmann Jadir played an important, if contracted role, in the previous book. He was once Arlen's, AKA the painted mans, friend but chose to betray him when Arlen discovered a battle warded spear in a set of ancient ruins and took the prize for himself. His motives seemed pretty black and white back then, simple greed and jealously but as this book reveals those motives were in fact far from simple. The first portion of the book focuses on Jadir’s life before the first book in much the same way as Arlen, Rojer and Leesha’s stories were told. Through Jadir’s eyes we come to understand the desert dwellers culture, their sense of honour and what makes them tick. This provides an interesting contrast with the glimpse we had of them from Arlen’s perspective in the first book. This contrast between Jadir and the painted man is an overriding theme throughout the novel and sets things up nicely for their evitable confrontation in the next book.

Arlen’s discomfort at the messiah-like status he has achieved and the clash between who he was and what he has become as he encounters people from his earlier life was extremely interesting and enjoyed seeing Brett further flesh out his character. Unlike the previous novel we have a few chapters told from the demon’s perspective and I really enjoyed the way the author created a unique perspective for them and provided a greater insight into them.

Overall the desert spear is an excellent middle book, revealing more of the world the Brett introduced in his debut and hinting at even more to come. 8.5/10.

Review: Alcatraz Versus The Knights of Crystallia by Brandon Sanderson

Following on from their adventure at the library of Alexandria Alcatraz and co arrive in the free kingdom city of Crystallia to a major shock; The high king is in the middle of peace negotiations with the librarians and it looks increasingly likely that the kingdom of Mokia, home to a good friend of Alcatraz, will be abandoned to face the Librarians on their own. Meanwhile Bastille has been stripped of her armour and her knighthood might soon follow. Suspecting a librarian trick Alcatraz sets about investigating.

The first two Alcatraz books were largely set in our world so it is certainly interesting to get a firsthand look into the free kingdoms, which is filled with such wonders as dragon-taxis and where every building is a castle. Although all of that is weird and wonderful I was kind of hoping Sanderson might have fleshed out the world a touch more. The style of writing remains the same with Alcatraz addressing the reader firsthand but I felt the jokes weren't quite as good this time around and seemed slightly rushed. Also the character development of Alcatraz and Bastille which I was so impressed with in the previous book seemed to stall and didn't advance much. There were some enticing hints about where Alcatraz's relationship with his estranged parents might be going but these seem to have been left to a future book to explore further.

All in all Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia was another fun read though not quite as good as the previous two volumes. Funs of the series will no doubt enjoy it but I don't think it will win any new readers. I couldn't help feeling it was slightly rushed and at times felt like it was simply killing time to the next volumes. 7/10.

Review: Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik

Following on from the events of the previous book Laurence and Temeraire arrive back in Britain in tow with the Prussian survivors with Napoleon now firmly in control of the continent. While they were away a flu-like virus has devastated Britain’s dragon population, the only reason the nation hasn't fallen yet is that Napoleon is ignorant of this news. Tememaire and his band of untrained feral dragons are tasked with patrolling the entirety of Britain. Following an accident Temeraire is exposed to the quarantined dragons but surprisingly does not fall sick. Laurence surmises that his dragon must have developed an immunity, recalling that Temeraire had fallen sick while on route to China but had recovered after a stopover in The Cape Colony. Laurence, Temeraire and the remainder of his sick squadron are despatched to Cape Town in the hope that the cure might be found there, if not then Britain is as good as doomed as the dragons begin to die.

One thing Novik has done extremely well throughout this series is to show that both sides are not faultless in the Napoleonic war. It would have been easy to portray the French as evil conquerors and the British as faultless and noble but thankfully Novik has avoided this trap. This book marks the best example of this and the conflict that Laurence, who is both fiercely loyal to his country and has a strong sense of right and wrong, experiences when his superiors discuss the possibility of using biological warfare was masterful. Without giving too much away the finale of this book was excellent. My only criticism is about one of the aspects of these books that seems to be becoming formulaic. In the two previous novels the protagonists find themselves captives of a foreign culture and have to escape around the middle of the book. This again happens here and I hope Novik does not overuse this plot devise.

Overall this is another strong offering in an excellent series, highly recommended. 8.25/10