Ilse Witch by Terry Brooks

In the voyage of Jerle Shannara we once again revisit the mysterious lands of Terry Brooks famous Shannara books. For those of you who got enchanted with the long since published Shannara series, and the follow-on "The Heritage of Shannara" it might be a natural thing to pick up this series from your local book-store or Amazon.com. However; maybe it is just me who is becomming "old" and cynical but; I do not find this book to be of the quality which I usually got to expect from the previous books from Terry Brooks. Maybe it might appeal more to younger readers; as for me most of the book has a rather thin plot-line, and not too developed new characters. No grand surprises and with few expections the book is rather bland reading. To my mind the book itself reminds me more of a good old Dungeons and Dragons (TM) module than a well developed fantasy book; and in fact the entire story, and plotline might possibly have been better off as "role-playing" material than a fully developed book. However; as with many things --- maybe the next book in the series will get better and might even surprise me and other readers. Score 2/5; and even here I might feel that I have been nice ;-).

When cruising the book store I saw the Isle Witch and could not resist buying it. This new one from Brooks lived up to my expectations and much more. It followed the typical fashion of the Shannara style, a new generation of heroes and an old mysterious druid. The plot was somewhat predictable at points but I found that there were plenty of surprises along the way to keep it interesting. This was certainly worth what I forked out for it and I will be keenly awaiting the next edition in the series.

I have read all of the Shannara series and thoroughly enjoyed them. Terry Brooks is a brilliant authors, good easy, interesting writing style that doesn't over complicate a story and keeps you keen. I liked the way this book picked up after the last of one, with Walker. The brother and sister Rover's had a nice new twist to them too. This is a really good read and I could recommend it to anyone.