The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara: Morgawr

This is the concluding volume of The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy by Terry Brooks. It is a riveting conclusion to the series and actually puts events into motion that set up the next trilogy of the Shannara series. Morgawr picks right up where Antrax left off and goes all the way to the grand finale of the trilogy. The survivors of the battles with Antrax are pursued by the Morgawr and his Mwellret followers. They must overcome additional challenges before finally escaping his clutches only to be overtaken and confronted by his evil power. Bek Ohmsford must find a way to get through to his catatonic sister, the Ilse Witch, or all will be lost. The journey home cannot take place until that is accomplished. Having read this series once when it first came out, I was very happy to reread it again. It has held up remarkably well as has the entire series. Brooks is a great novel writer. I originally was not happy with the trilogy system, but I think that had a lot to do with one particular trilogy that went off the rails in my opinion. This trilogy, upon rereading it has actually increased in its stature. I have changed my earlier opinion of the series and this book as a result of rereading it. I must have had something going on that altered my perception of this book because it was much better than I remember. Maybe it was comparing it to The Heritage of Shannara set which has yet to be surpassed as the best Shannara set of books short of The Elfstones of Shannara, one of the first Shannara books. This trilogy stands up well on its own. I liked the introduction of airships and their method of levitation and motion. I have borrowed it and put it into my own Pathfinder campaign. So that should say a lot about how I like the series and this trilogy now.

A fine edition of the last book in the trilogy for fans of Terry Brooks. Alot of repetitious subplots and predictable outcomes in the process of weaving the story towards a climatic conclusion. If you are not a fan, or are reading for the first time, the Shanara world will leave you bored and feeling cheated. There is nothing profound in the telling of this tale, and those new to Shanara will be bored and find the story and its style a bit to contrived and lacking in complexity. But simple narration and small accomplishments of the characters that leads to unbelievable acts of heroism and the usual revelations in corny but touching events are exactly what fans want. To lose themselves in a story that will whisk them away from their hectic and boring lives.

It was the best of times…….it was the worst of times. The ship\’s told the tale…flying…landing…and adventures of that crew. Teamwork of absolute but individual quality. Unknown powers to contend with and everyday times. Kept me on the edge wondering who\’d step up and who\’d fail.

What can I say… after reading the first 2 of this trilogy, I was anticipating the continuation for many many months. This book does wrap up the trilogy but the result seems flat and hollow compared to the previous two. Some mysteries go unexplained, some storylines just fade into othing and we once again are forced to deal with a story that gets developed nicely over a long period and then wrapped up too quickly in a few pages. A voyage that took months, and a good part of the first book, to accomplish, is completed in very short order on the return leg in this book. I guess the world was perfect over those 6 months or so.. One wonders a great deal about what continuations there are to the lives of those who are left… but the characters seem to be abandoned in the end. Maybe its a prelude to another book, but if the majority of the Brooks books have taught me anything, its not likely we will find out anything more about most of the characters. I quess they just all came home and lived their lives – altough its precisely THERE that this book could have made some interesting reading and story development (since the voyage back over 6 months on a skeleton crew was infinitely simpler and without incidence as compared to the voyage out with a fully manned and provisioned ship). If you\’ve read the other 2 books, read this to complete to story – but you will likely feel the same way … thinking, \”Is that it?\”

I\’m not siding with the reviewers who loved it or the reviewers who hated it. I liked the first book – it was inventive, fast paced, the mysteries were mysterious enough to enjoy. The second book was frustrating – but not in a bad way – I wanted to know what happened and the book ended on a sufficiently intriquing cliff hanger to keep me waiting for this book. This book just didn\’t quite hold together or live up to the promise of the first two. As other reviewers have pointed out, the coincidences were too convenient, the villain was dispatched with too much ease, and there were some continuity problems from the earlier books. This book wasn\’t bad, it wasn\’t great. It was a nice weekend read – it was fairly undemanding, you could skim through most of the deep meaningful reflection and since you could see the end coming a mile away, all that you really had to read for were the specifics of how the end came about. On a positive note, Brooks has set up a fairly intriguing questions in the character Ilse Witch and the Redemption of Grianne, the power struggle between the Elves and the re-creation of a druid order, all of which will no doubt be the subject of the next trilogy – any one of which can sustain a trilogy. My conclusion? This book is worth reading to get a glimpse of what Brooks has planned, and it\’s nice to know the details of how the cliff hanger from Antrax is resolved, but in an of itself, this book isn\’t quite strong enough.

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