The Skaar Invasion

Not what it used to be. The first 2 trilogies contained characters lovingly crafted and built up over time. I mean, the development put into Walker Boh and characters like Shea were awesome. Even though non one had an origin story form the baby state, you could see the development and build up of all the major characters and see Mr. Brooks truly cared about building them up. You empathized and rooted for the heroes, and hated and despised the villains. The series started to lose some of its luster during the Antrax series, but still was enjoyable. But the series continued to slip from there. Grianne was utterly despicable as a villain, but meh as a protagonist. And the subsequent series after that were dreary affairs where the bright edge the Shannara used to posses was more and more replaced with darkness. The prequel trilogy series about how Shannara came to be after the apocalyptic wars was astonishingly good back in the 2008. But after that…..something was lost. The second prequel series was no nearly as good. A series once about good and evil became more about moral ambiguity and the characters almost listless cutouts of them former selves. The High Druids blade series was kind of a depressing, listless morally ambiguous affair where you really ddn\’t see the energy in the heroes to root for them or hate the villains. The newest book suffers from that same listless, depressing view that the books have taken in the last ten years. Even the appearance and cameos of some long lost or dead characters as shades doesn\’t have the impact you think it would, because the story is so listless. The villains are either so cold and flat you don\’t engage with them or such a cut out with no development that you really can\’t get a feel for them. Clizia Porse is a dislikeable character, but so little was put up into her, it just stays at dislike. The Skaar Princess has no development as a character but is yet another overpowered character inspite of the fact that she\’s had no build up. I don\’t know if it\’s shannara fatigue or something personal that happened in Mr. Brooks life that brought on this darker, more depressing take on things, but maybe he\’s right and it is time to stop if the series keeps going this way. I still think that there\’s generations of stories left in Shannara, but Mr. Brooks may not be the one to tell them. Perhaps he needs to take a long break or hand the series over to someone that can make us feel the wonder and hope even when things seem darkest.

What can I say about this novel? In a way, it is vintage Terry Brooks It has the normal conglomeration of characters racing around the land of Shannara trying to save it from the latest catastrophes that threaten it. As usual, we have Ohmsfords, and Leahs. Druids, Elves, and people with Wish song abilities. Elfstones abound. Plots abound within the lands as the Federation is still trying to control and abolish all magic, while the Druids and the Elves try to control all magic in more beneficial ways. There are evil people everywhere, but also misguided people. The big twist in this series is the sudden appearance of a new threat from somewhere overseas. These are represented by a people calling themselves the Skaar. They have the ability to cloak themselves to a certain extent and they are ruthless. They are led by a young woman who is a princess of their land who has come to conquer and she will stop at nothing to do so. As this novel develops, we learn more of her and of her background. We also continue the story of Drisker Arc and his efforts to restore Paranor. We follow Tarsha as she attempts to locate and perhaps save? her brother. And there are several other sub-plots. All in very typical Terry Brooks fashion may, or may not, contribute to the overall story in some fashion. Also, as is the norm, this book is just one part of the bigger picture. The book starts right after the end of the previous one, and ends abruptly begging you to buy the next one in the series. Brooks writes one book and then arbitrarily chops it up into chunks which are sold one year apart. In this case, this will be a four-part series, rather than his normal three-part series. No matter, I will still read them on. I know, from reading commentary on the internet, that his intention with this series is to bring the world of Shannara to an end with this series. Since he is tackling climate change in this novel as the cause for the migration of the Skaar, maybe this will be the cause? After all, Shannara came into being as the result of nuclear war many thousands of years ago? And technology has always been portrayed as the big bugabear in these novels. Anyway, well find out over the next two books as this one has no hints of the end of the world scenario. It just focuses on the normal Brooks plot elements. So, why give this only a three-star rating? Because it is so very derivative. It feels like all of these plot elements have already happened before. Paranor disappearing and being brought back done before. Invasion of mysterious peoples check; Younger generation taking over and having to rescue the world every one of these series; and so on down the line. Even the writing seems juvenile in many cases. I am not sure why, but this novel was just not as enjoyable as so many others have been, which is why I decided to knock down the rating.

This is the second book in a four part series about the fall of Shannara. Please note that this is not a stand alone book nor is it intended to be one. You need at a minimum to read the first book in the series and better yet the full Shannara series in order to fully appreciate what it presented in this book. As with any series, this one begins where the first one left off and maintains the momentum of the entire series. The author\’s writing style is very engaging making this a fairly fast read as it is hard to put down. This book is not intended for those who are not serious fans of the fantasy genre.

This book was well enough written perhaps not up to the standard of early books. But the author has fallen into the e-book habit of only publishing half a book and charging an exorbitant price for it. If I wanted to read a serial I would have looked for one. Seven hours (if your slow) of reading and then to stop randomly at a point to encourage the purchase the next instalment is an example of the worst sort of on-line marketing and not worthy of an established author. I was looking forward to these books but will buy no more. I will wait until they come on the second hand market at a few pence each.

A good read but really far too short. The original shannara books were complete stories which lead from one to the other without the knife edge endings. This wasa good read, it is not great read and I was deflated at the ending and now have to wait for the next one. I just think the author and publishing house are trying to squeeze as much money as then can by taking a good story which 20 years ago would have been one book and now they chopped up the story and padded it into three books to get a maximum return.

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