Witch Wraith (The Dark Legacy of Shannara #3)

Note: it may be helpful to be familiar with the previous trilogy or not. While I understand many reviewers complaints that this book and series is a rehashing of an earlier Shannara book dealing with the Ellcys seed and the Bloodfire, it is in truth so much more. I was critical of the first two books, this one makes a comeback. Strongly character driven, especially the Ohmsford twins. Railing is off an his search for his great aunt Grianne Ohmsford but finds what he wants isnt what he needs or gets. Reeding starts off as a captive of the Straken Lord, Tael Riverine, and ends up on an epic quest of his own. Aphen Elessedil starts off looking for her sister, Arling, who was taken by the Federation at the end of the last book and needs to take the seed to the Bloodfire. Even the minor characters seem bigger in this book. We get to watch Edinja Orle play her games, while spy inflicts havoc in the Elven royal court. All of this plays out while Tael invades the Four Lands with his demon army. My only complaint is that this reader suffered tension fatigue while reading the book. The tension was so strong and constant, that Id need to step away for a bit. But still an excellent read.

I\’d like to be kind about this book because I loved Terry\’s earlier work, but I also feel the need to be honest, and this was the worst work I\’ve ever seen from him or any traditionally published author. The cost of the book went up, while the quality went down. The entire series is a tale about the most stupid characters I\’ve ever seen. At any and every given moment, ask yourself, \’what is the dumbest thing I could possibly do in this situation,\’ and that is what each and every character will do. I couldn\’t suspend my disbelief. It was awful, especially at the end (spoiler alert if needed) where they give the Elfstones to a demon character to hold for safekeeping. Duh. That\’s brilliant. Let\’s waste all the effort we made throughout the entire series. Overall, the book and the entire series are about weak, stupid, and whiny characters who never learn and grow as people. At the end of the third book they\’re still whining about the stuff they were whining about early on in the first book. To add insult to injury, every character that accompanies Railing tells him at the end that nothing is his fault. Everything is his fault. He ignores every wise and ancient being that tries to warn him not to follow through with his foolish desires. The characters stuck accompanying him would have been better off with a boiled potato that had been enchanted with the ability to speak being their leader. It would\’ve made better decisions. Whenever something cool is about to happen, Brooks jump cuts over it and gets back to endless talk and whining. For example when the demon army is about to destroy Arishaig. He tells us everything leading up to it and then doesn\’t show the most exciting part. He robs the reader. He also misleads and robs the reader in other areas. The book is titled Witch Wraith, for instance, but the title character is in the story for about ten minutes. I suppose that shouldn\’t be too much of a surprise, however, considering that Bloodfire Quest had about five minutes of questing in that entire book. Also, the Ilse Witch, who was a fantastic character in previous books, is just as stupid as every other character in this one. She, as a former druid, knows the history of the Ellcrys, so if she intended to kill Tael Riverine and take his place, she would\’ve killed the Ellcrys. The demon army should\’ve done that first in any case. But again, every character is stupid. What else? Oh, the evil witch who leads the Federation seems to have more magical ability than every antagonist in every Shannara book Brooks has ever written. She\’s human with no history of ancient and powerful magic in her family and yet somehow has more ability than all the Druids combined and can beat them all whenever she wants. Except, of course, in the end, when she\’s killed by a non-magic hunter. She\’s not believable as a character, and yet Brooks spends so long building her up as an insanely powerful monster, which makes her death extra lame and too easy. Also, her ambitions to rule the world is so cliche and tired. Brooks loves to use cliches, though, especially shaken or thrown like a rag doll. Ugh. Other problems: There\’s no try/fail cycle for any of the characters\’ conflicts. They get beaten and outsmarted constantly until Brooks arbitrarily suddenly has the good guys triumph after having learned nothing. That\’s lame. Airships were cool in The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara series, but he\’s overused them, and if I have to read one more paragraph about light sheaths, diapson crystals, and parse tubes I\’m going to scream. Brooks talks about such things endlessly (he also overuses his favorite word, brume, to describe almost every scene). Airships also break the world and ruin any potential for actual questing and adventure. They distort time and distance. He can seemingly get characters anywhere in the world in an afternoon unless he wants to drag things out, and then it arbitrarily takes longer for no good reason. And, again, the actual quest for the Bloodfire takes about two minutes. They fly to the cave, walk in, and walk out. Yay, how exciting. Airships ruin everything. More stupidity: At every sign of serious danger, the main character of the moment chooses to use the least powerful and least effect weapon at their disposal. Aphen is especially guilty of this crime. She has the Blue Elfstones and never uses them in self defense or to destroy dangerous enemies. That\’s Brooks\’ heavy handed and arbitrary way of forcing the story to go in unbelievable ways. He constantly tells us that Aphen is afraid to use them because it will draw attention. So what? You use them and then kill the bad guys with them. Redden and Railing are equally guilty. They never practice with the Wishsong and always use it in the weakest ways until Redden suddenly intuitively uses it paired with the Crimson Elfstones and destroys all opposition with ease. Unbelievable. The Witch Wraith doesn\’t escape condemnation either. She\’s a grand master of using the Wishsong, and yet she, like them, doesn\’t bother to use it to its full potential. We learn from its very beginning with Brin that it has ultimate power over all living things, and that they will follow its command even to their own destruction. The Wishsong could turn enemies inside out or make them explode, but none of the characters ever do anything impressive with it. They might as well wield squirt guns. The last battle was too fast, too easy, and gave no reward to the reader for slogging through the story. Tael Riverine is defeated in seconds and the Witch Wraith a few seconds later. There is no emotional payoff or reward for the reader. Brooks sums up the story by rewarding the moron Railing with the love of his life, Mirai, and then he saves his brother from his mental vacancy, while Aphen is all but forced to do what is obviously right by returning to Paranor. However, considering how dumb a character she is, the Druid order would be better off with a boiled cabbage leading it. I would\’ve liked to see Redden marry Oriantha. That, at least, would have potential to spawn shapeshifter offspring with new Wishsong abilities (or other magical abilities) for future stories. How it should\’ve ended: the Witch Wraith should\’ve defeated Tael Riverine in a much more spectacular fight and then immediately flown the dragon to Arborlon and destroyed the Ellcrys and killed Arling and Aphen. The moronic, selfish, and shortsighted races of the Four Lands would then face a new War of the Races and fight for survival in future books where they would have to unite to have any chance. It would\’ve been nice if the Witch Wraith had also killed Railing. Such stupid characters should not have been rewarded with success. I\’m sorry for the rambling nature of this review, but I have to state one last annoyance before I conclude: Brooks constantly uses the word \’decimate\’ to describe groups of people being wiped out. That word\’s definition hasn\’t changed since the Roman Empire. It means to reduce by one tenth, so if the Druid order was decimated, it would be going strong. He means devastated or annihilated or destroyed. Finally, if Terry Brooks was a new author just trying to get his first work published, he would\’ve been rejected and told that he had no talent and no clue how to write a good story. The fact that his publisher published this garbage is a tragedy for the genre. Just because an author makes a name for themselves doesn\’t mean they should be allowed to write and profit off such junk. Authors should get better with each successive book not suddenly go down the toilet skill wise. It\’s so sad to see that Brooks wrote this series, and while I\’d like to see what he does to end the Shannara story, I\’m not sure I can force myself to pay to find out for fear that his following books will be just as bad or worse.

I waited a long time before writing about this series because I wanted to be sure my disappointments were not due to some kind of \’mood\’ which colored my impressions. I own all of the books Terry Brooks has published through to the end of this series. While some are better than others, up to this trilogy I found them enjoyable if not riveting. Having read them all, I feel it is safe to confirm that this trilogy is mediocre at best. Other reviewers have already spelled out the problems with its recycled plots and characters that are not very endearing. The twin\’s competition for the same girl was the freshest plot device employed, but its resolution in this final book, \”Witch Wraith,\” was so poorly conceived and written it only engendered feelings of disappointment and disgust at the finale. Brooks slammed out these books, throwing on a quick final ending in this third book so it could be rushed to press. To what end? Was it in order to alleviate overwhelming pressure for more tales from his fans? Or was it to generate quick income by milking his fans? Whatever the reason, I hope he will once again strive to provide the kind of excellent storytelling he has been capable of capturing our imaginations with in the past. I do thank Mr. Brooks for all the other wonderful books he has created for our enjoyment in the past.

*Warning Potential Book 1 & Book 2 Spoilers* I have read and can fully agree with a lot of the other reviews in that this book did seem a bit rushed and in particular especially at the end where I felt it could have probably done with a few more chapters to tie everything up better but I still absolutely loved this book and the storyline in general. Yes the plot line is still very very similar to previous Shannara books and in particular the High Druid of Shannara trilogy but I did still enjoy it and another main positive was that the books were all only six months apart as opposed to the normal twelve months and so I still felt very connected to the first two books. For me the sign of an excellent book is where you are still sitting up in the early hours of the morning reading it when you were meant to be trying to get an early night and that was exactly how I was with this book so a definite five star marking from me. I\’ve been a long time fan of Terry Brooks ever since my Uncle introduced his books to me in 1987 and the Shannara series and his excellent writing and story lines are what keeps me reading and what makes Terry Brooks my longest standing favourite author. I agree with a lot of the other reviewers in that his books do seem to be shorter than they used to be when compared to the likes of The Sword Of Shannara: Number 1 in series and it would be very nice for him to go back to writing a \’chunkier\’ read, but as he is releasing this trilogy a lot faster than normal (normally a book a year rather than every six months as with this series) I suppose you have to weigh up having a thicker book against being able to continue with the story line faster. An excellent read and I would definitely recommend it to both established fans and new readers. My review follows: The story continues with Railing Ohmsford continuing on his quest to Stridegate to see if the Tanequil would release Grianne Ohmsford from it\’s service in order for her to help rescue his brother Redden from The Forbidding. Railing feels in his gut that this mission should not be going ahead especially after being advised so by The King of The Silver River but not being able to see any other way to rescue Redden he decides he has to press ahead with totally unexpected results at the end. After the shock killing off of Khyber Elessedil in the last book, Redden is now the Straken Lord\’s only prisoner and has given up any hope of being rescued, however Oriantha is determined to rescue him and is just biding her time to seize the right opportunity but will the opportunity present itself or is Redden destined for another fate? Aphenglow and Cymrian are trying to locate Arling who was captured/given over to the Federation\’s soldiers at the end of the last book but it would appear that she will already be in the clutches of Edinja Orle before they manage to catch up and god knows what plans that woman has for Arling. But with the future of the Elven people and the people of the four lands hanging in the balance they know that they must free her if she is ever to immerse the Ellcrys seed in the bloodfire and restore the walls of The Forbidding trapping the demon kind who threaten to invade and kill them all. But will they reach her in time and will they all survive? A truly gripping read from start to finish and yes although a lot of the plot line seems to have been done before I still truly thoroughly enjoyed it despite the end feeling very rushed and incomplete. Thankfully my book did have the normal map of the four lands in it as with every other book except for book two in the series so I can only assume that this was a printing error by the publishers. A good read and looking forward to next years new series The Defenders of Shannara with it\’s first book in the series The High Druid\’s Blade: The Defenders of Shannara

The storyline keeps you intrigued, paragraphs change so rapidly at times. I re-read a lot to keep myself sure that I was still on track, typical of Terry; once he has you you can\’t put the book down. So happy to find out Charis would be better remembered as a good character, for everyone knows that love makes people do thing\’s with one intention, that everyone else believed to be another

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