The High Druid’s Blade by Terry Brooks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
It’s been a long time since I’ve read any books in the SHANNARA series, but THE HIGH DRUID’S BLADE promised to be a stand-alone, so I gave it a try. It was funny reading some place and character names and having that little ringing bell in the back of my mind: didn’t I read about that sometime long ago? It didn’t matter, though, because this book does seem to stand on its own (it’s the start of a new series). Readers more familiar with the world will probably appreciate the callbacks to other books, but for me, this clipped along like a typical fantasy. I enjoyed reading it, though it was a bit slow to get started. It really harks back to fantasy I read when I was younger: the plot is boy with a magic sword on a quest to save his sister. This is probably what made the beginning slow for me, since you read through all the bits about “there once was magic and now there’s not, but here’s this ancestral sword, and I have to use it as a weapon–and oh, look, it does magical things!” While not written badly, lots of books do this, and there’s only so many times you can read similar passages before it gets a little boring.
Once we get into the rescuing phase, however, the action picks up. Time speeds along as our MC, Paxon, realizes he needs training after a sound thrashing by the villain, and Paxon goes to the druids (who have political machinations of their own). But wouldn’t you know it, Paxon’s sister gets kidnapped (again, by the same baddie), and now that he has the skills to take the villain on, he takes off in his airship to do so. Here’s where the story turns dark: mind manipulation and magic come together to make for some scenes that will make you squirm, and a pretty satisfying finale. Obviously, given that this is the first in a series, there is more to tell.
This book makes me want to search out the old SHANNARA books I have and see if any of them aren’t third in a series. If I come across the next book in this series, I’ll take a look at it too. Terry Brooks may be recycling well-used writing tropes, but he does it well, and obviously people like his stories, so I guess he’s onto something.