Review: The Sword of Shannara

Long ago, the world of the Four Lands was torn apart by the wars of ancient Evil. But in the Vale, the half-human, half-elfin Shea Ohmsford now lives in peace - until the mysterious, forbidding figure of the druid Allanon appears, to reveal that the supposedly long-dead Warlock Lord lives again.

Shea must embark upon the elemental quest to find the only weapon powerful enough to keep the creatures of darkness at bay: the fabled Sword of Shannara.

This is the first time I've read Sword of Shannara in many years and I can still remember when I first encountered it as a very small Waylander almost forty five years ago. At that time readers and Tolkien fans like my father threw a lot of criticism at Terry Brooks along with accusations of plagiarism due to perceived similarities with The Lord of the Rings. Well... they were and to some extent still are inevitable. With that being said I'm going to attempt to write my review with as little bias as ten year old Waylander had.

I've always thought that a good review should have a few things I liked, a few things I didn't and a conclusion so let's get on. To begin with Brooks' world building is very good but I found the distances covered in the stated times to be somewhat unrealistic. Brooks' descriptions of Tyrsis are some of the best I've seen in fiction but I can't get away from Shae moving from the environs of Paranor to the Skull Kingdom in what seems like the blink of an eye.

The story itself is engaging with realistic believable characters but is so vanilla I can see where the Lord of the Rings rip-off accusations come from. Not that I think it in any way is a rip-off, influenced by most certainly but a rip-off not at all. It's the classic poor farm boy hero story we've all seen a million times by now. This doesn't make it bad, Sword of Shannara is an extremely well written tale, it's just that with it being the kind of story it is and Brooks' first novel shows... a lot.

With all that being said I do recommend Sword of Shannara with the caveat that it's a first novel and a tiny bit vanilla.

So, there we have it my thoughts on Sword of Shannara. I hope this prompts you to try Brooks as an author and Shannara as a setting, I promise you won't regret it.

Love your face - Waylander

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Review: Necropolis

On the shattered world of Verghast, Gaunt and his Ghosts find themselves embroiled within an ancient and deadly civil war as a mighty hive-city is besieged by an unrelenting foe.

Listen to it because: The return of a classic Gaunt's Ghosts novel! The Tanith First deploy to Verghast to help break the Chaos siege of Vervunhive. Tanks clash with daemon engines, Imperial Guardsmen make brave last stands and Colonel-Commissar Gaunt steps up and takes control of the war effort, showing for the first time the command abilities that will go on to make him a legend.

The story: On the world of Verghast, a grinding war between two hive cities - one loyal to the Imperium, the other fallen to the worship of the Dark Gods - is bolstered by the forces of the Astra Militarum, spearheaded by the Colonel-Commissar Gaunt and the Tanith First and Only. But bitter rivalries and treachery threaten to derail the defence of Vervunhive, and it falls to Gaunt to take command of the Imperial forces and forge victory from an almost certain defeat.

Much as I appreciate Abnett's world building skills, and boy does he have them in spades, I feel its a little over-the-top to have almost three hours of scene setting and character building in a ten hour audiobook. Were you paid by the word for this one Dan? It wouldn't be so bad if the characters that were being built up were members of the ongoing series, most of them are just in this one novel to be foils for Gaunt and the Ghosts to combat. That being said once the Ghosts do arrive the action is non-stop with some nice political intrigue to add that spice we all love.

All in all I enjoyed this read of Necropolis as much this time via audiobook as I did reading the original novel almost a quarter century ago. If you're interested in the lore of the Warhammer 40,000 universe and want something more than genetically engineered super-soldiers you won't go far wrong with the Gaunt's Ghosts series and this despite the prologue indulgence is pretty damn good.

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Review: Bloodlines

 

An investigation into a missing member of a wealthy family leads Probator Agusto Zidarov into a web of lies and danger amidst the criminal cartels of Varangantua. As the net closes in, Zidarov falls further into darkness from which he may never return....

Listen to it because: take a step into the murky underworld of the 41st Millennium through the eyes of a lawman in a gargantuan city whose investigation leads him into darkness and danger. Our protagonist, Zidarov has the feel of those dedicated cops we see in the likes of Dalgliesh's 'Dark Yorkshire' series. An officer run down by bureaucracy and corruption doing their best.

The story: in the immense city of Varangantua, life is cheap, but mistakes are expensive. When Probator Agusto Zidarov of the city’s enforcers is charged with locating the missing scion of a wealthy family, he knows full well that the chances of finding him alive are slight. The people demanding answers, though, are powerful and ruthless, and he is soon immersed in a world of criminal cartels and corporate warfare where even an enforcer’s survival is far from guaranteed. As he follows the evidence deeper into the city’s dark underbelly, he discovers secrets that have been kept hidden by powerful hands. As the net closes in on both him and his quarry, he is forced to confront just what measures some people are willing to take in order to stay alive....

With Bloodlines being the first of the Warhammer Crime stories it had to do two things correctly right from the outset. Firstly it had to capture the feel of the grimdark 40k universe and secondly it needed to be a gripping crime story. I feel it did the second admirably with a great tale of people trafficking where the characters and their motives felt real within the setting. The grimdark setting also felt as if it could exist with the best part of four decades of lore to pull on.

I would rate Bloodlines as a top tier novel and recommend that everyone grab a copy where they can.

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