Tanequil
Book Two of the High Druid of Shannara
Terry Brooks
Reviewed by Liz Simmonds, 15 June 2005
Strictly speaking, this book cannot be reviewed. It is the filling in a
sandwich, the second movement of a symphony, the middle of the dog.
Or plump Porthos with Athos by his side but Aramis yet to come. What would
D'Artagnan have thought?
It is well written - Terry Brooks is an excellent author - but
The High Druid of Shannara is not a trilogy; it is
a novel in three parts. Part I, Jarka Ruus, was the
yappy, exciting end; the major first movement that defines the symphony to
follow. Part III, Straken, will doubtless wag the
three-set to a happy ending.
So Tanequil can only be reviewed technically; it
has no separate existence. Were this a true trilogy or quartet, as Durrell and
Davies write, this would tell a section of a story and would stand alone. As it
is twelve books preceded it and [at least] one will follow.
Best to do is to compare the two recent three-sets. Comparing
High Druid with Ilse Witch,
set some twenty years after the events of Ilse Witch,
and working with some of the characters from that volume, plus some of their
offspring, I found Jarka Ruus an improvement on
Ilse Witch. The setting out on the quest is more
exciting. Our Grianne is in dire peril. In Tanequil,
she is in peril even more dire. She is threatened from within the Druids, her
only assistance coming from a most doubtful character, with a loose thread
that may still come to her rescue. In Antrax, a lot
was resolved, and Tanequil lags a little here. As
Antrax, the partial victories of some of the other
characters are bittersweet.
It is well plotted, but as it is a section of a longer work, this is not
surprising. Regarding it as a movement of a symphony, it has the required
slow pace and some action, but is not as powerful as was
Antrax.
And just as Morgawr was a most satisfying finish
to a loooong book, so no doubt will Straken be to
this one.
And still I advise new readers to return the First Book in the series -
The Sword of Shannara.
Meantime, I keep feeling a gnawing sense of incompleteness as I keep trying
to remember how the book-set ends. And it hasn't yet. Roll on
Straken!
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