I recently re-read, for my first time and after around thirty years had passed, "The Druid of Shannara" by Terry Brooks. I had initially checked this book out from the Hurst Public Library back in the early 1990's. I never did own it until I was well into my twenties and, at that point, didn't get around to re-reading it until recently. It's a fantastic book, though, but I had not remembered much about it. It has been a long time after all.
The core story in "The Druid of Shannara" is centered around an elemental named Quickening, who was created by the King of the Silver River, a recurring character in the Shannara series who is almost as old as time. Quickening assembles a party of disparate folks to travel to the Eldwist, a treacherous no-man's land filled with danger and strife, in order to retrieve the black elfstone. The black elfstone is a single, particularly powerful elfstone that absorbs magic and, specifically, is needed by Walker Boh to return Paranor, the ancient druid castle, to the land of the living.
Walker Boh, I may have noted elsewhere, is my second favorite Shannara character of all of the books I've read. I love that he has such a prominent role in this one.
The party Quickening assembles includes Walker Boh, Morgan Leah, who was featured in "The Scions of Shannara" rather prominently, Horner Dees, an old tracker who had visited Eldwist once before and survived, and Pe Ell, an assassin hired by Rimmer Dall to murder Quickening. It's an unlikely group of heroes - even more so than what would be typical for this type of fantasy book. The inclusion of Pe Ell in the party, particularly, makes for an interesting dynamic and tension throughout the story.
Pe Ell, aside from being an assassin, also wields the Stiehl, a magical knife that can literally cut through anything. He relies as much on his stealth and his wit to complete his missions as on the knife, though. It is a treasure to him but seldom used where a regular knife could not be.
In Eldwist, Uhl Belk, another ancient being as old as the King of the Silver River, resides clenching the black elfstone in his stoney fist. He, too, had created an elemental, the Maw Grint; however, the Maw Grint is intent on destroying its maker. Only the black elfstone keeps it at bay.
I enjoyed "The Druid of Shannara" tremendously on my re-read. One particular scene I was expecting never occurred though...it must be in "The Talismans of Shannara." It was a scene set in Paranor where Walker Boh is trying to figure out how to normalize the castle's existence and his own role as the next druid. It's pretty awesome, but I can wait.
I highly recommend this novel even for those who may not have read its predecessor, "The Scions of Shannara." It's fantastic and it's a lot of fun. Good times, good times....
Comments