Wards of Faerie - Book I
Terry Brooks
Orbit (Little, Brown)
23 August 2012/ ISBN: 9781841499772
Fantasy
Amazon
Reviewed
by Rachel A Hyde
The world of Shannara needs no introduction to seasoned fantasy
readers. It first burst onto the scene back in 1977 and has been
popular ever since. But to those who are not so seasoned, or who,
for whatever reason, might not have read it before, this is a long
and daunting series to break into. So now comes a new beginning
in the shape of this new series giving readers not previously au
fait with the tale to start reading it. Aphenglow Elessedil is a
minor member of the elven royal family, who is unpopular after becoming
a druid. It is her task to scan ancient records to find a way of
locating the long-missing elfstones and she has at last managed
it. After a year of searching, she has come upon the thousand-year-old
diary of a young princess that explains why they went missing, but
not where they are. Aphenglow and her fellow druids must discover
their location before the Federation’s preoccupation with
rediscovered science destroys the world they know.
I confess to being one of those people who, though a dyed-in-the-wool
fantasy fan, is not very familiar with the Shannara novels. 1977
was a bit long ago for me to have read them first time around and
since then I have been reading whatever is the latest in fantasy.
I always wanted to read them so the idea of this being a way in
had me eagerly reading. I wasn’t disappointed; this is real
fantasy with elves,dwarves, and a dragon, people on quests, and
ancient sorcery. You won’t find any vampire lovers in here
but neither is this quite the retro read some people might not fancy.
The inhabitants of this world are torn between magic and science,
traveling around in airships that give it all a steampunk feel.
The Federation appears to come from a more SF angle and to have
it clashing with the D&D style elves and their allies makes
this book something out of the common run. Is it suitable for a
Shannara virgin? I confess to wishing I had read all the previous
books as tantalising snatches of conversation revealed some great
stories, but maybe this serves as a hook to do just that. The Federation
was never explained very satisfactorily and I found that knowing
more about how the world worked would have enhanced my understanding.
However, I can see what I have been missing so maybe there might
be time before the publication of part II in summer 2013 to hunt
out a few of the earlier books?
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