The Elfstones of Shannara (Terry Brooks)
4
The Elfstones of Shannara is Terry Brooks' second major novel, and his first major step at becoming a talented author. In this novel, Brooks blends his ability to develop emotionally conflicting situations, while keeping the reader in the dark, and his ability to develop insignificant characters into heroes over the course of a quest. This to me is his strength, and this particular novel puts this talent on center stage, mesmerizing the reader with his potency. It is a stunning read.
The Holistic aspect of this novel, which makes it a bit different than the Sword of Shannara, is the fact that the Elfstones draw their strength from the body, mind and spirit of the user, and the protagonist must find his own strength to power them. This continues Brooks' tradition of characters who develop through a greater understanding of who they are, as a person.
The rights to this particular novel have been bought by a major studio (which they passed on the Sword of Shannara) and it is easy to see why when you read this book. This book contains a number of "scenes" that could very easily be visualized in movie form. The action is dramatic, and would be a wonderful challenge for the CGI guys. Sometimes the novel switches gears from 3rd gear to first and staying there a while, offering a bit too much emotional depth for some, but the overall pacing seems to glide along quite smoothly. People who have a tendency to skim the touchy feely stuff can easily get by these parts.
Overall the basic story was quite good in terms of scope, character involvement, and development but with some rather pointed plot weaknesses, or flaws.
1. The death of the Ellcrys was prolonged enough to allow demon hordes to completely penetrate the world, nearly destroy the Elves, and allow the main quest to be completed, rather than just dying on the spot.
2. The Ellcrys was so unaware of her pending death, (or perhaps so incompetant in her task so as to scare away Amberle and not tell anyone else anything) that she was not able to give sufficient advanced warning to have the seed germinated BEFORE any damage occured to the Forbidding.
3. The demon hordes chose to band together to form an army and attempt a direct frontal assault, instead of their natural chaotic individualism, where the could wreak havoc individually in all parts of the world, unhindered, and destroyed everyone bit by bit. I mention this because I realized that the demons had a better success rate BEFORE the army arrived, when they hid in the woods and slaughtered as they pleased. Sure the demons HATED the Elves, and sure they had a leader in the Dagda Mor, but was he really a strong enough character to motivate and unite all the demons into a direct frontal assault? Surely there were others in the whole Forbidding with leadership qualities that would want to do their own thing?
4. Why is a single main antagonist even necessary, why not just have the threat the demon horde with no real leader, or multiple small groups? I mean, the Dagda Mor is such a weak character, his dialogue is limited to the first few chapters. You never see him verbally leading all the demons, you never really understand the signficance of his staff other than the fact that he seems to have no power of his own to attack with besides the staff. What power does he have other than his scary appearance?
5. The Forbidding was broken BEFORE the Ellcrys died, and there was a great time span AFTER this event in which the Forbidding could be reformed with no additional magic which was required the first time the Ellcrys was formed, but was no longer available.
6. The chief antagonist (the Dagda Mor) rode a giant bat so as to better mirror Allanon riding a Roc. Giant bats never being heard of before or after this event, thank goodness. How do giant bats survive? Giant fruits, or giant insects? Oh, and perhaps this gives us an excuse as to why the Dagda Mor is absent for the majority of the book. Brooks' fails to include Mr. Mor's quest for an evil flying mount with which to sufficiently contrast our hero Allanon (can't come to an epic battle without both sides sufficiently equipped for a one on one equally matched showdown)...and the best he could come up with is a children's Halloween decoration come to life.
7. The Harpies must have gone off to roost, because we just didn't hear that much from the bad guys early arial advantage.
8. While there were upteen jillion different kinds of "demons" they don't use them differntly, (no scouts, no rock chuckers, etc.) they just come in some huge struggling mass. The tactics they used to fight could apply to any infantry army, not specific techniques for fighting specific types of demons, like how they took down the "big" demons, or how they dealt with different types.
9. The Ellcrys should have exploded when the Forbidding collapsed, and demons should have poured from the stump, instead of at Hoare Flats (which also gave our protagonists more time to finish their quest).
Most of these faults are trivial, and don't affect the enjoyment of the read, as far as I am concerned. This book brings up some new types of bad guys, some new types of good guys, and some emotional poignant passages. This book makes heroes out of ordinary guys, and legends out of heroes. It really does shine as one of the jewels in any collection of Terry Brooks works, and is an absolute must have for understanding what Terry Brooks was trying to create when he created this world. You get an understanding of the history, and the depth of this world, and you can really fall in love with it. A great book for any collection.
