Staff Recommendation

Every August brings a new novel from fantasy author Terry Brooks. This year is no exception, with the release of Bearers of the Black Staff, the first of a two-book story following up his "Genesis of Shannara" trilogy.

Picking up 500 years after the close of that trilogy, the protective magic keeping the survivors of the apocalypse safe inside their valley is failing, and all sorts of mutated horrors from the outside world threaten to intrude. The story primarily revolves around a young pair of Trackers who are the first to discover the breach, and around the mysterious man who has inherited the magic staff of the "Knights of the Word" after all these years.

To be honest, I was over 100 pages into the book (and it's only a relatively sleight 350 pages long) before I really started to get into it. The set-up of this tale felt like a patchwork of many of Terry Brooks' earlier books. It felt like he was going to stock characters, stock relationships, stock situations that he's explored thoroughly in other fine books.

But then as the book moved into the middle act, things started to pick up. The book got into a few topics that I don't recall Terry Brooks ever exploring before, at least not to this degree: marital infidelity, spies masquerading as friends, religious dogma, and political ambition.

Then came the final act, which I found compelling enough to power through in one sitting. A key relationship that had been set up in the first part of the book, one of the things that seemed "stock Brooks," had an interesting complication develop. The book had an interesting conclusion that, while still a cliffhanger to build anticipation for the concluding volume next year, still had a satisfying emotional resonance to it all on its own.

All told, I suppose my only major "complaint" would be to ask why this is two books instead of one in the first place. (Besides the obvious financial considerations.) Earlier in his career, Brooks' books were easily as long as this collected two volume set will be when complete (if this first book is any indication of the page count of the forthcoming one). I suppose I'll have to wait for book two to see if the story was really best served by splitting it in half this way.

For now, though, I'd give Bearers of the Black Staff a B+. The wait for next August begins...