I didn't exactly "miss" the books entirely. I knew they'd been published. I even bought them. But I simply wasn't finding as much time to read. The move was a convenient excuse, but when it came to Brooks specifically (rather than books in general), the truth was really that upon reflection, I don't think I really liked Wards of Faerie as much as I'd thought at first. Not as much as I'd wanted to. I re-read it to refresh my memory before continuing on to books two and three, and found I just wasn't that engaged. But I finally did finish it, and then went on to finish book two of this Dark Legacy of Shannara series, Bloodfire Quest.
The truth is that Terry Brooks has (for a long time now, really) fallen into quite a formula. His characters are a bit more shallow with each new series, and what's there is often recycled bits of characters from earlier novels. This series has proven especially derivative, as it has turned out to be a wholly unnecessary follow-up to, in my opinion, his weakest trilogy, The High Druid of Shannara. It seems as though to make up for the unsatisfying climax of that series (in which the main character escapes without ever confronting the monstrous adversary Brooks set up), this new trilogy exists only to go back and finish things there the way they should have been finished the first time.
Bloodfire Quest also is a sequel of sorts to Brooks' best novel, The Elfstones of Shannara. That book, the second Brooks published (back in 1982), cast off the dogged adherence to The Lord of the Rings from his first book (The Sword of Shannara) to tell a truly compelling and original story. But Bloodfire Quest sees characters following in the footsteps of the adventure from that great, early book -- and in a far more perfunctory and uninteresting way.
It also seems that on some level, Terry Brooks knows he has fallen into a formula, and he's trying to rebel against it. He can't help but utilize unwilling heroes rising from modest origins, can't help but include simple romantic subplots, can't help but craft power-hungry villains with little practical motivation. But he's also trying to be a little different, and in Bloodfire Quest he seems have decided that George R.R. Martin is a new muse. Bloodfire Quest is Brooks' bloodiest novel, with characters lined up for slaughter. But unlike Martin, Brooks doesn't successfully make us care about most of the characters before killing them off. His breezy writing style -- the same thing that makes him quick to read, and has kept him publishing every year since 1985 -- is too quick to give us time with the "victims." Martin may drone on for pages about 20-course dinners, taking half a decade or more to deliver a thousand-page doorstop, but nearly every character he kills off is a full personality when they head to the grave. Brooks gives us little more than a name.
Bloodfire Quest was a big disappointment for me. That said, I feel in for the long haul at this point (which, compared to other fantasy writers, isn't that long -- I have just one more 400 page book to go). I will complete the trilogy, and maybe Brooks will find a way to pull out of the spiral. But unless the conclusion somehow saves the series, I do feel that Bloodfire Quest is his weakest novel. And as he's written more than 30, that truly is saying something. I suppose as a long time fan, I can't quite bring myself to give it a truly low grade. I still want to say that a poor effort from Terry Brooks is better than many authors can give you. But I couldn't rate it more than a C-, and a soft one at that.
We'll see what happens in the final book...
No comments:
Post a Comment