Stiehl Grade

Because Terry Brooks publishes at least one book every year, and I continue to read them all, I've now written multiple versions of this same blog post introduction: I really should stop reading Terry Brooks. If he ever really was as good as I thought as a teenager, he's certainly declined in the years since. But I'm in it until at least next year, as the four-book series he's publishing now concludes his long-running Shannara fantasy series, and I can't not be there for the end.

This year came book three of this Fall of Shannara cycle, The Stiehl Assassin. Picking up cliffhangers from book two and leaving more for book three, it's not a book anyone could pick up and read without starting at the beginning of this set. (So I won't bother to summarize the plot.) But it's a book best read by those who've read the entire Shannara series, all 20+ some books of it, because it really does feel like a story "for the fans."

The pros and cons of this book are pretty much the same as those I identified when I reviewed books one and two. Brooks is definitely making bigger plot moves than he's been willing to try in this series for quite some time, as he really is writing toward an ending. It's less predictable than some of Brooks' more recent books, as he's willing to go farther than you'd expect. There aren't Red Wedding-level shocks in here, but it's still nice to read a story that's taking some risks.

This concluding series of books really feels like the "Stranger Things of Shannara," with all the good and bad that implies. It's incredibly nostalgic about past Shannara books, referencing characters, monsters, and magic from previous stories. It feels rewarding to the reader to recognize all the references packed in here. But then there's also a familiarity that hampers any sense of excitement. You know what happened to that past character being mentioned, what that returning monster is capable of, and how that magic behaved in the past book. But the possibility that Brooks might remix elements on the way to the climax is intriguing.

On the bad side of things, this tale focuses on some of the least compelling characters he has ever created. This walk down memory lane necessitates archetypes in the mold of past characters, and almost every one of them here is just a shadow of the previous character they're emulating. They're one dimensional, and their inner monologues are long-winded and repetitive. Somehow, the book feels like it's often stalling for page count, even though it's really not very long (particularly for fantasy). Most of the interesting plot developments are loaded into the back half.

As with the second book, I feel this third one is perched right on the knife's edge between B- and C+. The last book, I nudged upward. This one I think I'll nudge downward, as it gets off to a bit of a slow start. One more book, already completed by Brooks and slated for publication next year, and I'll have reached the end.