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A review by waden34
Tanequil by Terry Brooks
1.0
When I first started reading the Shannara series of books, I longed for more stories about the original characters. Now, every story is split into trilogies of books, and I wish that they'd go back to single stories.
If this trilogy was compressed into a single book, it might be tolerable. As it is, there is so much filler that makes it very hard to care about anything. The war between the Federation and the Freeborn has been raging for decades, and now all of a sudden we are supposed to care about what is happening with it. There is absolutely no tie-in to the story of the druids other than to have people talk about it. None of the characters involved in the war are anyone we care about, so what is the point of including it other than to add more chapters to a book. Shadea takes on a consort to further her cause. The only cause that was further by this was to add even more useless chapters. He did nothing to advance her standing, and added nothing at all to the plot.
Another major issue I have with this series is why is so much sacrifice happening for a character that we don't really like to begin with? Grianne was the Isle Witch, a truly despicable person, before she was "saved" by her brother. Since that time, she hasn't done anything to redeem herself other than say she's sorry and won't do it again. Not my choice of someone worth dying over.
In the Jarka Ruus, the Druids were misguided. They didn't like Grianne so wanted to get rid of her. It was stupid, but at least somewhat believable. They've gone from being misguided to completely evil in this book. Their motivations for wanton killing and destruction are never explained and completely baffle me.
Then there are the heroes. Pen is supposed to be the protagonist of the story (I think...) but he is nothing more than a whiny child who does what he wants regardless of others. His only motivation is a love interest one that was thrown in just because all Shannara books have to have a love interest. He constantly argues with his companions just because he loves this girl. Tagwin has been more or less sidelined and is just along for the ride. Kermadec and his brother bicker for reasons as yet unknown. All this makes it really hard to give a damn about any of them.
If this trilogy was compressed into a single book, it might be tolerable. As it is, there is so much filler that makes it very hard to care about anything. The war between the Federation and the Freeborn has been raging for decades, and now all of a sudden we are supposed to care about what is happening with it. There is absolutely no tie-in to the story of the druids other than to have people talk about it. None of the characters involved in the war are anyone we care about, so what is the point of including it other than to add more chapters to a book. Shadea takes on a consort to further her cause. The only cause that was further by this was to add even more useless chapters. He did nothing to advance her standing, and added nothing at all to the plot.
Another major issue I have with this series is why is so much sacrifice happening for a character that we don't really like to begin with? Grianne was the Isle Witch, a truly despicable person, before she was "saved" by her brother. Since that time, she hasn't done anything to redeem herself other than say she's sorry and won't do it again. Not my choice of someone worth dying over.
In the Jarka Ruus, the Druids were misguided. They didn't like Grianne so wanted to get rid of her. It was stupid, but at least somewhat believable. They've gone from being misguided to completely evil in this book. Their motivations for wanton killing and destruction are never explained and completely baffle me.
Then there are the heroes. Pen is supposed to be the protagonist of the story (I think...) but he is nothing more than a whiny child who does what he wants regardless of others. His only motivation is a love interest one that was thrown in just because all Shannara books have to have a love interest. He constantly argues with his companions just because he loves this girl. Tagwin has been more or less sidelined and is just along for the ride. Kermadec and his brother bicker for reasons as yet unknown. All this makes it really hard to give a damn about any of them.