Terry Brooks' new Shannara epic The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara kicks off its first volume Ilse Witch with the discovery of a mad Elf drifting on wreckage miles out at sea with his tongue and eyes removed, and a map secreted among his possessions. It rapidly emerges that he is a lost prince who set out decades earlier to find old magic on another continent. Walker the Druid persuades the Elf King that both vengeance and prudence dictate a second expedition and assembles the usual crew of talented misfits to travel by airship into unknown territory. The forces of evil are on their way as well--the shadowy figure known as the Ilse Witch and the lizard-like mercenaries forced on her by her untrustworthy ally the Morgawr are closing in too, with acquisition and murder in their hearts.Fans of Terry Brooks will know precisely what to expect from him: undemanding sword--and--sorcery adventure with touches of the gloomily mysterious and of the more complex emotions. This is Brooks at his best and this novel is the least dependent on earlier models as it becomes clear that in this sequence the relationship between good and evil is more complicated than usual. --Roz Kaveney
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Entertaining, but too straightforward.
Ilse Witch opens with Hunter Predd, a Wing Rider, patrolling the Blue Divide coast on his Roc Obsidian, and finding the half-drown body of an Elf, whose features are hideously mutilated. When Hunter d...Read more
Rating : 7/10