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The Elfstones of Shannara / UNABRIDGED Terry Brooks Scott Brick 9780736693417 Books

Download As PDF : The Elfstones of Shannara / UNABRIDGED Terry Brooks Scott Brick 9780736693417 Books

The Elfstones of Shannara / UNABRIDGED Terry Brooks Scott Brick 9780736693417 Books

This book is about the journey of Amberle, Eventine Elessedil's granddaughter, and Wil, Shea Ohmsford's grandson, to save Ellcrys, the sacred tree that protects the world against demons. Along the way, they meet other charaters such as Cephelo's nomad family and Hebel with his faithful dog.
The characters. In general, this book had a very diversified set of characters and massive character development. Amberle and Wil were clearly the main characters and, for me, Amberle was the character that changed more. We follow this development and, in the end, she was so different from the beginning. Aside from the character development, she was an okay character. She wasn't particularly strong or anything but still, she was the key to save Ellcrys. Wil was quite different from Amberle. He didn't have any part in saving Ellcrys, his mission was to protect Amberle and to make sure she would reach her destination. He was mainly there because of Shea's elfstones but, as the story unraveled, he became Amberle's support and essencial to her mission. Even though I liked Wil more than Amberle, my favorite was Eretria. I loved her. Her personality was so different, she could take care of herself and her dedication to Wil made my heart warm. The last character I want to mention is Allanon. I feel like this character didn't change. He did pretty much the same thing in this book has he did on The Sword of Shannara. He makes it possible to save Ellcrys but ut just feels like a copy of the Allanon of the first novel of the series. I loved to see the old characters, such as Eventine and Flick even though Shea didn't appear.
Now, the plot. The plot was pretty linear, they had a problem, Allanon had the solution, gathered the needed characters and they set off to the adventure. It is what happens in their journey that made me love this book. It was dense and heavy. I was never bored except for a part in the middle where the battle was so descripted that I couldn't focus.
Overall, I feel like this book was much better than the first one. It was an original story whereas in the first, it almost felt like I was reading The Lord of the Rings all over again with some changes on character names.


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The Elfstones of Shannara / UNABRIDGED Terry Brooks Scott Brick 9780736693417 Books Reviews

Elfstones is where I feel you can really start to sink your teeth into Brooks. Sword of Shannara was an experiment and homage to Tolkien, so the story often lacks, especially in originality.

Not so with Elfstones. This story starts with Wil Ohmsford, the grandson of Shea, who is studying to be a Healer. In what will turn out to be a running theme, Allanon shows up unannounced and whisks Wil and the Elfstones in his power, away on an adventure to accompany a young elf girl, Amberle, on a quest to save the Four Races from an ancient evil.

The book has everything a high-fantasy should have fast-paced action, lots of traveling and battles, terrifying evil, humorous quirky characters, lots of history, etc. The story is believable and gripping and you genuinely care about the main characters. There are two romances in the novel (won't spoil), one which I found incredibly well-done and the other kind of shoddy. Sometimes I felt the battle scenes went on way too long, but I'm also a chick so maybe they just don't appeal to me the way they would the usual male fantasy-genre audience.

Brooks brings everything to this book that you could want in a high-fantasy novel, and I'd recommend it to any fan of the genre.
Well, lots of people have done a general spread on this sterling novel so let me just list the highlights of what I liked
CONCEPT It is about 50 years after the Sword of Shannara storyline. A new Evil of Demons and Devils threatens the lands as the barrier which holds them back begins to waver. The only hope is to rejuvenate the Tree of Life, which controls the barrier, and that task falls upon Will omsford, grandson to Shea, and the only remaining servant to the Tree of life; a young reluctant elven woman.
MARKETING APPEAL great epic story of good vs a primordial evil; runs on the bestselling SWORD OF SHANNARA; a weak boyish hero must assist a young girl, the last of the Chosen of the Ellycrys (that keeps the Evil kept captive), to an unexplored land to seek a means to rejuvenating the Ellycrys; Promises great battles, in the usual Brooks style, and the usual LEVEL ONE story telling level of good vs. Evil;
SCORING Superb (A), Excellent (A-), Very good (B+), Good (B) Fairly Good (B-) Above Average (C+), Mediocre (C ), Barely Passable (C-) Pretty Bad (D+), Dismal (D), Waste of Time (D-), Into the Trash (F)
DIALOGUE B+ STRUCTURE A HISTORY SETTING B CHARACTERS B+ EVIL SETUP/ANTAGONISTS A EMOTIONAL IMPACT A SURPRISES A LITTLE THINGS B MONSTERS A- PACING A- OVERALL STYLE A FLOW OF WORDS A- CHOICE OF FOCUS A TRANSITIONS/FLASHBACKS/POV A COMPLEXITY OF WORDS/SYMBOLISM/THEMES B+
OVERALL GRADE A - (at the cusp to an A)
HISTORY SETTING Pretty good History; the lands are created after a nuclear holocaust; the Faeries of Old return to the world; the other four races which are created are men, trolls, gnomes and dwarves. Some people claim Brooks is a Tolkien rip off but I don't see this too much. The elves, besides being faerie related, have lost much of their knowledge and magic of old. Furthermore, they aren't like the Tolkien elves as they have to sleep, die at the usual human age and are not gay and happy. Perhaps THE SWORD OF SHANNARA has more comparisons so I can't entirely say. Even the dwarves in this story are different, as they are great engineering types but they fear caves. Gnomes, other than having a group of healers called Storks, are barely introduced. Same goes for the Trolls except when an army of them arrives to drive the Demons back from the capitol. I would say that the History is nothing comparable to Tolkien. It lacks complexity and details. It does, however, deal with simple, focused ideas which get the points across. Fantasy setups don't always have to be terribly detailed to be good, I have found. Paranor, the well of knowledge run by the Druids, as well as the division of the Four Lands was done fairly well, in my opinion. And, needless to say, the fight between Good and Evil Faeries may have been adapted from previous legends but it was illustrated quite well.
PACING The story never let up. Even emotionally, Brooks didn't try to spend too much time on details that would bog the story down and things kept moving forward and forward. Just the way I like it.
EMOTIONAL IMPACT great love triangle; that's all I will say or I'll spoil it. )
SURPRISES many but again, I can't list them.
CONCEPT Save the Elvish People from the Evil Faeries, who were behind the Forbidding. The idea itself has a smartly crafted fantasy world with a common yet well detailed Evil. The true strength to the novel is the means of how Brooks goes about laying all the points about, as well as the characters.
FAVORITE ACTION PASSAGE "Far to the west of Arborlon, beyond the Breakline, there was a stirring in the air. Something blacker than darkness of the early dawn appeared, writhing and shuddering with the force of some blow that appeared to strike it. Momentarily, the veil of blackness held firm. Then it split wide, rent by the force from within it. Howls and shrieks of glee spilled forth from the impenetrable blackness beyond, as dozens of clawed limbs spilled forth from the straining toward the light. Then red fire exploded all about and the hands fell away, twisted and burned. The Dagda Mor appeared out of the dark, hissing with rage. His Staff of Power steamed hotly as he brushed aside the impatient ones and stepped boldly through the opening. An instant later, the dark forms of the Reaper and the Changeling followed him. Other bodies pushed forward in desperation, but the edges of the rent came together quickly, closing off the blackness and the things that lived within it. In moments, the opening had disappeared entirely and the strange trio stood alone." (see, doesn't he write great?) D
WHY IT WORKED FOR ME Reasons stated above, as well as the love triangle. There was a certain bittersweet quality to the lovestory where Wil had eyes for Amberle and continued to reject the Rover girl. As for audience appeal, I think the main reasons for it being a bestseller are (1) large epic scale woven with skill, style and emotions; (2) excellent characterization; (3) great battle scenes; (4) great yet simple details on the History of the lands; (5) love triangle that ended bittersweet.
FLAWS Much more plot oriented than context related. Those who would prefer a Tolkienesque context related world will be disappointed. Amberle and Flick were unimpressive.
COMMENTS My second time reading it. Years later and still my favorite Shannara novel.
GRADE REASON Done very well. For the reasons stated above, I have no compunctions in giving it such a high mark.
This book is about the journey of Amberle, Eventine Elessedil's granddaughter, and Wil, Shea Ohmsford's grandson, to save Ellcrys, the sacred tree that protects the world against demons. Along the way, they meet other charaters such as Cephelo's nomad family and Hebel with his faithful dog.
The characters. In general, this book had a very diversified set of characters and massive character development. Amberle and Wil were clearly the main characters and, for me, Amberle was the character that changed more. We follow this development and, in the end, she was so different from the beginning. Aside from the character development, she was an okay character. She wasn't particularly strong or anything but still, she was the key to save Ellcrys. Wil was quite different from Amberle. He didn't have any part in saving Ellcrys, his mission was to protect Amberle and to make sure she would reach her destination. He was mainly there because of Shea's elfstones but, as the story unraveled, he became Amberle's support and essencial to her mission. Even though I liked Wil more than Amberle, my favorite was Eretria. I loved her. Her personality was so different, she could take care of herself and her dedication to Wil made my heart warm. The last character I want to mention is Allanon. I feel like this character didn't change. He did pretty much the same thing in this book has he did on The Sword of Shannara. He makes it possible to save Ellcrys but ut just feels like a copy of the Allanon of the first novel of the series. I loved to see the old characters, such as Eventine and Flick even though Shea didn't appear.
Now, the plot. The plot was pretty linear, they had a problem, Allanon had the solution, gathered the needed characters and they set off to the adventure. It is what happens in their journey that made me love this book. It was dense and heavy. I was never bored except for a part in the middle where the battle was so descripted that I couldn't focus.
Overall, I feel like this book was much better than the first one. It was an original story whereas in the first, it almost felt like I was reading The Lord of the Rings all over again with some changes on character names.