Jarka Ruus (High Druid of Shannara) (Hardcover)

Even though this is the first book in a series, Terry Brooks succeeds in building a fascinating and suspenseful story. Unlike the first book of the The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara series, this one is much more than mere introduction and character development. I found this to be a gripping and fascinating story, one that I highly recommend to all fans of fantasy literature!

While Brooks hasn't knocked one out of the park with this entry, he has certainly stabilized the Shannara franchise after the free-fall that was Jerle Shannara. The characters are interesting in this one, with Grianne's redemption and the temptation of her old life actually making her a fascinating character. She knows she must never go back to the person she was, but it makes dealing with the plots against her very difficult. Her first instinct is to blast back. Her determination to better herself and to continue on in the face of such diversity is really nice to see. In addition, it makes her a different character than most of Brooks' other ones, which is refreshing.

The other main characters, Pen, Tagwen, Ahren, and Khyber (Ahren's niece) are also nicely done, though less distinctive. Pen is an Ohmsford, and he isn't much different from the Ohmsford heroes of old from all of the previous books. He has his own little piece of magic (though the magic itself seems to be dying out as it's diluted along the Ohmsford bloodline) that is seemingly useless but becomes appropriate for the mission at hand. That does seem a little convenient and arbitrary, one of the faults with the premise of the series. He's young and impetuous, easily falling in love with the daughter of the airship captain they hire to take them on their journey. The others have some nice characterization as well, though they do not stand out

The saving grace of this novel is the world and the fact that Brooks seems to be trying something a little different. Redemption has never been one of his main themes, but this time he tackles it with full force. Grianne is put in a situation that will require her to make choices between her old self and the new, and the consequences of those choices could mean her life. There is a parallel between this series and Jerle, in the fact that another male relative of Grianne's has to save her. However, Jarka Ruus shows us that Grianne is more than capable of taking care of herself while she's waiting to be rescued. This is clearly her story even as it's Pen's coming of age. Brooks handles the two plot lines with effortless ease, never letting us grow tired of one before switching back to the other one.

Another strength of the book is the use of Shannara continuity. I've always loved this world, even as I've disliked some of the books, and Brooks takes us on another travelogue around it. He uses just the right combination of old and new to season the book without overpowering it. There are references to almost every previous book, but either they are just for the fans and aren't really necessary, or he explains them well enough that the new reader will not be confused. Brooks has been known to wallow in this stuff, so seeing the light but firm touch he has on continuity in this book was great. We even get to see places that have been referred to but never actually seen (the Forbidding, where demons have been locked away for millennia, and the far northern areas of the world).

Only a couple of things bring the book down, though. First, Brooks continues to have his characters brood as a way of thinking about the things happening to them. There are times when this goes on for a page or two, with the character just thinking about their situation, how they got there, and what they should do next. At least they didn't do this in the middle of combat, which was one of my criticisms of earlier books. It still got monotonous, though.

Secondly, there is a bit of an internal logic problem that gnawed at me. During the run from the other druid airship, much is made of the fact that Ahren cannot use his druid magic or else the bad guys would be able to trace them. They are constantly talking about this. Then, once when he is forced to use his magic, they don't seem to express any worry about it. They settle down in a city waiting for the storm to abate so they can cast off again. They are then surprised by the druid ship. Shouldn't they have been expecting and worrying about this? However they should have reacted, it should not have been with surprise.

Jarka Ruus is a very promising first entry in the High Druid of Shannara series. I hope that Brooks can maintain this quality, or even exceed it. He does seem to have a winning formula, but this time he's not trying to sell us more of the same in a different package. It's familiar enough for regular Brooks readers, but not so familiar that you feel you just shelled out more money for the same book.

David Roy