The Gypsy Morph (The Genesis of Shannara, Book 3)

I finished this book because the story had promise. The story had so much potential, but it's main weakness is that it moved along at a sluggish pace.

The sheer number of breaks in the flow of the story due to too monologues (too often in the middle of an action scene) to delve into a character's feelings/thoughts and emotions (and flashbacks) were my biggest qualms with the story.

These dramatic tangents painted some of the characters in an 'emo' light that detracted from the story, while these tangents also detracted from the flow of the story. This happened too often.

At times, I wish I had listened to this story on audio cd, so I could more easily skip tracks of overly dramatic monologue of characters' thoughts.

The thing is, this story would have been better served by:
1) eliminating some of the rediculous dialog,
2) spending more time developing the main characters,
3) spend less time making up for lack of character building through rediculous dialog and flashbacks of events from the previous 2 novels.

I'll try not to spoil too much in this review...

The romance between Logan Tom and was given no time (or detail) to develop; especially to get to where it was at the end of the book. This romance reminded me of 2 middle school kids in love, not something serious.

In my opinion, the story could have done without the rediculously developed romances of Logan and Panther (not with eachother). :^)

There were no twists in the story and the final throwdown between good and evil was too predictable once it started to unfold. The worst part of this final conflict was when the super powerful bad guy (after a display of his power) instead of easily dispatching 2 of the characters he has sought to destroy for so long, instead (in an out-of-character way) launches into a lengthy conversation with one of them for no reason ...even suggesting (in an even more out-of-character way) he would let a knight of the word join his side.

It was messy. If the author wanted to buy time for the other good guys to catch up (and overpower) this demon, then Brooks could have done it in a more intelligent way...better than having this big bad demon idiotically, stand around conversing with his nemesis.


I do not recommend this book, or book 2. I did however enjoy book one, "Armageddon's Children" and would recommend it except that it ends unacceptably with a cliff hanger.

If the fluff was removed and some plot points changed, I would have enjoyed this trilogy instead as two, well-penned novels.

2008-10-07

I loved this series. I hated to finish as I really enjoyed the read. I went to Seattle last summer and enjoyed the references to that area. I'm a believer.

Terry Brooks creates and interesting story about a boy and his children. The world is in chaos and the once men and the demons rain supreme.

I was hopping that Brooks would describe a little bit more about the evolution of Shannara. I was really hopping that he would discuss the evolution of the "freaks" and how they fit into the sword of Shannara world, but maybe he will in the future.

The book was an interesting take on the apocalypse and the never ending battle between good and evil. I was hoping that he would develop the "Lady" a little more.

Here ends the trilogy that started with Armageddon's children but is far from the last foray for Terry Brook's into the realm of Shannara and its origins. We do get to close the book on OUR world, the one from which Shannara springs, with this story, but I leave it to the reader to discover exactly how that happens.
My own theories abounded as to how Terry would tie all the loose ends together in this book. A year ago I was mostly concerned that he would cram far too much into this final novel, thinking that this was the last book that occurs before the actual Shannara books begin. Silly me. Word has come down that Mr. Brooks intends to do one or two more series of books that fill in the gaps between this tale and The First King of Shannara, or there abouts. So my internal debate about other races not featured in the first two books of this trilogy that show up in the world of Shannara still have time to evolve, instead of being jammed into this novel.

Overall, this was a satisfying completion to the trilogy, with the varied loose ends created throughout the first two books tied up fairly neatly. My own theories about what would happen to the Gypsy Morph were slight off but I won't say I was shocked or surprised by the end results here. We are given answers as to how our world slips into a world of magic, though I have no real perspective on how much further into the future we will travel to get to the time of the First King and beyond. There is still plenty to explore.

As with most of Terry Brook's other stories, I find his writing style enjoyable, though he has a penchant for running multiple story lines that have you shifting from place to place and group to group that dilutes some of the energy but not a lot of it. He always brings things together quite nicely in the end.

You know the story here if you have read the two predecessors and if you have not, this is not the book to start out with. In fact, I would recommend starting with Running with the Demon if you are interested in seeing this entire tale weaved from the beginning.

The Elves and the humans are coming together here in an effort to escape the once men and demons who have terrorized survivors of the apocalypse for years. With them is Hawk, who knows that he is the Gypsy Morph, a creature of wild magic who is destined to be the savior of those few who remain, Kirisin, the young elf who is called upon to save his own people with the help of the Lodan, an Elf stone, and two Knights of the Word, the last of their order, who must bring these people together so that they may make a pilgrimage to a place that no one is really sure exists, a place that will be safe as the world around them disolves.

Terry Brooks has created a fabulous universe filled with magic and mystery and continues to morph what was once our world into the wild world of Shannara. While these stories take place in our near future, it is almost like reading about ancient history since so many of us have read many, if not most, of the Shannara books. When I first read the Sword of Shannara years ago, back when I was in high school long ago, I always wondered if that world was a parallel with our own. It is neat to have come this far that we get to see the scope of the author's long term vision, thought I doubt he ever thought about these stories way back when he was first creating the Shannara realm.

While I did enjoy this book greatly, it did not pop off the page like some of Brook's earlier works that I have enjoyed so much. This entire series was entertaining but not spectacular, to me. Just my opinion. But I also know that I definitely appreciate this series and will look forward, with great anticipation, to the next generation of stories of the Shannara realm as Terry Brooks scribes them.

The Gypsy Morph finally gives hope to what has been a dark series of stories. As I finish every book I can hardly wait for the next one. Terry Brooks is an intriguing writer and captivates the reader through his visual descriptions.