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cheye13's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This volume is a 100% improvement from the prior book. All of the main complaints I had about the first Shannara book are solved. The prose is less winded, the story is narrowed to two perspectives (Wil/Amberle and Ander/Allanon), magic played a larger role and the use of the genre was far more creative, the groups of heroes build up over time (rather than break down or splinter apart), and there was roughly 4x more female characters in this sequel (which totals 4 but... improvement).
With all those major things fixed though, my attention was drawn more to the details I found lacking. Both the journey and the paralleled war was tedious and deus ex machina was implemented too often. The moral was extremely similar to that of the previous book. The love triangle was not only annoying, but also pointless. This volume was much easier to read than the previous, and I did enjoy certain passages, but again, I was mostly bored.
With all those major things fixed though, my attention was drawn more to the details I found lacking. Both the journey and the paralleled war was tedious and deus ex machina was implemented too often. The moral was extremely similar to that of the previous book. The love triangle was not only annoying, but also pointless. This volume was much easier to read than the previous, and I did enjoy certain passages, but again, I was mostly bored.
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Sexism, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, and Medical trauma
Horses and birds are harmed in battle; a dog is harmed "off-screen." There are a number of physical confrontations throughout, resulting in numerous instances and metions of blood, injuries, death, and grief. The heroes are briefly taken captive. The aesthetics of the Rover people appear to be based on Romani stereotypes; the Rover people are also intentionally sexist, buying/selling/trading women as wives and daughters.