Die Shannara-Chroniken 3 - Das Lied der Elfen

Ich habe die Geschichte rund um die Elfensteine wirklich geliebt und mich auf das Lied der Elfen gefreut. Der Schreibstil ist nach wie vor gut, aber mir persönlich fehlte leider manches an der Story. Meine Gedanken gingen oft ihr eigenen Wege und ich war nie gefesselt. Wir wandern mit den Helden durchs Land, treffen weitere Figuren und wandern weiter. Mir fehlte der Zauber, den die zweiten Chroniken haben. Das Ende löst sich im Vergleich zum Rest des Buches ein wenig zu schnell.

Habe lange gebraucht, um dieses Buch auszulesen. War sehr lang, aber ab der Hälfte wieder wirklich schön.

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I want to thank Bloggerportal and Blanvalet for giving me the opportunity to read this novel. They were so great to give me The Wishsong of Shannara in exchange for an honest review. You also are able to read this review on my blog Blattzirkus. -- Abstract An age-old threat returns to the world, sending out its Mord Wraiths to destroy humanity and the elves. To repress and defeat this power, the Druid Allanon needs the support of Brin Ohmsford, the guardian of the Elfstones. Because only Brin controls the magic song of the elves. But evil has foreseen Allanon’s move, and Brin is now waiting for a fate worse than death. Only when she is ready to give herself up, there is still hope for humans and elves … Abstract roughly translated after the German abstract by Random House (July 17th, 2018) Cover It confused me a bit that book 1, The Sword of Shannara, did a style break in comparison to book 2 and book 3. I like both cover arts, but please stick with one style. Else it doesn’t look good on the bookshelf and it seems as if the books don’t belong together. Thanks 😀 The Author: Terry Brooks Terry Brooks is an US-American Fantasy-Author who published his first book, The Shannara-Chronicles: The Sword of Shannara, in 1977. Before his breakthrough as a writer, Brooks was working as a lawyer. He gave up on this job after his sales success with his book. After Terry Brooks’ German Wikipedia page (July 17th, 2018) Book Trilogy In this review I will review Book 3, The Wishsong of Shannara. I have already reviewed Book 1, The Sword of Shannara and Book 2, The Elfstones of Shannara. If anyone is going to continue reading this review – you are warned. This might get spoilery. My Opinion The Wishsong of Shannara was better to read for me than Book 1, The Sword of Shannara. However, I gave the book no more and no less stars than The Sword of Shannara, two stars. How these two books nevertheless differ from each other and what I liked better about The Wishsong of Shannara, I try to explain a little in the next few paragraphs. First of all, it did seem like a cheap rip-off of Lord of the Rings. I could draw a lot of parallels in The Sword of Shannara, which bothered me so much because The Shannara Chronicles should be a fantasy world after all and not a Lord of the Rings copy. But do not worry, that was only the case in Book 1. Book 2 and 3 felt much more like an own world and that’s a good thing. Plot What bothered me about The Wishsong of Shannara is the fact that there never was exciting action, at least in my eyes. Two groups go from A and B, battles are interspersed every now and then, and that’s it. Maybe it’s because of Terry Brooks’ writing style, but I never had the feeling that the characters could not accomplish their mission. There was never the moment in which I was captivated by the story. For me, the plot was just monotone. Characters Character depth, what is this? I know almost as much about the druid Allanon after three books as at the beginning of the trilogy. He is always described as mysterious and secret keeping, because he literally reveals nothing about himself and if, then only the most necessary bits. This is also how it is described in the book. So it does not surprise me so much that I hardly know anything about Allanon, but hey, the reader has been informed that we should not expect too much information. Brin and Jair Ohmsford are the children of Wil and Eretria, from The Elfstones of Shannara, who have had a weak character development, if any. If I had the feeling – oh, they have improved their personalities! – then it was reversed again (see towards the end scene). In any case, my personal highlight was that Wil and Eretria were mentioned again and that Terry Brooks continued to travel with Ohmsford characters. Hardly anyone was unsympathetic, only I just wasn’t able to become friends with them, as they (as already mentioned in the paragraph above) had little depth and seemed very superficial to me. Writing Style Why are the characters most often called or described either by their origin or their race? Okay, in the beginning of the book, some members of the group can’t stand each other, but how should I learn names if only the race or the origin is mentioned most of the time? “Boy!” The gnome called with a mixture of concern and relief in his voice and rushed toward the valley dweller. * Terry Brooks, The Shannara Chronicles: The Song of the Elves, 1986, Chapter 46, p. 497 (eBook). Roughly translated from German to English. Okay, that’s just an extreme example of a few sentences, but still. The hyper-objective salutation and partially swollen language may now be a fantasy element. After a while it became very exhausting for me and I could not really bring myself getting into the story. What a pity, because I like to remember of the good times I had while reading The Elfstones of Shannara. If I remember rightly, I had the problem with The Sword of Shannara and The Elfstones of Shannara, that Terry Brooks likes to describe fights and pretty much everything in a long dragging time. I still had this problem and it did not improve with The Wishsong of Shannara. Not, that I am only complaining… It may seem that I have been pretty hard on the book. There are certainly a lot of people who can be enthusiastic about this book (several reviews prove that). In retrospect, it’s not a bad book, the writing style is clean but it’s just not mine. Although, better to read the writing style of Terry Brooks as one who is incredibly persistent in trying to write beautifully and cumbersome (American YA writers love that). The plot could be better, but also far worse. In addition, I must keep in mind after all that this book has been published in 1977. It would therefore be interesting to read a Terry Brooks book from the present (2018). But until I get that far, I have to take a little distance from the book series. Conclusion I give The Shannara-Chronicles: The Wishsong of Shannara by Terry Brooks 2 out of 5 stars. It couldn’t convince me to like it and I wasn’t able to get into the story. But I can imagine that it’s just me and that a lot of reader will like it.

Das Buch ist voller Magie, Abenteuer und einer Macht, die jedem von uns innewohnen kann. Ich habe die Protagonisten gerne begleitet auch wenn ich von Anfang bis Ende keine richtige Bindung zu ihnen aufbauen konnte. Trotzdem hatte ich viel Spaß.