Tarsha, although not my favorite character, was interesting and determined. There were so many things right about this series that could have made it a great conclusion. Sometimes, Shannara series seem a little like Eagles farewell tours. This one left me feeling like I should just wait a couple more years for the announcement of the next last Shannara series. Yet for what is supposed to be the final Shannara series, I expected more. He gave me The Sword of Shannara in an old, ragged paperback edition, and I’ve read every book in Shannara since that start (I think – it’s easy to lose track of a series or two in there). I enjoyed the other Shannara series, and I enjoyed this one I’ve been reading these books since I finished The Lord of the Rings in third grade and asked my dad what I was supposed to read next that could follow it up. In other words, it felt like the end of any other Shannara series. We’re left with the Four Lands basically unaltered from the beginning of the first book, with Tarsha debating whether she should found a new Druid Order, or use the black elfstone to banish Paranor until someone else calls it back. Then, in the final book, they all decided to use the magic weather machine to make their land inhabitable again, and forget the past few centuries they had apparently spent as dominant conquerors. The first couple of books were promising, with the Skaar invasion and the fall of the current Druid Order (the Fifth?) the Skaar were such a compelling, dominant force that it seemed certain that they were going to be in the Four Lands to stay. This series was supposed to radically alter the Four Lands forever, and I was expecting something big. Terry Brooks claims that The Last Druid was the latest he intends to go in the in-world timeline. Warning: this post may contain spoilers for Terry Brooks’s The Fall of Shannara series
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