End of an Era
So I've been reading "The Elves of Cintra" the latest Terry Brooks book in the apocalyptic series.
And so far, I'm thoroughly underwhelmed. This is not to say this this book is not an excellent book; it is in fact very good.
But if you've read through Brook's oeuvre, you'll find that, like David Eddings, however far they try to cast out from their comfortable niche, eventually they return again to the same old plots, the same old characters, the same old settings. After a single mistaken prediction, once I saw where the book was going, I had the end predicted down to a T: Knight eventually will battle it out with the big bad while the small bad who is actually the bigger bad manages to elude the Knight and gloatingly falls into the evil mastermind trope trap re: "The Big Reveal". A trusted friend will turn out to be the demon in disguise despite earlier attempts to divert suspicion from his character. Brooks painstakingly, and after a while simply painfully sets out his plot devices time after time. They're the same ones each book :(
Yes, it's a bit of a catch-22, I'm tired of the same plots, but I want to keep reading about the Knights of the Word and the transition from the old Earth to what eventually becomes the world of Shannara.
Still, I can't shake the feeling that this book didn't really impress me. It didnt' really live up to its own potential. Which is too bad, because I've got a psychological soft-spot for the End of the World.
I actually dreamed about the book and its characters. In that dream, I saw the characters as depictions of the personalities in Terry Brooks' life. I suppose that life is where all authors get their inspiration for their characters, but in my dream, I was full of psychological assessments of the relationships involved between Mr. Brooks and his characters, and was left wondering who used to fill these roles (and who created them) in his real life. I came away from the dream feeling that Terry Brooks was still trying to exorcise the same demons from his own mind, and that he'd failed to do so (else, he wouldn't be writing these repetitive books still). I'm interested to see where we progress to. I'm tired of the same old grind. I've grown out of Terry Brooks.
So much potential, and I have to wait for what in all likelihood will never come. I wish I could write like he does, or like Steve Brust does, because man would I ever have some kickass stories to tell.
I'll still read "Gypsy Morph" of course :)
And so far, I'm thoroughly underwhelmed. This is not to say this this book is not an excellent book; it is in fact very good.
But if you've read through Brook's oeuvre, you'll find that, like David Eddings, however far they try to cast out from their comfortable niche, eventually they return again to the same old plots, the same old characters, the same old settings. After a single mistaken prediction, once I saw where the book was going, I had the end predicted down to a T: Knight eventually will battle it out with the big bad while the small bad who is actually the bigger bad manages to elude the Knight and gloatingly falls into the evil mastermind trope trap re: "The Big Reveal". A trusted friend will turn out to be the demon in disguise despite earlier attempts to divert suspicion from his character. Brooks painstakingly, and after a while simply painfully sets out his plot devices time after time. They're the same ones each book :(
Yes, it's a bit of a catch-22, I'm tired of the same plots, but I want to keep reading about the Knights of the Word and the transition from the old Earth to what eventually becomes the world of Shannara.
Still, I can't shake the feeling that this book didn't really impress me. It didnt' really live up to its own potential. Which is too bad, because I've got a psychological soft-spot for the End of the World.
I actually dreamed about the book and its characters. In that dream, I saw the characters as depictions of the personalities in Terry Brooks' life. I suppose that life is where all authors get their inspiration for their characters, but in my dream, I was full of psychological assessments of the relationships involved between Mr. Brooks and his characters, and was left wondering who used to fill these roles (and who created them) in his real life. I came away from the dream feeling that Terry Brooks was still trying to exorcise the same demons from his own mind, and that he'd failed to do so (else, he wouldn't be writing these repetitive books still). I'm interested to see where we progress to. I'm tired of the same old grind. I've grown out of Terry Brooks.
So much potential, and I have to wait for what in all likelihood will never come. I wish I could write like he does, or like Steve Brust does, because man would I ever have some kickass stories to tell.
I'll still read "Gypsy Morph" of course :)