High Druid of Shannara: Tanequil [Review]

The second chapter of Terry Brooks’ High Druid of Shannara trilogy Tanequil continues the journey of Pen, Khyber, Tagwen, and Cinnaminson to save the Ard Rhys, Grianne Ohmsford. They have traveled far to escape from the Druids who are searching for them and hope they can find the Tanequil to form a dark wand.

Interwoven with this adventure are the dangers faced by Pen’s parents, Grainne, and the elves on the battle front. Brooks tale is a wild fantasy adventure that takes the reader into a world that is well loved by many. However, this tale may disappoint because of the similar feel to the story line in The Elfstones of Shannara with the saving of the Ellcrys and the sacrifice made by Pen and Cinnaminson. [Spoiler Alert] The ending with Pen was a disappointment, so much time was spent trying to save Cinnaminson from the monster just to have her “die” was awful. Brooks used the similar trope of finding and losing a love in many of his other books in the series, such as Ahren losing his love on the voyage of the Jerel Shannara and the loss of the Ellcrys/Amberle. This finding of the dark want could have been handled differently with a new way of retrieving a necessary piece to save the world save the loss of a love.

The writing style is good, though with so many adventures it can confuse some. I did not feel as attached to the Elves fighting and did not want to see their story play out. The disjointed tale between the Druids, Federation, and Free Born continues over from the Voyage of the Jerle Shannara. This story seems simply to be a back drop in the first book in the High Druid trilogy suddenly takes precedence in this book. It simply could have been left out and the story would still have been good.

I would recommend this book but only if you have read others in the world of Shannara, it is not as good as the others. Start with The Sword of Shannara for a great book in the series, I might even suggest simply reading the first four books the Shannara books if you do not desire to read multiple series about similar themes/stories. 

References

Brooks, T. (2004). High druid of Shannara: Tanequil. New York: Del Rey.

Goodreads. (2017). Tanequil (high druid of Shannara #2). [Cover image]. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15552.Tanequil