Rating: 
Summary: Well written as always, but little new
Review: Terry Brooks can frequently create some of the most memorable fantasy novels - with imaginative new characters and worlds and down to the last minute suspense. The first of the Jerle Shanara books fulfilled this promise with an exciting voyage to the unknown, a mysterious and deadly enemy, and the final battle scene and capture of walker. The second book, Anthrax, also did superbly well in developing the extent of the threat and a surprising battle where Walker sacrifices his life. But, this third novel doesn't add anything new over the first two books. When I ordered it, I was hoping to find out how well Grianne would take the revelations of the sword of shannara to heart, and I guessed that the plot would revolve around her becoming a new druid and a final battle with morgwar.
I wanted to hear that story. Instead is nearly entirely about the relationship between bek and grianne, some non-interesting escapes from morgwar, and an easily predicted victory on the journey back home. There was almost no new characters at all. My guess is that Terry just wanted to put full closure on the series in an easy manner, and is holding the interesting stuff for the next book. A nice plan, but this is one of the few Terry Brooks novels that I will not read a 2nd time.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing!
Review: I have always been a great fan of Terry Brooks. I have read all the books written by him and I loved every one of them. However, this last one to the end of the series was very disappointing. The plot was rushed through and the old-world technology was not even talked about. Two main characters in this book died, and one of them happened to be my favorite. Almost all the characters are from the previous books. For example, Rovers, one Leah, one Druid, two Omsfords, bad guy, elves, and a dwarf. The brave elves will sacrifice themselves, the druid will be stubborn, the druid will lead the Omsfords around, and finally the courageous Leah will protect the Omsfords. I did like the fact that technology was brought into this book. The airships were pretty interesting and Anthrax¡¦s artificial intelligence was very interesting. It is fun to read about magic versus science, but I still wished that Brooks would emphasize more on how the technology and old-world people were lost. It is too bad that Brooks didn¡¦t write more about it. The plot was rushed because they didn¡¦t do anything in Anthrax except wonder around getting scared and then leaving the island. Then, stopping midway from home to fight the bad guy who sucked anyways. Morgawr was just a power-hungry warlock that got defeated quite easily, and he himself was very boring and not interesting. Also, the Isle Witch was barely talked about in this book, she was just a tired and withdrawn little girl that does practically nothing in this book. In conclusion, if you haven¡¦t read the Isle Witch Series, don¡¦t read it. On the other hand, if you already read the first two of the Isle Witch Series, go ahead and buy this one, as it concludes the series nicely.
Rating:
Summary: Who wrote this book?
Review: I have been a fan of Terry Brooks and the Shannara series from its beginning. I bought each book read and reread them then lent them to friends. Not so with this latest add-on. Did someone get paid to write 400+ pages out of a story line of perhaps 100? Snore......its unlike these characters to whine and snivel about adversity..but here they seem to bubble over with it. Seems I would read a page or two and then skip a page or two so I wouldnt have to reread all the life stories. The only other books I have ever had to do this with is Swords of Time and White Gold Wielder (you guys know what i mean.."I'm a leaper....")
Rating:
Summary: Simply Ok
Review: The latest in Terry Brook's Voyage of the Jerle Shannara series, Morgawr picks up where Antrax left off. A serviceable installment, it follows the ongoing adventures of Bek, Panax, Quentin Leah, and numerous others as they continue their quest under the enigmatic guidance of the Druid; Walker Boh. The villainous Morgawr steps to the forefront as the main foe as the trilogy comes to a close. Brooks definitely has a solid handle on fantasy and on the Shannara theme in particular as he's been visiting the Four Lands in various installments over the last 20 years. New readers will find all of the usual aspects of a fantasy epic in place. The Shannara books have a fairly rich history and Brooks has definitely helped fashion a solid world with a great deal of continuity. This history can be a little off putting to those not familiar with the goings on of previous trilogies but not to the point where they are unable to enjoy the most recent stories. Morgawr is the third book in a trilogy though and readers who haven't picked up the first two installments, Ilse Witch and Antrax, might find references in Morgawr to be slightly confusing. Individuals from the Pacific Northwest and Washington State in particular might get a kick out of Brooks penchant for naming chars and items for places in that state. Sadly, the book also has more than its share of negatives. The book itself is in many ways a rehash of his other books rolled into one. The defining of the chief villain, the Morgawr, is superficial to say the least. A small attempt is made to link him to two minor villains in the Elfstones of Shannara book but the attempt seemed whimsical and somewhat half-hearted. Characters seemed to be very close in behavior to previous heroes or villains. The final conflicts that make up the climax of the book feel rushed and short and the addition of so many different characters ultimately left to many plot threads to neatly tie up. In most cases the endings were quick, abrupt and unsatisfying to the reader. I wouldn't recommend avoiding this book as it is the final installment of the series but for those long time Brooks readers out there it's more of the same old, same old type thing. For new folks, I'd recommend reading the Elfstones of Shannara, the Knight of the Word series, and the first couple of Magic Kingdom for Sale: Sold volumes.
Rating: 
Summary: They Get Better And Better!
Review: I loved this book. It was such a marvelous way to end one of the best series of all time. I love how Brooks incorporates new and unusual characters in his books. I think that Truls Ruhk was one of the most unusual and most interesting characters I've encountered. I like how he and Bek become such good friends but then he has to decide the fate of his life. I find that there are a lot of feelings of love and hate towards one another in this book such as Bek and Little Red (Rue Meridian) and their love story, and the hate towards Grianne (The Ilse Witch) from the company that has lost so much because of her. Perhaps this book was so intriguing because it summed up the previous two but it seems like with each book Terry Brooks writes, the better they get. I'm waiting impatiently to buy the next one.
Rating:
Summary: A travelogue disguised as the ending of a fantasy series
Review: I've been a fan of Terry Brooks' Shannara series ever since the first book. The series is both interesting in its own right, yet wrapped in a familiarity that's very pleasant to the fantasy reader. The main knock against the later books in the series is that Brooks' characters tend to be very similar to previous versions. The entire Voyage of the Jerle Shannara series has suffered from this affliction. Not only that, but Brooks seems like he has been treading water with this series. The third and final book, Morgawr, is more of the same: comfortable, yet just a little too familiar. Rabid Brooks fans will definitely love it. Other Brooks fans will find that they enjoyed it, but it left them feeling a little bit empty, like having eaten some Chinese food and feeling hungry a couple of hours later. The main problem with Morgawr is that it is basically a runaround. The main characters run, the Morgawr and his mwellrats pursue them. Some of the party runs into a monster, some action happens, and it's over. It all builds to a final confrontation that's obvious from the beginning, and it can take forever to get there. Doctor Who fans may be familiar with the "endless corridor" aspect of that show, where it seems like most of the story consists of the characters running back and forth down corridors. This book had much the same feeling, only on a larger scale. There are also a series of coincidences and other illogical happenings that make the eyes roll. The party regroups in a much too easy way after being separated for so long. They basically run into each other. A few of them are better explained, having been found by Hunter Predd and his roc, a huge bird with very keen eyesight who has been patrolling the area in the air. However, the others are just a chance meeting that strains credulity to the limit. Not only that, but the Ilse Witch wakes from her catatonia in order to heal somebody, and gives Bek a vital clue that he needs, before returning to her catatonic state. The clue makes this happening very important, but I don't really buy the ultimate reasoning for why it happened. The characters in Morgawr aren't bad, and Brooks has no qualms about killing some of them. This is a very bloody book (series, actually, since it started in the first book). Again, though, the characters are very similar to characters in past Shannara series, and the recognition factor jars. Bek is pretty much the same as previous Ohmsfords, Quenten Leah is like the Leahs of old, with his magic Sword of Leah. The Rovers are, as a group, similar to characters in the previous two series. At least the two main Rovers, Redden Alt Mer and Rue Meridian, are fairly distinctive, and interesting in their own right. This is not to say that the characters aren't interesting, because for the most part they are. I just wish they were different. They're comfortable characters, however, and fans of the series will like them. If this is the first Shannara series you've read, you won't notice this and will probably enjoy them in their own right. The final problem to mention is Brooks' tendency to have is characters brood. They do this a lot, and the most annoying times are when the characters are in danger, or waiting for danger to come to them. It's not unusual for a character to be on guard, or watching for something to come at them, and spend one or two pages brooding about his or her circumstances, what's happened on this mission, friends who have died, or whatever. For me, it breaks the tension rather than adding to it. I kept saying to myself "would you please stop thinking and just get on with it?" And since the characters are usually brooding about similar things (the events since they arrived here), it also gets a bit repetitious as well. Still, it is an enjoyable series to read, even more so if you've never read a Shannara book before. Brooks really has a talent for action scenes, and when they happen they are usually exciting. You do care for the characters and they are three-dimensional for the most part. You never know whether a character is safe or not, which also adds to the tension. Brooks kills off quite a number of them. I really enjoyed the finale, as the Morgawr, who has been shown to be much more powerful than any magic Bek or the Ilse Witch have, is defeated by brains rather than "a lucky shot" or something like that. While I enjoy the Shannara books, and give this one just over 3 stars, part of me wishes Brooks would leave Shannara for awhile, or at least try to do something new with it. The concept of the Jerle Shannara series *is* new, with a voyage across the sea, but he wraps it in too many familiarities for this reader. If this is your first exposure to Brooks, then it's not so bad, and you will be entertained. I guess that's not a bad thing.
Rating:
Summary: Best book in series--young characters mature
Review: The crew of the Jerle Shannara has been whittled down by the Isle Witch, by ancient magic, and by time; Walker Boh, the last Druid, lies mortally wounded and his quest--the books of ancient magic--is completely lost. All that remains is for the remnants of teh Jerle Shannara crew to pull together and return to the Four Lands with the Elf Stones and little else to show for their journey. With the Isle Witch sunk into a catatonic trance, this shouldn't be too difficult--except a new enemy, one even more powerful than the Witch herself, decides to intervene. Morgawr, the Witch's mentor, has decided that the Witch's treachery must be punished and that he must have the books of magic for himself. With a huge fleet of airships and his own magical powers, Morgawr seems unstoppable. Especially since the most experienced and powerful of the Jerle Shannara's crew are now dead. Somehow, highlanders Bek Ohmsford and Quentin Leah, rovers Redden Alt Mer and Rue Meridian, and the elf prince Ahren Elessedil--all in all, the youngest and least experienced of the crew--must not only survive a six month journey home, they must do so in the face of terrible magical opposition--all the while carrying the catatonic Witch with them. Author Terry Brooks pulls out the stops to deliver a compelling close to his VOYAGE OF THE JERLE SHANNARA trilogy. Characters that were young annoyances in the earlier novels now come to their own, discovering depths of strength and emotional wholeness within themselves now that they can no longer lean on the druid's power. Bek's determination to save his sister no matter how unlikely this seems gives him a heroic cast. In contrast, Alt Mer's reaction to the Graak humanizes a man who seemed the fearless heroic barbarian until that moment. The Witch's self-torture adds a realistic poignancy for readers who have seen exactly how amoral she could be. MORGAWR can best be read in conjunction with the VOYAGE series as it relies heavily on character growth from levels set in the earlier novels. Fantasy fans will find this series well worth the reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Fighting For Survival
Review: To me, the pinnacle of this series was the portion dealing with the computer, Antrax, but I also wondered very much how the situation with the Morgawr was going to be resolved and how Grianne, formerly the Ilse Witch, would confront and accept her evil deeds. Bek displays a true tenderness as he helps her in her time of vulnerability. I was also secretly hoping that at least one elven ranger would make it. But alas, out of principle, they had to be killed off to the very last. And oh yes, I quite understand that Mwellrets have GIMLET eyes. I was reminded of this on numerous occasions. But these were but small points of contention as I observed the corrupt politics of the Federation and wondered how the good guys could possibly survive the Morgawr's fleet. The heroes have failed in their mission in some ways and succeeded in others. Now they have been reduced to raw survival and the reader waits to see how the battered remnants of the crew will ever reach home alive.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed Brooks fan
Review: If you are a Brooks fan and have already read the first two books of the trilogy, you will of course have to read Book 3. However, be prepared to be disappointed. In reference to the trilogy as a whole, it is basically the same storyline as past Brooks' trilogies - a half-elf, half-human Ohmsford in possession of magic is lead on a quest by a druid accompanied by a brash Leah to offset the cautious Ohmsford, adventurous and capitalistic gypsies/rovers who always act against their nature and come to the rescue, brave elves who end up sacrificing themselves, and the ever-pessimistic dwarves. Unfortunately, Brooks seems to be running out of ways to keep rewriting the same script. Book 3 was lacking in action and magic and suspense compared to past Shannara books. There was far too little battles of magic, with their descriptive fire, colors, powers, and effects that I have become so accustomed to with Brooks. Far too much detailed attention was paid to the rovers and the airships, so much so that I found myself skimming through entire pages. Without giving too much of the storyline away, the origin of the Morgawr was explained, but only summarily and not nearly to my satisfaction. And the Isle Witch was all but absent for most of the storyline. My one-star rating is not a rating of the book compared to other fantasy books, but compared to other Brooks works. I expected far better from Brooks. I hope this was only a hiccup in the Shannara series.
Rating:
Summary: I wanted to love it, ended up liking it
Review: The third book in the Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy, Morgawr is intended to be both ending and beginning. The Ilse Witch, aided by the mortally injured Walker Boh, has taken the Sword of Shannara in hand and had the shocking truth of her early life and the Morgawr's deception send her into a near-catatonic state. Meanwhile, the Morgawr, half-mwellret warlock with an eye towards becoming immortal, has descended upon Parkasia with a fleet of airships crewed by soul-eaten walking dead. He's searching for the Ilse Witch, also known as Grianne Ohmsford, and her brother, Bek. They ambush the Jerle Shannara and the Black Moclips, pursuing them into fog and dangerous mountain ranges. Once again, Terry Brooks has flexed his creative muscle in building a high-jeopardy conclusion to this trilogy, but his prose style is resolutely expository, and causes the story to feel as rushed and hasty as it has from the opening pages of Ilse Witch. Monsters are battled, ships crash, heroics occur, romances bloom, but none of these carry much weight, because the reader can see them coming miles away thanks to Brooks' heavy-handed style. What really threw me for a loop was reading the preview chapter of Jarka Ruus at the back of the paperback copy I have. Quite astoundingly, the writing style is everything I wish the style in Jerle Shannara had been: subtle, dialogue-rich, intriguing, and leaving plenty to be discovered. I've since come to the conclusion that the style in Jerle Shannara is a by-product of the type of story Brooks is trying to tell. He's taken a literary snapshot of the Four Lands in the most unsettled period in it's history since the Shadowen occupation of the Heritage series. There is border war in the southland, Walker is the only druid, there are quirky relations between the rest of the races, and all seems tumultuous and chaotic. All reasons for Walker to attempt to seek the knowledge of science and techology of the past that was guarded on Antrax' hard drives. The story, then, is told as kind of a roguish expedition; fast-paced, with action leading the way rather than introspection and dialogue. The problem with this approach is that the story had so many situations that called for dialogue and subtle writing, I think Brooks was forced to just explain it and get on to the next scene to suit the style he was shooting for. The other problem is, if he had really gone to town and tried to let the characters tell the story through their actions and discourse, the books would have ended up being Jordan-length, and Terry Brooks just doesn't write 850-900 page books these days. I think the story might have been richer and more rewarding, but I do understand the choices he made. Overall, I liked the series, and upon reading that excerpt from Jarka Ruus, I understand Jerle Shannara to be almost a bridge series to get to the High Druid books, which promise to be full of political intrigue and more druidical machinations. I, for one, always thought the world of Shannara was at it's best in the early days, when there were political struggles as well as fighting in the trenches. I'm hopeful that the High Druid series will fulfill that promise. In the meantime, though, you could do worse than read the Jerle Shannara series, and if you're a Shannara addict like me, you're going to do it no matter what.
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