Rating: 
Summary: predictable, utterly predictable
Review:
****** SOME SPOILERS AHEAD********************
(although, considering how predictable this story is, I'm not sure they qualify as "spoilers")
ok, be honest.
how many of you avid brook's fans out there actually thought that Kian would make it all the way home, the Morgawr might be a challenge to defeat, or that anything would happen to Bek, Quentin and Rue?
The thing is, Brooks hasn't done anything different with his characters since the last series. The Ohmsford, Leah and the various love interests always survive unbelievably adverse conditions and overwhelming personal challenges, while the superbly trained Elven Hunters die uselessly at a moment's notice. They're basically like an advanced warning system for the rest of the company; when an Elf keels over, something bad is about to happen.
Here's a shocker: Druid's keep secrets!!! I get the point! Considering that this book does not even have a Druid, its sickening how many times this is repeated. And what about Panax? When he didn't do anything in the first book, I thought Brooks was saving him up for something special, but nope. He did nothing more significant than scout out trails for the Rindge to follow. Heck, he didn't even manage to get killed, something Brook's characters generally find very easy to do! The only characters I liked were Ryer and Ahren, as they were huge emotional focal points in the book. But even though Ahren feels he was essentially useless in the voyage, Brooks gives him nothing more than the consolation kill of Cree Bega.
********** NO MORE SPOILERS*************
Characters aside, the series was a servicable fantasy. The mysterious old-world technology is even more interesting when it is described as being so similar to ours. Brook's strength is his locations and ability to describe everything in a more than tangible way; events take on a surreal, subliminal and ephemeral quality. I only wish that he had put in more dialogue to flesh out his characters, rather than rely so heavily on long tracts of soul-searching to explain their dispositions.
In summary, the characters were the usual disappointment, but the conflict of magic vs. science kept this series alive. since antrax was pretty much finished in the last book, this one wears a bit thin.
Rating: 
Summary: "Your Time for Regret will be Short..."
Review: "Morgawr" is the third and last book in Terry Brook's "Voyage of the Jerle Shannara" trilogy, which concerns the last of the triad of villains that the "Jerle Shannara"s crew goes up against. In the previous two books "Ilse Witch" and "Antrax" the Druid Walker led a range of characters to the faraway island of Parkasia in order to find a great treasure trove of ancient knowledge. Stalked by the Ilse Witch and then attacked by the archaic machinery of the Antrax, the crew found themselves utterly divided. Walker has been fatally wounded by the Antrax after unsuccessfully attempting to gain this treasure, but now bids Bek to save the one thing that they can salvage from the mission: the Ilse Witch.
Bek Ohmsford and the mysterious shape-shifter Truls Rokh are attempting to convince the Ilse Witch that she is not only Bek's sister Grianne Ohmsford, but that her mentor the Morgawr was the one that killed her parents - not Walker as she had been led to believe. After the truth is revealed to her by the magic of the Sword of Shannara, she slips into a state of catatonia that Bek cannot awaken her from. Meanwhile, the elf prince Ahren Elessedil and the seer Ryer Ord Star have retrieved the long-lost Elfstones only to find themselves captured by the Morgawr who seeks to use them in the attempt to trap the rest of the crew.
Everyone else is engaged in fairly dull activities: Quentin Leah does a lot of walking, and Rue Meridian, her brother Redder Alt Mer and the Wing Rider Hunter Predd take control of "Black Moclips" only to abandon it in a storm - a needless and pointless plot line. Panax's presence in the story is still a mystery. With the Antrax gone and the Ilse Witch converted, the story basically follows the surviving members of the crew trying to find one another, flee the island and avoid the Morgawr and his crew of reptilian Mwellrets.
The problem with this is that for all intents and purposes, the voyage is over. They came, they looked for the treasure, they didn't actually get the treasure (making the whole trip fairly pointless) and now they're leaving again. There is no sense of moving forward, only going back, and as such it's less interesting. To make things worse, the Morgawr is a rather humdrum bad guy, with nothing of the Ilse Witch's mystery or the Antrax's incorporeal threat. This is just a bad guy that wants to kill the goodies, because that's what bad guys do.
There are more problems: the love story between Bek and Rue is forced and unconvincing, there are more pointless encounters (including a man-eating plant) and it ends on a silly "here we go again" note. There are endless sermons on the nature of love and loyalty, and often the long-winded dialogue that Brooks gives his characters is painfully unnatural and often repetitive: "They fly no flag, and their crews act like dead men...the ones he could see were men, but they didn't act like men. They acted like machines. They didn't look as if they were alive. They were all still and empty-eyed." This sentence could be boiled down to half this length, without making the speaker sound like a robot and the reader like an idiot that has to have the situation pounded into him a number of times.
Neither Ryer nor Truls is given a satisfactory send-off, and the conclusion of the story screams "sequels are coming!" And in fact they are - Brooks continues his story in a new trilogy called "The High Druid". The fact that the treasure itself ended up being inaccessible and the mission switched instead to Grianne, makes the entire thing seem like one big introduction to this next series of books.
It was a promising start, and an interesting middle, but this final book is only worth reading in order to finish what you started --and see if Brooks can bring himself to let just one Elf Hunter (ie, nameless extra crew-member) to survive. Don't count on it.
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: 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: I'd Read It Again
Review: I thought this book really was the perfect finish, it had great twists in it, and unexpected events. Terry did himself proud in my opinion!!! After reading The Isle Witch and Antrax I couldn't wait to get started on the third. When I did, I couldn't stop and was disapointed I came to the end so quickly-I couldn't put it down! I found this trilogy refreshing-'The VOYAGE of Shannara!' Loved it, couldn't think of anyhing to criticise it on, except maybe how it pulled you into the book at the saddest parts and nearly had me covering my eyes at the scary bits. Hope this helps!x x x x
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: A Thrilling Conclusion to the "Voyage" Series
Review: Terry Brooks has written another masterpiece. This book is truly exciting and left me on edge throughout. In this installment, he focuses on the group of adventurers after the destruction of Antrax, the evil magical force from book two. Druid Walker Boh has been left mortally wounded from his encounter with Antrax, and the Ilse Witch was forced to confront her evil doings by the Sword of Shannara. The Witch, who has finally accepted that she is Grianne Ohmsford, Bek's sister, withdraws deep within herself after seeing the vision in the Sword. She is unable to forgive herself for what she had become and completely shut herself off from everyone, including Bek. However, Bek is determined to break through to her and release her from her trance-like state. Meanwhile, the evil Morgawr, a magical creature thousands of years old and the trainer of the Ilse Witch, has commandeered a fleet of airships to seek out the Witch and destroy her. He will stop at nothing until the Witch is either dead or he has sucked the lifeforce from her. There are many adventures throughout as the Morgawr attemts to capture the Witch and as the group tries to escape. The airship battles are told in vivid detail, as well as the various encounters the group comes upon. The book is excellent. I could not put it down. It is loaded with action and adventure on every page and left me wanting more. The ending is a real cliff hanger and sets the stage for the next trilogy, which is due to start next year. I highly recommend this book. It is a fitting conclusion to the "Voyage" trilogy.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed Brooks fan
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.
Rating: 
Summary: The best book in the trilogy.
Review: This is the third and final book of The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy (after Ilse Witch and Antrax). There are only a few survivors in the ruins of Castledown. As some of them are still trying to get out, others go in search of lost pieces of the Jerle Shannara, only to come across more monsters, the bloodthirsty beasts that dwell in the forests and mountains of Parkasia. And not only do the heroes have to find a way to repair the airship in order to cross the Blue Divide and go back home, but the Morgawr has just arrived with a fleet of airships and is attacking them to take possession of the legendary Books of Magic that he believes have been found. Held prisoner on Black Moclips by Cree Bega and his Mwellrets, Bek barely manages to escape with the help of the shapeshifter Truls Rohk, and goes in search of Walker in the ruins of Castledown. When they finally find him in the maze of corridors, the Ilse Witch is beside him, holding the bloodied Sword of Shannara in her hands. What she's experiencing at this moment is the magic of the artefact flowing through her, making her see the Truth, the dreadful horror of all the things she's done under the Morgawr's dominion. So shocked, so ashamed is she of what her life has been for all these years, she hides deep within herself, and falls into a catatonic state. Before leaving, Bek promises the dying Druid to bring her back to the Four Lands and to do everything to protect her, as she has yet another destiny to fulfill. After reading a more cheap sci-fi than fantasy Antrax, I was rather scared and didn't now what to expect of this book. To my relief, Morgawr is in my opinion the best volume of the Jerle Shannara trilogy. Packed with action, and with characters that finally grow in depth, it reminded me of some of the good old Shannara adventures.
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