Agent Palmer

Straken is the final book in the High Druid of Shannara trilogy, concluding the events of Jarka Ruus and Tanequil. As the third book in a trilogy, this harkens back to The Wishsong of Shannara, the last book in The Sword of Shannara trilogy. There are various groups of characters meeting and leaving, all while a war is raging and other battles are waged for the betterment of all in a good-versus-evil trope.

Writer and Director Richard Linklater’s new film is something unique. In the vein of some of his earlier works, the setting is a very important character. For Apollo 10 ½, however, history is also a parallel character.

Tanequil is the middle book of the High Druid of Shannara trilogy, and as such it does what middle books do in advancing the story and introducing a few new characters to set up for the end of the trilogy. And it’s great at that.

Remember way back in the fall of 2020 when my review of Nophek Gloss by Essa Hansen proclaimed that it was the start of a trilogy that you’d want to get your hands on? The sequel and middle book of that trilogy Azura Ghost keeps that promise and doubles down with fury and vengeance, love and compassion, and with a book that really does put the science back into science fiction.

In The Four Lands, twenty years have passed since the events of The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy. A Third Druid Council is rife with politicking, allies and enemies are setting plots in motion and the politics outside of Paranor are no less intense.