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| The Elves of Cintra (Genesis of Shannara) | 
 enlarge | Author: Terry Brooks
Publisher: Del Rey
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  55 reviews
Sales Rank: 3957
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 464
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 0345484134
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780345484130
ASIN: 0345484134
Publication Date: July 29, 2008
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Product Description
With his groundbreaking New York Times bestseller The Sword of Shannara and its acclaimed sequels, Terry Brooks brought a new audience to epic fantasy. Then he gave the genre a darkly compelling contemporary twist in his trilogy of the Word and the Void. Last year, in Armageddon’s Children, Brooks undertook the stunning chronicle that united two unique worlds. Now that story of clashing forces of darkness and light, of Shannara’s beginnings and the human race’s possible end, marches forward into an unforgettable second volume full of mystery, magic, and momentous events.
Across the ruined landscape that is America–hopelessly poisoned, plague-ridden, burned, and besieged by demon armies bent on exterminating all mortal life–two pilgrims have been summoned to serve the embattled cause of good. Logan Tom has journeyed to desolate Seattle to protect a ragged band of street urchins and the being known as “the gypsy morph,” who is both mortal and magical, and destined to save mankind unless he is destroyed. Likewise, Angel Perez has her own quest, one that will take her from the wreckage of Los Angeles to a distant, secret place untouched by the horrors of the nationwide blight–a place where the race of Elves has dwelled since before man existed. But close behind these lone Knights of the Word swarm the ravening forces of the Void.
As the menacing thunder of war drums heralds the arrival of the demons and their brutal minions in Seattle, the young survivors who call themselves the Ghosts are forced to brave the dangerous world of gangs, mutants, and worse to escape the invasion. And Logan Tom must infiltrate a refugee compound to rescue Hawk, the leader of the street urchins, who has yet to learn the truth about who and what he is. Meanwhile, Angel Perez has joined an equally urgent mission: to find the Ellcrys, a fabled talisman crucial to protecting the Elven realm against an influx of unspeakable evil from the dread dimension known as the Forbidding. But Angel and her Elf allies must beware–for a demon spy, with a monstrous creature at its command, walks among them.
As the legions of darkness draw the noose tighter, and the time of confrontation draws near, those chosen to defend the soul of the world must draw their battle lines and prepare to fight with, and for, their lives. If they fail, humanity falls.
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 50 more reviews...
 Where is the cadence, the rhythm, the art? August 30, 2007
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
Warning: If you are a Brooks sycophant this review is going to cause your Elf Stones to glow blue, or your Wishsong to rise in your throat.
This thing tastes like a dish with expired ingredients.
What happened to the journey? This book (series) moves at breakneck speed, in fits and starts, to a predictable end.
What happened to dialogue? Is character development through interaction and dialogue "old school"?
Where is the cadence, the rhythm, the muse? Too many "scene changes", which brings to question the editing?
How many times can a character pull knees to chest (the universal posture of an impending monologue) and tell us what the author couldn't show us.
Where is the art? Van Gogh's "Sower with Setting Sun" is not the figure in field beneath a sun. It is the artist moving us intellectually and emotionally through the execution, choice, and application of the pigment; a unique vision masterfully expressed - the art.
Perhaps, if someone could effectively wield the seeking stones we could find answers to these questions before the finale.
I think I know what has happened here. Terry has transitioned from a literary artist to a business man, and in business there is always an end game. The end game here is a movie deal. And that clarifies it form me. This is not a book; it is a screen play on steroids. This series is devoid of all the artistic nuisances of literature, and streamlined for the screen.
Compare this book to "Running with the Demon"; the amount and quality of the dialogue, the extended development and interaction of the characters, a fulcrum (Nest Freemark), and the effective blending of reality with the "otherness". It works there. But not here.
This whole Elf and Faerie thing is juxtaposed out of context, compare the original Shannara (1977). To the point, an impressionist (e.g. Monet) painting flowers in the context of an emerging Industrial Age has a different meaning/impact on the psyche than an artist executing that same painting today, at the dawn of the Cyber Age. The time is past, the world moves on. It is almost ironic that this is a prequel to a piece of literature that worked 30 years ago.
I am thinking the whole elf and faerie thing has burned through; mating them with these new characters of the new (or is it old) apocalypse in a new (or is it old) socio-politically charged landscape is by turns aggressive and absurd.
Importantly, Terry in these books fails to show the other side of the story (mutants / demons) and treats them merely as archetypes. The energy in contemporary thought explores the lack of boundaries between good and evil; that it is not so black and white.
Perhaps if he would have left out the whole Shannara thing, and worked on the new characters, while at the same time exploring with objectivity and humanity the Void and its characters, he would have had a more compelling and relevant story.
Want some really good heady reading, pick up Terry Pratchett.
He does this whole fantasy genre as satire in his Discworld series. Brilliant man - big on anthropomorphic personifications like DEATH (no kidding, DEATH TALKS IN CAPITAL LETTERS LIKE THIS). Pratchett delivers gems like:
Give a man fire and you keep him warm for a day, Light a man on fire and you keep him warm for the rest of his life.
 Bridge the gap September 28, 2007
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
As is the case with so many titles that are the middle stretch in a trilogy, this book suffers from being highly anticipated with a sense of trepidation at the fact that even before reading it you already have a good sense of the outcome, at least in broad general terms. An author who writes knowing, essentially in advance, that they are producing a trilogy must accept that certain plot points cannot be resolved by the end of book two though some others must be drawn further out.
With that said, I am not diminishing this book at all. Terry Brooks does a solid job in carrying the story that bridges the gap between his trilogy about the Word and the Void and the huge sweeping epic which is the Shannara realm. We get to see the story started with Armageddon's Children carried forward, with a great deal more involvement from the elves. As a reader of this entire mythology, the links start to take shape with this book--how we get from the world in which we human beings live in to the world that is the basis for the many Shannara stories that Brooks has told us over the past thirty years.
But alas, it is the middle book. Sometimes the middle story is the best but usually it just does not have the same magic as the beginning or the end.
I still hesitate in trying to imagine the breadth that the final book will have to have to really meld the two different universes together. As I mentioned in my review of the first book, the questions that come to mind have to do with those creatures that have not shown their faces yet...in partcular dwarves, trolls, druids...etc. Now I am sure that it will all be sorted out (and perhaps Terry has in mind yet another trilogy that will slide in between the first Shannara books and this set to give us even further detail) but I hope that the last book is not crammed to the rafters with a lot of unsubtle "glue" to bind it all together. Another way of putting that would be this: he completes the story of Hawk, Kirisin, Angel, Logan, and all the others, and then spends thirty pages spilling out the next one hundred years...how the dwarves boil up from the earth, how new magic was formed, etc. in such a way that it is just crammed in there. I have faith that Terry Brooks will avoid something like that, but you never know.
The trilogy still has, in my mind, a lot of promise, but I also have high expectations for the third book and hope that it will do justice to the idea of bringing these two different worlds together as one. Until I have the chance to read that book in another year I honestly cannot judge this series effectively. As it stands, as a single novel, this book is solid. It moves the story along, keeps you interested in the characters, and you can start to see how everything is going to start coming together in the end.
I liked the book, despite the "middle" book issues that I already mentioned. It has certainly whetted my apetite for the final chapter in this trilogy.
 Great Middle Book August 31, 2007
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
So many middle books lag -- just look at A FEAST FOR CROWS by George RR Martin -- but this one doesn't! It goes somewhere with likable characters that develop with each page turned.
The Elves of Cintra takes the characters from Armageddon's Children -- characters who are wholly unique -- and pushes them along toward the inevitable conclusion to come in the third and final book of the series. But unlike some author's middle books, this book has a climax all its own for most of its characters. No cliffhangers here, folks! I was satisfied with how the story unfolded and finished up.
The characters are fantastic and despite what one of the other reviewers said are new and invigorating. There has been no character like Angel Perez in Terry Brooks's other stories -- a hispanic woman who speaks in her native tongue sometimes and has been given great power. Angel must overcome her own doubts, doubts that have plagued her since the beginning in this deteriorated world, and she grows over this middle volume to a great final confrontation with evil.
Logan Tom is another example of a new character for Terry Brooks. He is no John Ross, no Allanon, no Balinor. He is a man destroyed from losing his family and conflicted with the new family he has been given despite not being able to follow the command of the Word. Revenge drives him. This is unlike anything Brooks has tackled before and allows him to talk about responsibility in dark times -- times much like we are living in now.
Then you have the street kids, the Ghosts. All of them are unique, all of them have never been in a Shannara book or Word/Void book. Terry spends time with each of them as they travel from ruined Seattle southward, and as this trilogy unfolds all of them will have their individual stories told.
The only drawback I could see in The Elves of Cintra is the absence of Hawk. Hawk is maybe only in the book for three chapters. He will undoubtedly be in the third book a great deal -- this middle book is the story of Angel Perez and the Elves for the most aprt -- but I felt his absence. Time will tell how his story unfolds and completes.
There were also real moments in this book when I had to reread the passage because I couldn't believe what Terry had done! No one is safe in Terry Brooks's work, and he really surprised me at times with the avenue he took the story. So be prepared for that!
Anyone who loves the Word/Void books should read this series. Anyone who loves the Shannara Elves should read this series. I look forward to reading the third book in this series!
Great sequel, great character development, great story! January 11, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Following in the footsteps of Armageddon's Children, the first book in the Genesis of Shannara series, The Elves of Cintra (2007) seamlessly advances the major plotlines from before, and brings about new truths, excitement and character history to an already great story.
In the previous book, the reader is left with a literal cliff-hanger. Logan Tom has found Hawk, the leader of the Ghosts and also the powerful gypsy morph, only to realize that Hawk is to be executed by being tossed from a compound's high-level wall. Just as Logan gained entry to the complex, Hawk and Tessa were being tossed to their death from high above.
Logan Tom realizes this too late, but during a frenzy at the compound he learns that when Hawk and Tessa are thrown from the compound wall, a great burst of light emerged, whisking them away into nothingness. After learning of this, Logan Tom seeks to regroup with the Ghosts sans-Hawk, and protect them/travel with them towards a safer destination. While doing so, he looks upon the harbor and realizes that hundres, if not thousands of ships approach to take on the compound. He knows that the ships carry once-men and demons, and it's time to leave.
Meanwhile, Panther flees the compound without Logan Tom, seeking to reunite with the rest of the Ghosts. He meets up with Sparrow at Pioneer Square only to be swarmed by croaks, feeders, and all sorts of other madness. It appears that the oncoming attack at the compound has all in the area in complete chaos. They finally escape to meet up with Logan Tom and the rest of the Ghosts.
Later, the Ghosts and Logan Tom encounter incredible battles, death, freaks, a long lost Knight of the Word, and a group of mutant kids. Throughout these ordeals, the reader is privy to further life history from each one of the Ghosts. Where they are from, what brought them to the Ghosts, and a deeper understanding of their character.
As this is occuring, the other Knight of the Word, Angel Perez, is travelling with the tatterdemalion, Ailie, towards the elven domain. As they are traveling, however, they are aware that the demon Delloreen is steadfast in pursuit, and determined to kill them.
Once at the elven domain, Angel and Ailie meet up with Kirisin and his older sister, Simralin, who is an elven tracker. The group minus-Kirisin meet with the king and the High Council to find out that not only will the council not assist them in saving the Elcryss, but there is also trouble amiss at the High Council; there is an intruder of sorts.
Despite the king's wishes, the group alongside the king's daughter Erisha, decide to learn about the elfstones and the Loden through the elven histories, and travel to the elven cemetary, Ashenell, to uncover more facts about the powers with which they are dealing. While there, the group faces terrible tragedy, incredible discoveries, and an understanding about the next step in their quest.
Last but not least, the reader finally learns of Hawk's powers, responsibilities, and goals as the encounter with the King of the Silver River fills in the details of the past as well as Hawk's destiny.
The Elves of Cintra (2007) ends with Angel Perez and her group discovering the Loden and its powers while dealing with the demons; Logan Tom and the Ghosts searching for Hawk; and Hawk, Tessa, and Cheney, along with Helen Rice and the rescued compound children with whom Hawk was joined making their way towards the Ghosts.
It's a highly enjoyable read that easily ties the loose-ends together, providing new excitement and new character development, and leading easily to the finale of the series. Like Armaggedon's Children, I plan on reading The Elves of Cintra at least one more time before the third volume of this series is released. I highly recommend this book.
Good Book Has Some Flaws September 17, 2007
6 out of 13 found this review helpful
I love Terry Brooks. I've loved him since I cracked open The Sword of Shannara. But lately the man has fallen behind in his ways to amaze me. This book the second book after Armageddon's Children is a luke-warm follow up to its predecessor. At times it just plays like a bridge between the first book and the climax.
Logan Tom has found the gypsy morph of Nest Freemark's time but now the boy Hawk has disappeared. Step in the King of the Silver River, who has been in almost every Shannara novel and frankly I'm tired of the man. No offense Terry. Anyway, Hawk learns of his mission and then is sent back. But we don't pick up that story thread until 200 pages into the book. The rest of the plot is the Ghosts traveling south to meet up with Hawk. Many pitfalls happen along the way (my personal favorite is the Senator) but it has a mostly happy outcome.
Angel Perez has trouble of her own. She must convince the elves that they are in danger, elves that do not trust humans. Kirisen Belloruus with blue elfstones in hand goes with Angel and his sister to find the mysterious Loden elfstone. But a demons are tracking them. Who the demon is, is a mystery worth savoring. Flaws in this plotline are that we have already explored the blue elfstones' and the Loden's capibilities. I would have liked to have seen some different ones.
In closing: there is a glimpse of the future with the demon that Findo Gask summons and a question of what will Hawk actually do? All and all it is a good and fast-paced read. And I still love Terry Brooks.
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