I finished a book in one day. Nice. My previous record one was one day and one morning for the book just before this. I attribute it to my new found freedom wahhahaha.
That aside, something occured to me when I was reading this book today. The entire shannara series is pretty much the same heh:
(a) innocent person(s) called to destiny that they never knew
(b) some imbahax0r monstrosity hunting the said person(s) down, stalks the person throughout the book
(c) imbahax0r monstrosity is very good and finding where the said person is, said person(s) says something along the lines of 'oh my goodness how did he find me its impossible!'
(d) overpowered dude who acts as a guardian to the chosen said person(s)
(e) imbahax0r monstrosity tries to kill said person(s) two times, said person(s) runs away and kills the monstrosity on the third meeting, using some awesome power that is acquired, and most probably cheated
(f) said person(s) was looking for mysterious artifact(s)
(g) some not very important person(s) who is/are rather closer to said person sacrifices and dies
(h) senseless anticlimatic sequence involving the mysterious King of the Silver River intervention, saves someone's butt just when they're about to die
(i) some betrayer somewhere who sells out the rest of the population and probably got counter betrayed by imbahax0r monstrosity eventually
(j) somehow in the madness, exactly one couple will emerge and they live happily ever after
Suddenly makes the series less interesting heh. I still like the way the images are painted though, and the battle sequences, despite the fact that I know when they're coming heh.
Its funny though, this book deviates a little from that convention, precisely when it occurs to me such a convention exists. For one, imbahax0r monstrosity did no stalking this time but was a camper. And there was no happily ever after because half a couple died. For the first time, they killed off a main character who wasn't a guardian. That just made me a little annoyed, especially the anticlimactic way in which it happened.
All in all, I've come to realise that the plot isnt that great when you're on your twenty fifth book in the series. I'd still follow it though, in part because having read part twenty five makes me obliged to read part twenty six and so on, and in part because I still have fun with the imaginations because the battles do change somewhat, even if some parts of it are predictable.
Regardless, at least for the first time I have a favourite quote from the book.
'The Drouj stood up, towering over him. Tall and lean, he was so dark he was almost black. "Who are you?"'.
I AM THE GREAT WOOHEEWOOOHOOOO!!
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