Skip to main content

First King of Shannara(Cont.): The Platypus Reads Part CCXXI

Today's post will cover chapters VIII and IX of Terry Brook's First King of Shannara.  Readers who wish to remain spoiler free should not read on.


*Spoily-schtuffs*



Chapter VIII effectively re-launches the narrative as we begin Tay's quest to find the Black Elfstone.  This makes for a clunk in the story machinery that has ramped up with the assault on Paranor and the attempt to recover the Eilt Druin.  Brooks attempts to smooth over this sudden change of pace by letting us get to know Tay a little better.  This chapter also serves as the great reveal of our titular character, Jerle Shannara.  Shannara is a butch "I'm the hero here ladies" so of guy.  Disappointing -except that we know there must be more, because if we've read The Sword of Shannara then we know that at the critical moment this elven beefcake will fail ... and that, that is interesting.

Chapter IX complicates our emerging ensemble and thus attempts to deepen the reader's stake in seeing these characters come through.  We learn that Jerle Shannara has a thing for Tay's sister and that she passed him over for a mere leather merchant.  We also learn pretty quickly that Arborlon is no longer Tay's home after fifteen years with the druids.  Now that Paranor has been sacked and all the druids there slain, that means that Tay doesn't really have a home in the world.  The quest for the Black Elfstone will henceforth be not just a quest for a magic rock but for Tay's place in the world.  Of course, in Brooks' universe that means that there's a strong chance the plucky elf won't make it.  Further fleshing out Tay Trefenwyd is his relationship with Preia.  Poor Tay, the girl he's carried a torch for all these years has a death-crush on his best friend, Jerle.  Preia also presents us with one of Brooks' (how shall we call them?)"strong women."  These feisty femmes are a stock and trade for Brooks since Eretria made her debut in The Elfstones of Shannara.  They always strike me as one-dimensional, but we'll see how Brooks does this time around.  At least she's not a moody teenager.

On the mission end of things, Brooks keeps the narrative surprisingly short.  The king seems more like an old uncle than royalty (Brooks always was too much of a West-Coast American to really write High Fantasy), but Brooks' skill a quick and likable character-sketches keeps things from falling into the ridiculous.  I'm surprised that we don't get a scene with the Elven council, but perhaps it would bog down the narrative at this point and we do really need to get going.

And on that note... so do I.... 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Platypus Reads Part XXVII

Thoughts after reading the "Iliad" to prepare a Greece unit for my students: -Hector is a jerk until he's dead. He even advocates the exposure of Achaean corpses and then has the cheek to turn around and ask Achilles to spare his. He rudely ignores Polydamas' prophecies and fights outside the gate to save his pride knowing full well what it will cost his family and city. After he's dead, he becomes a martyr for the cause. -Agamemnon has several moments of true leadership to balance out his pettiness. In this way, he's a haunting foil to Achilles: the two men are more alike than they want to acknowledge. -We see that Achilles is the better man at the funeral games of Patroclos. His lordliness, tact, and generosity there give us a window into Achilles before his fight with Agamemnon and the death of Patroclos consumed him. -Nestor is a boring, rambling, old man who's better days are far behind him, and yet every Achaean treats him with the upmo...
15 comments
Read more

Seeing Beowulf Through Tolkien: The Platypus Reads Part CXCIX

After spending a few weeks wrestling with Tolkien's interpretation of Beowulf , I found myself sitting down and reading Seamus Heaney's translation of the text during a spare moment.  I came to the place where Beowulf presents Hrothgar with the hilt of the ancient sword that slew Grendel's mother.  Hrothgar looks down at the hilt with its ancient runes and carvings depicting the war between the giants and God and meditates on the fortunes of men.  In a flash of insight, I thought: this is the whole poem! Let me explain.  Tolkien believed that the genuine contribution of the Northern peoples to European culture was the theory of courage.  The Northern heroes, at their best, were men who fought for order against chaos -a battle they knew they were doomed to lose.  If they were true heroes, their souls would join the gods and aid them in the final battle against darkness and its monsters and again go down fighting, spitting in the face of the meaninglessness...
3 comments
Read more

The Platypus and Theological Localism

My wife and I were listening the other day to Dr. Fred Sanders give a paper of California Theological Localism.  It was one of the more technical pieces we've heard from him, and it was fun to stretch our brains a little.  If I understand it right, the main idea of Theological Localism is that place matters and will shape the theology of its inhabitants in certain ways.  This could be seen as determinative, or merely as fodder for apologetic engagement, both of which Sanders rejects as insufficient or problematic.  What exactly is wanted seems to be a theological engagement with place, specifically California, in a way that Sanders and company feel has been neglected.  If that's not clear, the fault is mine as a listener or a writer. Of course, the idea of a theology of place caught my attention and my immediate response was "someone should do this for New England."  New England, after all, is its own peculiar place with, by American standards, a long, va...
6 comments
Read more