‘The Gypsy Morph’ – Terry Brooks (Del Rey/Orbit)

Terry Brooks’ ‘Genesis of Shannara’ series has been one of my surprise finds since starting up the blog. As I’ve mentioned before, I could never get into the ‘Sword of Shannara’ series but enjoyed ‘The Word and the Void’ books. For me the ‘Genesis of Shannara’ books combined the best bits of the other two series, wrapping it all up in a story that I couldn’t help but follow and want more of. For someone who had real issues with ‘Sword of Shannara’ I was really excited when my copy of ‘The Gypsy Morph’ came through the door, at last I was going to find out how it all ended.
It was then that I realised I already knew how the trilogy was going to end. ‘The Gypsy Morph’ is a very entertaining read but that realisation killed it for me…

‘The Gypsy Morph’ isn’t going to hit the shelves for another month so I don’t want to give away too much about the plot and what happens. Suffice it to say that ‘The Gypsy Morph’ very neatly wraps up everything that has been going on in the previous two books. This is actually part of the problem that I had with it but more on that later… The two remaining Knights of the Word must protect the Elf Kirisin and Hawk who carries the magic of the Gypsy Morph. Both children are vital to the continued existence of their races but are only just beginning to learn to control their powers let alone face up to the responsibilities that come with them. While refugees flee towards a vague promise of safety, the demon Findo Gask prepares to deal them all a mortal blow…

Before I have my little rant I just want to say that I did enjoy reading ‘The Gypsy Morph’ as it had almost all the elements that made ‘Armageddon’s Children’ and ‘The Elves of Cintra’ books that really drew me into what was going on. As far as I’m concerned, Terry Brooks can write a story that speeds along with set pieces and cliffhangers in all the right places and ‘The Gypsy Morph’ is no exception to this rule. There are some pretty tense ‘face offs’ with demons (I thought the Klee was pretty cool) and Simralin’s recollection of the Home Guard’s stand against the ‘once men’ was both epic and poignant at the same time. Without going into two much detail there are particular cliffhangers that had me wanting to flick through subsequent pages to see what happened…

If this isn’t good enough for you then Brooks hangs it all on a pretty grim, yet compelling, post apocalyptic landscape. He also takes real time and effort to get into the heads of the people who live there (and lizard people as well in one particularly sad scene), bouncing the two off each other so both elements resonate with emotion.

I found ‘The Gypsy Morph’ to be a mostly captivating read, especially with certain characters that I had invested a lot in and wanted to see how their stories ended. So where was the problem? Well…
The first two books, in the trilogy, introduce the main characters and the dangers that they face. With cliffhanger endings things got really interesting and I genuinely couldn’t tell what would happen next which made me eager for the next book. While the characters face similar danger in ‘The Gypsy Morph’ I felt that the urgency was lessened significantly by the fact that we know how the story ultimately turns out (hint: look at all the Shannara books on the shelves). While it was just about the characters it worked really well for me but when it became about the fate of Shannara it suddenly became “what fate? We know how this one has to end.” I personally felt that the certainty surrounding the ending lessened the impact of certain characters dying, leaving etc… I also found it a little too convenient that the refugees kept managing to find supplies just as they were starting to starve. Considering the whole post apocalyptic thing it felt like there was an awful lot of food and equipment just left lying around…

If you’re a ‘Shannara’ fan then I think you’re going to love the continuity that this trilogy serves you with. You’ll probably also notice a lot of in-jokes and recognise a lot of names that I missed (having not read an awful lot of Terry Brooks) which I think would add to anyone’s enjoyment of an already decent book.
I didn’t have this advantage though and was left with a story that ultimately felt like it was the victim of where it fell in the timeline. A very good read but one that felt like it could have been so much more.

Seven out of Ten