Genesis of Shannara: Book Three

The Gypsy Morph

by Terry Brooks

Published in 2008

THIS IS A SPOILER FILLED REVIEW

The final book in the trilogy is able to bring all of the characters back together after separating them and telling their separate stories, we get to see them reunite or in some cases join together for the first time. Along the way there are joyful reunions and sad separations that affect and change the Ghosts and the others for the rest of their lives.

The difficult task of this story is to bring all of the storylines together in a meaningful way and keep the timeline flowing. Terry Brooks is able to do this very well and outside of one section of the story that seemed redundant, I felt that they story was well crafted and flowed really well.

It was great to finally see all of the characters come together in the third act and to discuss how they finally ended up together. Many of them had crossed paths previously, but never all together at the same time. I loved seeing Angel Perez and Logan Tom finally meeting up and talking about being a Knight of the Word and how likely they were the last ones. I wish we could’ve seen more of them in action together.

One of the things that I felt was missing from the previous stories, in this trilogy and the previous one, was the lack of relationships and romance. In this book we get four relationships that help balance out the stark real world situations. With the deaths of some of the Ghosts, the ruthless killings of the Klee, the failure of the Elven King, and the overall hopelessness of the world our heroes live in; we can enjoy the journey of these characters we have grown to love, as they themselves fall in love and find personal happiness amongst the terror of their journey.

As a long time reader of the Shannara series, my first introduction was Sword of Shannara a couple of years after it was published, I had read about the Great Wars and how devastating it was to the world. Eventually it was revealed that Shannara is actually a post apocalyptic story set on Earth many hundreds of years in the future. In this trilogy we get to see the beginnings of the Great Wars and how it affected humanity.

I’m curiously looking forward to read how these characters and situations all fit together into the overall main story of The Shannara Saga. I can’t wait to start the next one!

Kirisin, Simralin, and Angel Perez

At the end of the last book, Elves of Cintra, Angel Perez is wounded and almost dead from her encounter with the demon, Delloreen. But she is able to drag herself towards the cave where Kirisin and Simralin are. Kirisin finds her and brings her inside the care where he and his sister care for her to bring her back from the edge of death. They head back the way they came, but with the Loden in their possession and their mission accomplished. They are able to make their way back to the Elven tracker, Larkin Quill, and they leave Angel with him to finish recovering and to get her strength back as Kirisin and Simralin need to hurry back to their home, Arborlon. They take a hot air balloon back to Arborlon, but are alerted to the demon army camped outside the city waiting to attack. With Simralin’s tracking skills, they are able to sneak back into the city and gain an audience with the King. The King is still angry at them for the death of his daughter, and Kirisin’s friend, Erisha. He believes that Kirisin and his group killed Erisha and then fled the city because they were guilty. Kirisin and Simralin try to convince their uncle, the King, that it wasn’t them and that there was a demon, disguised as old Culph, in their midst. During this audience, Tragen, another Elven tracker and Simralin’s close friend, is revealed to be another demon in disguise as he attacks the King and his Council and is able to kill most of them. The King and the siblings survive and the King realizes that their story is true and he commits to help them. They will put the Ellcrys and Arborlon into the Loden and escape to find a safe and better place to live.

Kirisin visits the Ellcrys once again and the Ellcrys again speaks with him and tells him he must use the Loden to take her and the Elves to safety.

Logan Tom

In the last book, The Elves of Cintra, Logan Tom collapsed and was comatose due to the injuries and poison from his encounter with the rogue Knight of the Word, Krilka Koos. Hawk, Tessa, and Cheney arrive in time for Hawk to use his magic to bring him back from the brink of death. While he is recovering, Logan is visited by The Lady in a dream and she tells him that he must leave the Ghosts and find the Elves to help them out as they are in danger. She will send a guide for him to follow. Logan wakes up and tells the Ghosts he must leave and he will meet them back with Helen Rice and the others at the Columbia River.

Logan heads off on his own and notices an owl, named Trim, that is acting peculiarly, and Logan realizes that this is his guide. Logan follows the guide and is lead to a home that has a heavy duty transport that he can use. He takes off through the wilderness and ends up making his way to the Elven city of Arborlon. He meets up with Simralin Belloruus and there is an instant attraction between them.

Logan and Simralin go to the city and along the way Simralin tells Logan what she and her brother have been doing and how they found the Elfstones and the Loden and returned to Arborlon to find the demons outside the city and ready to attack. Logan in turn tells his story of how he was led there by The Lady and of the Ghosts and Hawk. Logan is brought into the city and meets Kirisin and is fillied in on the plan.

Later that day, Kirisin and the Elves are preparing to use the Loden and have a plan of escape. The King and his guard, along with other armed Elves will protect Kirisin and help him escape. Logan and SImralin will help him to escape as well by making their way to the hot air balloon and escaping further into the wilderness. Using the magic of the Loden, Kirisin drew “the forest, the city, it’s people and animals, the Ellcrys, and her gardens”, all of it, into the Loden leaving a huge crater where all of this had been situated. Immediately the demons attack and Kirisin, Logan, Simralin, and some others escape into the surrounding wilderness. The King and his Guard were eventually killed as they held off the main force of the demon army to allow them to escape. Kirisin’s group escapes to Logan’s vehicle instead as the way to the balloon was blocked and Trim is able to help lead them to the vehicle. SImralin elects to stay behind to help the King and the other Elves. Kirisin gave the Elfstones to her to help protect her, and then she leaves to go help the others while Logan and Kirisin, and a few other Elves that could fit in the vehicle, take off to safety.

Logan and Kirisin talk as they are driving away. They spend time talking about the magic and how they access it and use it. They both realize there are some similarities with the magic. Suddenly the engine dies and while Logan is trying to fix it, they are attacked by some flying demons. Kirisin is taken by them, but is able to throw the Loden away before he gets too high. The Loden is later picked up by one of the Elves, Praxia, in the group. Logan tells them that he will find Kirisin while the rest of the Elves, along with Praxia and the Loden must continue on and meet up with the children at Helen Rice’s camp.

A New and Powerful Demon

A new, powerful demon has been released by Findo Gask to track down the heroes, he is known as the Klee. The Klee is able to sense and track down magic. The Klee is tracking the Elfstones and tracks the scent of the Elfstones to Larkin Quill’s hideout and kills Larkin, but before it attacks Angel Perez, the Klee realizes the Elfstones have moved on and are no longer there. The Klee leaves Angel unharmed and keeps moving to search for a different magic that it senses. Angel leaves the hideout and sets off to find the children and Helen Rice’s group just aways up the Columbia River from where she is at.

The Ghosts

After being reunited once again and after Logan Tom leaves them, the Ghosts head out to reunite with Helen Rice’s group as well. On the way, one night Tessa tells Hawk that she is indeed pregnant with his child. Hawk is excited about this news and Sparrow overheard the conversation and then went and told the rest of the group. The group is happy for the couple and they congratulate them.

Also, during their journey, Panther and Cat start talking more and more and form a connection. The group ends up running into a militia and so they try to sneak around them through a heavy fog, but are discovered. The group runs and is separated in their haste. During this chaos, Hawk runs in to the Klee and ends up backing into a tree and telling himself that he can’t let the monster touch him. At that moment, the Klee is confused, looks around, and then leaves. It turns out that Hawk was able to use his magic to disappear or blend in with his surroundings. A couple of his friends come looking for him and they are only 20 feet away from him and they couldn’t seek him until he let go of the tree. They end up meeting up with the rest of the group and continue on in their journey.

Kirisin Meets Findo Gask

The flying demons, the Skrails, take Kirisin to a camp where another demon is. This demon, Calyx - a minder, questions Kirisin as to where the Elfstones are. Kirisin tells him that he doesn’t have them. The minder ends up summoning Findo Gask’s presence through the campfire, as the flames take his form and Gask is able to communicate with Kirisin and ask him about the Elfstones and the Loden. Kirisin answers truthfully that he doesn’t have them. Gask is angry and tells Calyx that he will come to them personally to question the boy and then the communication is dropped. Kirisin is left alone while they wait for Gask to come.

Logan Tom has tracked Kirisin with the help of Trim once again. Logan locates the camp and goes feral and does what he hasn’t done since his time with Michael - kill their enemies because they deserved it. He leaves behind his magic and takes his knives. Logan sneaks into the camp, kills all of the demons there and rescues Kirisin. Kirisin tells Logan about his encounter with Gask and Logan knows that Gask will soon come and then chase them down until he captures them.

They continue their conversation about using magic and that to use the magic you have to accept the risk and the danger of using it. That there is a dark side of the magic that you have to accept and that it will change a person as they continue to use it. They also talk about Kirisin’s sister, SImralin, and Kirisin realizes that Logan is in love with her. Kirisin tells Logan that he believes that Simralin likes him too.

The Rendezvous Point

Our heroes are all reunited at the camp of Helen Rice and the children at the Columbia River. Angel Perez is alreadyvthere, Hawk and the Ghosts arrive (with the Klee having followed them), and Logan Tom and Kirisin arrive last.

The main characters of the trilogy are finally in the same place at the same time for the first time in the story. Logan, Hawk, Angel, and Kirisin talk about the plan going forward and that the Loden and the other Elves never arrived. Logan and Angel fill the group in on the Elves and the Loden and they need to get them to safety. They talk about packing up and moving the camp west which is where Hawk tells them they must go for safety. The demon army is coming and they need to move. They talk about the demon, the Klee, that is outside the camp and kidnapping and killing the children. One of the Ghosts, Chalk, has disappeared and was killed by the Klee.

Angel and Logan, the two Knights of the Word, leave the camp in Logan’s armored vehicle and go searching for Praxia and the Elves who have the Loden. As they are driving, Logan and Angel swap stories of how they became a Knight of the Word. They are again helped by Trim who leads them to the Elven party and the Loden. They find the Elves awhile later and see that they had been attacked by a group of men and Praxia was the only one left alive but was badly wounded and unconscious. She wakes up to give the Loden to Logan and then she dies. They head back to the main group and give the Loden back to Kirisin.

The camp has begun moving east with a small force staying behind at the bridge to make a stand there. During this time of preparation, Catalya and Rabbit find the remains of the children that the Klee had killed. Logan Tom has stayed behind to coordinate the defense when the demon army catches up to them. They have booby trapped the bridge and when the demon army attacks they are able to take out hundreds and hundreds of demons and once-men. But ultimately, there are too many of them and they have to blow up the bridge. When they try to detonate it though, the explosives are unresponsive. One of the Ghosts, Fixit, knows what’s wrong and goes to the bridge to fix it and is able to get the explosives working again. However, Fixit is unable to get off the bridge in time before it blows up killing him.

The main group is still heading east and are being joined by others that are not human, Lizards, Spiders, and other humans that have mutated are finding their way with this big group. They don’t know where they are going, only Hawk has a general idea and he is operating on faith. Faith that when he gets there they will know that they are at their location.

Logan has sent the group of bridge defenders on to meet up with the main group, while he has stayed behind to locate the remains of the children the Klee had killed in order to hopefully kill the Klee himself. Once there he sees the tracks of the Klee and that they have headed off in the direction that the main group has gone and is following them. As he is getting ready to leave he notices a hot air balloon in the sky and thinks that it may be Simralin, and it is! Logan and Simralin are reunited and they hold each other and tell each other that they missed the other. Simralin tells her story of how she and others fought the demons but were eventually overwhelmed and she alone escaped. Simralin still has the Elfstones with her. They head off in Logan’s vehicle to meet up with the main group happy to be have found each other once again.

The Final Confrontation

Back at the main caravan group, the bridge defenders caught up with the main group but also the Klee has caught up to them as well. The Klee is trying to lure Hawk away from the group. The Klee succeeds by tricking Tessa to leave the camp and then tricking Hawk into leaving the camp. However, Candle sees him walk off, and thinks that this is strange. Her senses warn her that something is wrong and she goes to tell the others that something is wrong and that Hawk is in danger. Hawk is wandering and finds Tessa. Tessa had been tricked by the Klee to follow Hawk and then Hawk in turn followed Tessa. They are both isolated from the camp and Hawk knows they are in danger.

The Klee reveals himself and advances on Hawk and Tessa. However, Cheney the dog, Panther, Sparrow, and Angel show up to help Hawk and attack the Klee. With a coordinated effort and with guns and magic, they are able to defeat the Klee and kill him.

Cat has decided to leave the group as she feels that she can’t be a part of them, and her transformation into a Lizard has started up again. She tells Panther that she will be leaving and will head north. After she leaves, Panther realizes he cares for her and that he can’t be without her and leaves to track her down to talk her into coming back.

The caravan comes to a town with a dam holding back a reservoir and they take a break. Hawk is searching for something along the banks of the reservoir. Kirisin and Angel go to the dam and look at the machinery housings and look at the turbines and consoles that operated the dam. They have long since stopped working. They had back to the group and Helen tells them that their scouts just came back saying the demon army is only ten miles behind them.

The caravan starts to cross the dam when the demon army attacks. They had hidden explosives to detonate when the demon army got close enough and those explosives took out a bunch of them. Angel Perez was on the front lines and she gets hit with an arrow and is wounded. She then sees Hawk out in front of the army kneeling down and placing his hands on the ground. Angel uses her staff’s magic to protect him from the attacking army. All of sudden an earthquake shakes the earth causing fissures and cracks that spread out to the demon army and swallows them whole. It is Hawk using his magic to defeat the army.

Findo Gask is watching from behind his army and sees them defeated and he uses the Skrails to carry him to Hawk and Angel. Hawk is unconscious due to the amount of magical effort he expended for the earthquake. Gask tries to convince Angel to leave so that he can have Hawk to himself and he will let her leave with all of the others. Angel declines and challenges him even though she is weak and will lose a one on one duel. Just as Gask is about to strike her down with his magic, a powerful magical blast takes him from behind. Logan Tom, who with Simralin, had been behind the demon army the whole time, has caught up to them and Logan jumps in to help Angel protect Hawk. Logan is finally having his promised show down with the demon that killed his family all of those years ago. Gask is able to escape and he counterattacks Logan sending him to the ground. Gask recognizes Logan from the compound when he killed his family, and this enrages Logan who again attacks Gask with his magic. Gask is still stronger than him and Gask’s counter is weakening Logan to the point that he will lose. Just then, another magical blast takes Gask from behind, this time it is a blue magic. Simralin has joined the fight with the Elfstones! The magic from the Elfstones blast stops Gask from killing Logan, and as he turns to focus his attention on SImralin, Logan jams his staff into Gask’s back and sends a magical burst directly into Gask. WIth the magic of the Elfstones and the magic of the Knight of the Word’s staff, Gask is defeated as he explodes into flames and smoke and ash. The rest of the demon army flees the scene and is no longer interested in the caravan.

Simralin, Logan, Angel, and Hawk are alright and able to recover as some of the group has come back to help them.

The Trek East

The caravan is finally safe and they head east along a highway again looking for that final resting place to settle and be safe from the rest of the world. They travel for weeks, passing through Spokane, Washington and then further east along a major highway. As they journey on, more and more people end up joining them as they travel to their unknown destination.

Meanwhile, further north, Panther catches up to Cat and tries to convince her to come back with him. They talk and eventually Panther realizes he wants to be with Cat no matter where she is. Panther decides to leave the Ghosts and stay with Cat. Their plan is to head as far north as they can to be safe and build a new life.

Back to the main caravan, after weeks of travel, they arrive at “a high pass in the mountains” that “looked out over a broad valley dotted with lakes and trees that were still fresh and green to a horizon clustered with even bigger mountains that stretched away for as far as they could see”. Some modern day readers have suggested that this is in Montana somewhere as the description matches a few places in that state.

Once they arrive into the valley that they will call home, the group begins to separate and claim various parts that they will settle. The Elves claim a forested bluff and Kirisin uses his magic and the magic of the Loden to release the City of Arborlon, the Elves, and The Ellcrys back into the world. Logan chooses to stay with the Elves and Simralin. Angel decides to stay with the Ghosts and the other humans.

Hawk has one final task to complete. With a heavy heart he leaves behind Tessa and his unborn son and heads up to the pass that leads into the valley. Using his magic and the magic buried deep within the earth, Hawk creates a protective dome around and over the valley. As a result Hawk is swallowed by this protective barrier and becomes one with the magic.

The End

In the mountains of Colorado, a quarter mile underground, a man named Willis has been trapped in this nuclear missile command center called Deep Rock, for who knows how long. His companions have died some time ago but since he is going crazy from isolation, Willis still talks to them. Driven to madness, Willis decides to launch the remaining nuclear missiles and just end it for himself and others.

As a result of the protective magical barrier the Valley is spared from this nuclear holocaust that affects the rest of the world. Protected by the wild magic of the Gypsy Morph, the inhabitants of the Valley and their descendants are able to live safely for centuries. At some undetermined time (at this point in the story) all of the magic has been used up and all that is left is Hawk, a man of normal “flesh and blood and bone”. Hawk wants to return home and return to life, so he walks out of the mists into the Valley alive and well.

In Conclusion

I enjoyed this trilogy of the Genesis of Shannara, it was the first time that I read it and was engaged for the whole story and read it quickly. The introduction of the Elves was a welcome surprise for me and was glad to see them introduced in a clever way.

It was great to see more than one Knight of the Word at one time and to have their presence expanded upon in this trilogy. Also with the introduction of the Knight gone bad, it gave a depth to the role that made the Knights more vulnerable and interesting. Plus it was great to see our two Knights have a happy ending and end up being a part of a group and belonging after all of their struggles and sacrifice made on behalf of The Word, something that we didn’t get with John Ross and his ending.

I give this book a 4.5 out of 5 and the re-readibility factor should be high. For the trilogy I give it a 4 out of 5 and would be looking forward to re-reading this trilogy if I did another Shannara Series re-read in the future.

Next up is book one of The Legends of Shannara duology, Bearers of the Black Staff!