Straken
Terry Brooks
Del Rey, Sept 2005, $26.96, 384 pp.
ISBN 0345451120

Grianne Ohmsford, the Ard Rhys of the Third Druid Order, was never fully trusted because of the harm she did to others as the llse witch. Certain druids led by Shadea with the aid of the Prime Minister of the Federation trapped her in The Forbidden, a dark, dangerous evil place where the dark beings of Faerie were sent eons ago. Shadea is now the new Ard Rhys and rules through fear and terror making the Druid keep of Paranor a very unpleasant place to live and learn the craft

What Shadea doesn't know is that a demon sorcerer, Tael Riverine, in the Forbidding influenced Shadea because when one is sent to that evil place, a being is allowed into the real world. The shapeshifting demon is influencing events in the real world so that the wall of the Forbidding will come down allowing the evil creatures penned up inside to enter the Druid realm and turn it into another Forbidding. Grianne's nephew knows he must bring his beloved aunt home from the Forbidden, but has no idea how to find the demon.

STRAKEN, the last book in the latest Shannara trilogy is a fantastic, compelling and thoroughly enjoyable sword & sorcery book. One of Terry Brooks greatest gifts as an author is to create characters that are realistic and believable in settings that enable the audience to suspend reality. Grianne is his greatest creation, a character who demonstrates that redemption is always possible if one wants it enough.

Harriet Klausner