skygiants

I promise this is the last post I'll make talking about Otherland, but the thing is, after I read all of Otherland, I found out Tad Williams had written a postcanon novella which I had never read and which was published in a collection called Legends II.

So Legends II (and, presumably, Legends I, and Legends III if it exists) is basically just a whole bunch of tie-in novellas from People Who Sold Really Fat Fantasy Novels in the Nineties, each preceded by an earnest three-page summary of the FIVE THOUSAND PAGES OF TEXT you are supposed to have read to really appreciate this story. It is a snapshot of a simpler time. A time when everyone really, earnestly believed that there were only going to be six Song of Ice and Fire books.

...obviously I read the whole book, so I'm just going to go down the list.

( Robin Hobb )

( George R.R. Martin )

( Orson Scott Card )

( Diana Gabaldon )

( Robert Silverberg )

( OH TAD WILLIAMS NO )

( Anne McCaffrey )

( Raymond E. Feist )

( Elizabeth Haydon )

( Neil Gaiman )

( Terry Brooks )

So that was a fun trip down Memory Lane! Ah, fantasy in the nineties. Actually, this book was published in 2004, but it still exudes Essence Of The Nineties. I do count myself lucky that Piers Anthony was not included.

Some reasons why Elf Queen of Shannara was one of my favorites as a kid:

1. It is about a girl! There is one other Shannara book that is about a girl (or at least, there was at the time I was growing up; there may be more now.) She is Headstrong and Overconfident and at the end her brother has to rescue her from going evil. Not so in Elf Queen, where Wren basically tears through the jungle overcoming demons and moral dilemmas all by herself. (Well, the snarky porcupine-cat helps too.)

2. It is also the only Shannara book EVER to pass the Bechdel Test, which I liked even though I did not know what the Bechdel Test was. Wren has important relationships with other ladies! That have nothing to do with dudes! It is sad how excited I get about this, but you must understand that this never happens in Shannara books EVER.

3. It is a freaking creepy book. Props to Terry Brooks, who had me jumpy with tension all through the reading of it - most of the book involves our protagonists traversing through Creepy Jungle and getting attacked by monsters, which you'd think would get old after a while, and admittedly occasionally does, but it is a really, really creepy jungle!

4. The Dark Secret of the origins of the monsters, which is not super-original, but is, nonetheless, very creepy. See above.

5. The snarky porcupine-cat, who is too good for the elves, and knows it.

( More reasons are spoilery! )

Other rereading notes: I felt a little bit like a clairvoyant while reading this, because every time a character was introduced, I would remember nothing about them except whether or not they were going to die, and sometimes how. Turned into a vampire! Eaten by a spider! It was a little creepy. Vague premonitions also made the one Coll chapter much harder to read, because I really like Coll and what already looks like a bad decision on the first read looks TEN TIMES MORE AWFUL as a decision when you have faint memories of doom running through your mind from when you were twelve. Soooo I spent that chapter pretty much trying to telepathically send the message "DON'T DO IT DON'T DO IT DON'T DO IT" to a fictional character. Tragically, it did not work. (It never does.)

Also, for some reason, although Wren was totally my point of identification as a kid (see above re: lady protagonist), these days I still continue to identify with Walker Boh more than anyone. I wish I knew WHY.