Straken

High Druid of Shannara, Book 3

By: Terry Brooks

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer

The High Druid of Shannara trilogy draws to a thrilling close as a young hero nears completion of his trial by fire, a banished ruler fights for her life in a wilderness of dread, and forces of darkness and light square off in a battle unto death for the right to absolute rule. Prepare to be spellbound by the masterly hand of best-selling legend weaver Terry Brooks, conjuring at the peak of his skills.

For reasons known only to himself, the King of the Silver River has charged young Penderrin Ohmsford, barely more than a boy, with the daunting task of rescuing his aunt, Grianne, Ard Rhys of the Druid order, from her forced exile in the terrifying dimension of all things damned: the Forbidding. With the noble dwarf Tagwen and the prodigal elven princess Khyber Elessedil by his side, and with the outcome of the bloody war between the Federation and the Free-born at stake, Pen has accepted his mission without question. But not without risk, or sacrifice.

Shadea a'Ru, the ruthless Druid responsible for imprisoning the true Ard Rhys and usurping leadership at Paranor, has sent her agents and assassins in relentless pursuit of Pen and his comrades. In securing the talisman he needs to breach the Forbidding, Pen has paid a devastating price. Now if the Free-born forces, already decimated by the Federation's death-dealing new weapon, should fall, Shadea's domination of the Four Lands will be assured. Nothing short of Pen's success can turn the tide.

But Pen's challenge grows greater when he learns that his parents, Bek Ohmsford and Rue Meridian, have fallen into Shadea's hands. He must try to help them, but once within the walls of Druid's Keep, where Shadea's minions and dark magic lurk at every turn, Pen's survival is far from assured. Yet it will all pale in comparison to the horrors that wait inside the Forbidding, horrors poised to break free upon the Four Lands when the time is right.

©2005 Terry Brooks (P)2005 Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic reviews

"A great storyteller, Terry Brooks creates rich epics filled with mystery, magic, and memorable characters. If you haven't read Terry Brooks, you haven't read fantasy." (Christopher Paolini)
"Terry's place is at the head of the fantasy world." (Philip Pullman)

From an avid audio book listener

I listen to 4 or 5 audio books a month and "Straken" the 3rd book in this series peaked my interest from beginning to end. I usually get bored after the 1st few books in a fantasy series, but never with Terry Brooks. I would suggest reading (or listening to) all of his prior works 1st, but it is not necessary. I love how he develops the characters, the realistic fantasy setting and the plot along with a great ending. I have listened to some audio books from as many 3 different readers for the same book, and I think the reader makes all the difference in the world. I give this book and the reader both 5 stars.

Great ending to the trilogy, well read thank you.

loved the book. in fact the whole trilogy, it kept me wanting to hear more.

Almost unable to finish

I love Terry Brooks. And I love this trilogy. But oh my God...this narrator very clearly has never read the books or listened to them. His pronunciation of things like Ellcrys, Leah, Shea, Allanon...it hurts the soul. And he doesn't keep the traditional accents - Scottish for Highlands and dwarves, British for elves, etc. It's clear he doesn't care about the story at all otherwise he would have taken the time to learn how to pronounce things. Scott or Raphael should have narrated this trilogy in its entirety.

Reader kills it

I went into this book pessimistic regarding the reader as I was underwhelmed by his work with the previous book. For the first part, I was feeling really good, but then reality set in. The voices changed - not just from the previous books - the voices for individual characters changed so much and even overlapped with other characters so you didn't know who was speaking. I hope he doesn't read for the future books.

Awesome

The whole series have me sitting on the edge of my seat, Terry Brooks is so awesome

You can breathe again when the story ends!

A fantastic ending to an epic story! Terry Brooks delivers again! Can't wait til the next installment!

Great conclusion to an awesome trilogy.

So good - great story and the narration was top notch. Much better than his reading of Tanequil.

Good story, bad narration.

The narration was very bad and made listening to it unenjoyable. Love the story and the author.

Strakken was amazing!!

loved it! it was a deep and rich story of love and courage. I recommend this book wholeheartedly!

Great story, badly narrated

I didn't care for the narrator of this book. I didn't like that he read the previous book in the series as well, but he actually was worse reading this one. I get that made-up words could be pronounced differently but different readers, but why wouldn't there be some direction of the pronunciation to create continuity? Also, in the previous book, he used certain voices for certain characters, but then in this book used the wrong ones for each. Seems like he would have listened to his last recording and tried to be consistent.