We’ve started to run commenter book reports on Slog. At Slog Happy, willing commenters grab advance reader copies that I provide and then write book reports. Now, it’s Comte’s turn. Any errors should be assumed to be the editor’s fault. I am the editor. Take it away, Comte, and thanks:

The Gypsy Morph by Terry Brooks

First off: I’m not a fan of sword & sorcery/fantasy novels. I’ve read
exactly one of Anne McCaffrey’s Pern novels, none of the Harry
Potters, and perhaps one Tolkien, many many years ago, and that’s it.
So, I don’t have any intimate knowledge of Terry Brooks’ Shannara
series (or what I assume are other co-existing fantasy worlds in his
oeuvre), and really only picked this particular book up off
the pile out of mild curiosity more than anything else.

From what I gather, Brooks has created several alternate-reality
scenarios over the course of his career, most of which, as best I can
tell, seem to fall into a pretty standard “magic and mythical
creatures” paradigm. His latest work, The Gypsy Morph is,
apparently, an attempt to blend several of his worlds together, while
simultaneously acting as something of a prequel to them; a tall order
to be sure.

For his fans, The Gypsy Morph may be a satisfying merging of these
stories, answering questions of origin, filling in narrative
gaps, bringing the various series full-circle, and what-not. But, for
a first-time reader, a book like this must either stand on its own, or
at the very least compel one to delve further into the worlds he’s
created. In this case, while the novel is a quick and relatively
painless read despite the noticeable lack of back story, it’s also not
one that makes me want to pick up any of the other related works to
learn more about the characters or their journey.

The plot is pretty standard fare: in a post-apocalyptic world,
rag-tag bands of humans, genetically mutated former humans, and
mythological beings, roam across the devastated countryside in search
of a safe haven, while being inexorably pursued by armies of sadistic,
magic-wielding demons bent on exterminating the last remnants of
civilization. The cast of characters includes a particularly
precocious tribe of moppets known as the “Ghosts”, who have taken on
the identities of animals (“Hawk”, “Panther”, “Cat”, et al) and who
display the obvious personality stereotypes associated with their
chosen names. In addition, there are two sibling elves tasked with
protecting their entire race from a demonic onslaught, and a couple of
modern-day knights errant charged with joining these
scattered groups together, and eventually marching them all safely to
an unknown destination where they will all ride out the coming End Of The World.

After the prerequisite series of plodding treks, not-so-surprising
captures, hair-breadth escapes, and ponderous confrontations (when
will the bad guys ever learn that, when you finally have your enemy at
your mercy, engaging them in long arguments over competing
philosophical viewpoints is going to end badly?) these disparate bands
eventually team up, and through the nascent skills of a human born of
“wild magic” (the eponymous Gypsy Morph of the title), overcome the
various-and-sundry obstacles thrown in their path (Marauding militias!
Shape-shifting child-eaters! Dust storms! Oh my!) and wend their way
across the Eastern Washington (!) wilderness, where they engage in a
final battle-royal against the forces of darkness, before arriving at
their promised safe-hold high in the Montana Rockies just before the
inevitable prophesized Armageddon takes place; and all this while
predictably managing to lose only a mere handful of secondary
characters along the way.

It’s all very Tolkienesque both in tone and structure; Lord of The
Rings set in the future instead of the distant past, but otherwise
pretty familiar stuff.

Where Brooks shows some initiative, however, and what makes The Gypsy
Morph stand out somewhat from the norm is his ability to juggle
several parallel and overlapping story-lines, gradually merging them
into a single, tight, albeit predictable narrative. The story of Hawk
and the Ghosts’ exodus takes up most of the novel, but an almost equal
portion is given over a parallel plot concerning the plight of the
elves, and their savior, Errisen, who must somehow overcome a demonic
siege of their one-and-only city, magically transport it into the
relative safety of something called the “loden”, then carry this
burden out of Hidden-Elfland to join up with the humans. In addition,
both plots are paralleled themselves by the stories of the two
“Knights of the Word”, who have been given responsibility for ensuring
the success of both missions. It seems pretty clear that these tales
weren’t originally intended for a mash-up, but Brooks nevertheless
manages to merge them together with sufficient plausibility to prevent
the reader’s eyes from rolling into the back of their head in utter
disbelief.

Which for a fantasy novel, is as much as one can expect, I suppose.