Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743414926 ISBN 13: 9780743414920

Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK, 2001

Set a generation after THE TALISMANS OF SHANNARA, ILSE WITCH begins a new, five-book SHANNARA series. When the mutilated body of an elf is found floating in the sea, an old mystery resurfaces. Thirty years ago, an elven prince led an expedition in search of a legendary magic said to be more ancient, more powerful, than any in the world. None of the expedition's members ever returned... But the rescued elf carries a map which only one man has the skill to decipher: Walker Boh, last of the Druids. And one other understands the map's significance - the Ilse Witch, a beautiful but twisted young woman who wields a magic as potent as that of Walker. To stop her gaining the magic to which the map leads, Walker must find it first. On the airship JERLE SHANNARA, a group of companions sets off into the face of unknown terrors, while the Ilse Witch and her dark allies follow, waiting to strike...

Product Description:

The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara: Ilse Witch Bk. 1 (the Voyage of the Jerle Shannara)

Review:

Terry Brooks' new Shannara epic The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara kicks off its first volume Ilse Witch with the discovery of a mad Elf drifting on wreckage miles out at sea with his tongue and eyes removed, and a map secreted among his possessions. It rapidly emerges that he is a lost prince who set out decades earlier to find old magic on another continent. Walker the Druid persuades the Elf King that both vengeance and prudence dictate a second expedition and assembles the usual crew of talented misfits to travel by airship into unknown territory. The forces of evil are on their way as well--the shadowy figure known as the Ilse Witch and the lizard-like mercenaries forced on her by her untrustworthy ally the Morgawr are closing in too, with acquisition and murder in their hearts.

Fans of Terry Brooks will know precisely what to expect from him: undemanding sword--and--sorcery adventure with touches of the gloomily mysterious and of the more complex emotions. This is Brooks at his best and this novel is the least dependent on earlier models as it becomes clear that in this sequence the relationship between good and evil is more complicated than usual. --Roz Kaveney