Princess of Landover – Terry Brooks

 PrincessOfLandover

Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Del Rey (August 18, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0345458524
ISBN-13: 978-0345458520
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Characters

Mistaya
Laphroig
Thom

It’s been 14 years since Terry Brooks last took us into the world of Landover.  For those who’ve never read Mr. Brooks Landover books, here’s a quick Synopsis.  Ben Holliday was a lawyer from our world, who’s life is pretty much at a dead end.  One day he stumbles across a catalog advertising a magic kingdom for sale.  This kingdom is the land of Landover.  He is assisted in Landover by the magician Questor Thews, and the court Scribe Abernathy, who’s been partially turned into a dog by Questor.  Ben meets and marries a tree fairy named willow.  Together they have a daughter whom they name Mistaya.

Mistaya was last seen as a child in the novel Witche’s Brew.  We pick up her story 14 years later.  She’s being suspended from a boarding school in this world for threatening another student with a dragon.  Her father is very upset with his behavior, and together he and Questor, decide tht the best way to strengthen her character, is for her to spend time getting the royal Library at Libris in order.

As we all know, teen-agers rarely do as they’re told.  She is no exception, and rather than listen to her parents, decides to run away, accompanied by two gnomes.  She runs to her grandfather, the River Master, but when he won’t help hide her, decides to go to the one place her family wouldn’t look for her.  That of course, is the royal library at Libris.

This is where the main part of the story picks up.   Laphroig, an evil landowner, is after her for marriage.  His motives are questionable, and the death of many of his members, including his previous wife and child are suspicious. 

Most of her adventure takes place while at Libris.  I won’t go into details on that, so as to leave a lot to discovery.  I really enjoyed this book.  I read it in a very short time span.  While there was exciting areas though, some of it left a little to be desired.  A battle that should have been much more epic, seemed to be over in too neat and tidy a package.  Her powers in the previous novel seemed much more powerful, and up against much stronger opponents. 

Some of the main characters just seemd to take a background in this story, and the opportunity to bring some of the more evil characters back out was missed.  I think this was probably in order to lead them into another story in this realm, and the author leaves that as a possibility.  This book is pretty standalone.  You could pick it up without having read, or having knowledge of any of the previous books.  I also think it’s a fairly safe book for younger readers.  While there are some darker areas, it’s more along the Wizard of Oz than Lord of the Rings. 

If your looking for a light fantasy, or for something to read to your kids at night, I’d suggest picking this up.  I think you’d enjoy it.

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