Antrax

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

A treat--Brooks ups the emotional intensity, October 23, 2001
Reviewer: booksforabuck "BooksForABuck.com" (Dallas) - See all my reviews

You can always count on Terry Brooks for adventure. Having dispensed with the relatively slow start of ILSE WITCH, ANTRAX throws its characters directly into action. Walker and his party are either captured by a vast artificial intelligence, by the witch herself, or are being hunted down. Yet somehow, they must survive and most importantly grow as characters. And this is where Brooks improves dramatically over ILSE WITCH.
ANTRAX puts much less attention on the powerful and interesting but not especially compelling Walker and much more on the other members show more of his party--boys like Bek and Quentin, on Rue Meridian and on the failed elf-prince Ahren Elessedil. These characters are much less set in their ways and much more capable of growing over the course of the novel--and grow they do.

With an excellent mix of compelling action and intriguing character, Terry Brooks delivers a superior novel.

If you loved ILSE WITCH, you're in for a treat. If you (like me) found the first volume to be only just satisfactory, then you'll be even happier to see that Brooks has hit his stride again. show less

I started reading this book immediately after Ilse Witch, and I’m glad to see that Terry Brooks is following his familiar pattern. In the first novel, he puts together a large group of people to go on an epic quest to find some powerful magic treasure and/or defeat a powerful foe (in this case there is both of these things). The group is now splintered into about five or six smaller groups. What I like about this trilogy is how Brooks has departed from the typical magical entity that has to be destroyed and is instead using an artificial intelligence system from the old world (our world) as the bad guy in this novel. It tests the characters in ways they haven’t been tested in the past, and forces them to dig deep to solve a problem show more that is far out of their comfort zone. It ties back into the start of Brooks’s Word and the Void series, and I enjoyed the symmetry.

I think I may have enjoyed this perhaps a bit more than the Ilse Witch. The story branched off in a lot of different areas. Out of all the different storylines, I think I like the one with Bek and his sister the most. I could see where the story is going to head. She is going to finally realize that Bek and Walker have been telling the truth and she truly is Bek’s sister. I also think that she will switch sides and help Bek and company against Morgwahr in the final installment of the trilogy. I like how in this trilogy, there isn’t one but three different powerful enemies for the good guys to combat, and all three are very different. Although, Brooks is following his typical formula, he’s also giving enough different wrinkles to keep it interesting.

Carl Alves – author of Two For Eternity show less

Certainly there is a bit of cautionary message in this second book of the trilogy - even thousands of years later our modern technologies have the potential to be truly evil. The most interesting part of this part of the story for me was the way the different characters reacted as they were placed under such intense pressure. As in the first book, this one leaves the reader hanging and mourning the loss of many great characters.

Oh, how do you do this? The action never stops, and yet somehow fails to arouse. The one thing Brooks managed was to make me empathise with the characters, so that's kept me going. Easy to read, but ultimately uninspiring. And somehow, I am already plunging into the third part.

This book is much, much more gripping than, "Isle Witch". The potential of all the characters, particularly Bek, Ahren, and Rue Meridian, and their relationships with each other is much more fully developed and more satisfying. An enjoyable read...Brooks' series keep getting better.

The sequel to Ilse Witch. The rip-roaring adventure continues. The adventurers pit themselves against a malevolent AI that will do anything to stay alive and keep its secrets safe.

This is the best book in the trilogy and the concept works really well.

Walker Boh and his crew are trapped in Parkasia by a sentient, ancient supercomputer named Antrax that feeds on magic. The crew fights to survive, while Bek Rowe discovers his connection to the Ilse Witch.

The Ilse Witch, guided by malicious Mwellrets, pursues the crew, while Bek Rowe tries to redeem her, discovering she is his long-lost sister.