The Measure of the Magic by Terry Brooks

This novel starts off with a new villain for Panterra Qu, now holding the black staff after a dying Sider Ament gave him the responsibility of being its new bearer. A demon determined on chaos and destruction is now on his path wanting to kill Panterra and take the staff from him. Meanwhile, Prue Liss has escaped from the trolls and the demon and has been given new powers to aid Panterra. Phryne Amarantyne is imprisoned after her father, the king of the elves, has been killed. This is typical for Terry Brooks, to have multiple storylines going on at the same time, and weaving them together, something he does quite well. There were a lot of smaller conflicts leading up to the larger conflict at the end between Panterra and the demon.

Reading a Terry Brooks novel is like putting on a pair of comfortable shoes. They can be formulaic at times and similar in many aspects, but I’ve gotten a feel for how the journey is going to go, and it’s usually an enjoyable one. That is the case in The Measure of the Magic. He has created a compelling cast of characters, a rich backstory, and strong conflict. He sticks to the formula, but it’s one that works quite well, which is why I’m rarely disappointed with Brooks’s novels. The one thing that I thought kind of jarring was the presence of a dragon, which came out of nowhere since I haven’t seen them in the other novels in the series. It seemed like he was stuck for something to create a dramatic effect and pulled this out of nowhere. The dragon aside, I thought the novel was well plotted with strong conflicts and good epic fantasy elements, something readers of this genre will enjoy.