Manga Review: The Dark Wraith of Shannara

The Dark Wraith of Shannara

Story by Terry Brooks, Illustrations by Edwin David
Del Rey, 208 pp.
Rating: Teen

The Shannara canon comprises a long-ongoing series of fantasy fiction novels written by Terry Brooks. The story is set far in Earth’s future, where man’s technology has majorly messed up the planet, resulting in dwarves, gnomes, and a whole bunch of fantasy races, creatures, and trappings. And elves, who supposedly have always been around, but just didn’t interfere.

Dark Wraith of Shannara is Brooks’s latest work, and a first in the series: a graphic novel, written by Brooks and illustrated by Edwin David. It takes place after the events of the Wishsong story arc, and sees protagonist Jair, a young man with the power to create illusions, sabotaging the efforts of some humanoid lizard folk who are attempting to summon a long sealed druid castle. Which, I guess, is Very Bad™. Anyhow, Jair’s power, called the Wishsong, is starting to do some disturbing things, like turning the young man into other people for real, instead of just creating an illusion. His sister makes him promise not to use the power again, for fear of losing his identity. But when two friends, Kimber and Cogline, are abducted by the lizard people, Jair finds his options more and more limited, and the temptation to use the Wishsong grows.

My understanding, from the material that came with my review copy of the book, is that Dark Wraith of Shannara is supposed to be a starting point for new readers to get into the Shannaraseries. That suits me fine: I did some research to prep for the book, but for the most part I’m a Shannara newbie. I’m the perfect test subject for this experiment, and experiment that, unfortunately, was not very well thought out. Dark Wraith uses characters already established in a prior Shannara story arc, and the story pretty much builds upon said prior arc. Reading Dark Wraith is like watching Return of the Jedi without having first seen A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. Who is that guy frozen in “carbonite?” Why is that woman kissing him? Who’s the dude with Zero’s beam saber? Brooks would have done better by either a) going with new characters that aren’t so heavily connected to established canonical events in past novels, or, preferably, b) telling the story in such a way that it isn’t using its “prequels” as a crutch.

That said, Brooks is really an amazing writer, with a remarkable command of the English language. The dialog comes across as natural given the context, and does a superb job of guiding the reader through the story and immersing said reader in this fantasy universe. It is really a shame that I had to do Google searches in order to catch up to where the book starts. Otherwise, I’m sure I would have been able to better appreciate the story and the characters. Speaking of characters, only protagonist Jair is characterized in any meaningful way. It is clear that whatever his past adventures were, he is still quite conflicted, and it is easy to see why he would want to become anybody other than who he is. Everybody else is one-dimensional at best, though none of the characters grated at my nerves.

Edwin David’s artwork is neither over the top nor underwhelming. It is modest, clean artwork, sometimes guilty of looking amateurish, but more than passable. Which makes me wonder how devoted fans of Shannara will deal with Dark Wraith interpreting characters and environments for them. I can already hear the anguished moans of angry nerds upset that they no longer have the privilege of interpreting Brooks’s words as they see fit, as if somehow the impact and outcome of the story would change in any significant way if they pictured Jair’s sister an inch shorter than the graphic novel does. Rest assured that the artwork fits the story well enough.

All in all, Dark Wraith of Shannara was an entertaining story about characters I really don’t know anything about, and didn’t end up learning too much about. I’m sure I would have enjoyed the book better had I known what the hell was going on. I’m also that had it done a better job of familiarizing me with these characters, I might just have been interested in learning more about the Shannara books. As an introduction to the world of Shannara for new readers, Dark Wraith fails. I can’t really compare it to other Shannara stories but, by its own merits, Dark Wraith is a decent piece of work, though one that is better suited for long-time fans of the series.

The Dark Wraith of Shannara is available now.