"Epic fantasy at its' very best"

The last wizard of the age, Walker, gathers a merry band of adventurers to find the lost gemstones of Shannara. They travel by the airship, the Jerle Shannara to the land where the gems are supposed to be only to find the Isle Witch in an airship of her own with her reptilian allies. While the battle ensues and the Jerle Shannara is taken over by the witch's reptilian force, the survivors escape including Walker.

Walker knows there is more in the Castledown than just the Shannara gemstone. Hidden in a vast under-underground complex is an artificially intelligent computer, built before the apocalypse when science held reign and all the races were one. Walker wants the knowledge contained in the computer but Antrax feeds on magic to power it and ward off intruders. Walker sees that Antrax is a two edged sword and has to decide what to do about it before the Isle Witch finds him.

THE VOYAGE OF THE JERLE SHANNARA: ANTRAX continues the adventures that began in THE VOYAGE OF THE JERLE SHANNARA: Isle Witch. It is a spellbinding epic even with a major flaw. The plot stops in the middle of the action, forcing the reader to buy or obtain from the library the last installment to read what happened next. There are many characters in this book that are admirable especially Ares who acts bravely in spite of being so very scared of what is in front of and behind them.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted July 20, 2001