The Tangle Box - Terry Brooks, Legend h/b œ15.99

                      Reviewed by Sue

The magical kingdom of Landover is, once again, in deep trouble in
this fourth book in the humorous fantasy series, the previous ones
being Magic Kingdom For Sale - Sold!, The Black Unicorn and Wizard
at Large. This time the threat comes from one Horace Kew, more
misguided than evil, since he and his sidekick, a mynah bird
called Biggar are, in fact, the pawns of a greater evil, The
Gorse.

When Horace Kew (and Biggar), previously exiled from Landover,
returns, everyone but Ben Holiday, King of Landover, thinks he
should be turfed out again ASAP.  Full of grand and seemingly
useful schemes, Horace's plans have an unfortunate way of going
haywire. But Ben thinks he should be given another chance. Big
mistake, shout readers everywhere, who can immediately see trouble
looming on the horizon.

Before you can say 'told you so', Ben, in company of Nightshade
the witch and Strabo the dragon, is nowhere to be seen and Horace
has another brilliant idea for bringing happiness to the people of
Landover. It's up to Questor Thews (incompetent court wizard) and
Abernathy (court scribe, once human but now looking more like a
Wheaten Terrier with human hands thanks to one of Questor's
spells) to save the day. Willow, Ben's girl friend, has problems
of her own and has vanished on an unknown errand. Where can Ben
be, and can they get him back before the Gorse takes over the
Kingdom?

Somewhat slow starting, The Tangle Box turns out to be a good
read, though still not in the same class as the first book which
set the scene for the series when Ben unwittingly became the
sovereign of Landover. The slowest sections are those dealing with
Ben's, and his unwilling companions', imprisonment. Abernathy, my
favourite character, plays a big part in the book, and the two
G'home gnomes, Fillip and Sot, also make a welcome reappearance as
does Edgewood Dirk, the Prism Cat. Ben is just too nice (okay,
'wet' is more accurate) to be the major character in a book so it
was a relief to me in many ways that he (and for similar reasons,
Willow), didn't play too big a part.

Despite these reservations, though, an interesting story, if
predictable in places, that grows on you as you get deeper into
it.













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