After weeks of contrived random encounter bullshit, they’re basically able to just walk right into San Francisco. The biggest problem for Amberle, Wil, and Eretria this week is that for once they don’t really have any problems. This week continued to have some nice porn-y wide shots of scenery, especially of Arborlon (although it does seem like they’ve started to recycle the aerial views of the city), but in close things are a mess. The show should definitely have stuck with a less-is-more approach to this sort of thing, but instead they’ve opted for an unfortunate mash-up of fantasy and post-apocalyptic aesthetics that works less and less well the deeper they delve into the world.

Remains of something as large as the Bay Bridge might last hundreds of years, but most of the other detritus of human society would not, and the sheer amount of stuff that seems to have survived in the onscreen Shannara world is simply unbelievable. I have very mixed feelings about this, to be honest. Safehold, it turns out, is named for the letters that are left on an ostensibly ancient sign next to the ruins of the Bay Bridge that connects San Francisco and Oakland. Indeed, Amberle, Wil and Eretria feel shoved almost to a back burner this week as the show focuses on goings on at Arborlon, where new King Ander is struggling to hold onto his crown and Bandon is being possessed by the Dagda Mor.

Unfortunately, the lack of silly side quests, ridiculous obstructions and unnecessary meandering on the part of Amberle and company doesn’t mean we get an episode free of boring and unimportant nonsense.

Sweet (over) Jacket Design: Gary Friedman' printed on the back flap of the dustjacket.This week, as indicated by the episode title, we finally see our heroes make it to Safehold, which is a relief after several weeks of almost no forward progress. There is another map, uncredited on page.Pages before the first page of the novel are not numbered, but the copyright page credits the map on page to the Hildebrandt Brothers, so pages have been added to the count to follow this pattern.The copyright page contains the complete Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data including the ISBNs of this edition and the trade paperback edition (0-3454-28555-7, stated as published simultaneously), and the LCCN (89-69187).'First Edition: July 1982' stated on the copyright page with a complete number line: '10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1'.

Shannara map