Best The Legend of Tann Books
Just recently I decided that I would pick up a book series of ten books from the library close to my home and read it. Why did I do it? Well back when I was in fourth-fifth grade, there was a specific book series that a few of the students in my class were reading occasionally and the book series was "The Legend of Tann" (In swedish, Legenden om Tann). I decided to pick it up and read as well but back then I was too lazy to read and I only checked some page and stuff so recently I decided I would actually read them for real and now that I've read them all I'm making this list. It is a swedish fantasy book series written by Niklas Krog about the dwarf Tanarog, also known as Tann. Tann is a dwarf who lives in the stripe mountains (Randbergen), a mountain chain far south in the fictional land of Unadan. It's also home to the beast, a dark monster who lives at the bottom of the mountains who lives on evil and poses the greatest threat to the dwarfs Unlike other dwarfs who prefer to stay in the mountain where it is safe from monsters, Tanarog much more prefers to be out in the woods outside of the mountains. One day, he accidently falls down through a window in the mountain and out there, outside the mountain he meets a wandering oak tree known as Bladhus (yes trees can walk and talk and have faces in this series) and they quickly become friends. One day when the beast I talked earlier about in this paragraph manages to get into the dwarfs home after presumebly managing to destroy enough parts of the mountains to get to the dwarfs halls, Tanarog and his friend Bladhus manage to chase away the beast from the mountains and out in the woods. This is the prolouge of the series and the beginning of the legend of Tann. It consists of ten books plus a prolouge book which basically tells the prolouge in more detail. Today I'll be ranking all the books and with that being said, here is the list.Havet (The Sea) is the sixth part of the Legend of Tann book series, and in my personal opinion, it is the best book in this series as well. Everything in this book just works so well, and the pacing is just great. It picks up right after where the fifth book ended, with Tanarog, Aina, and Bladhus successfully reaching the parents of Aina in the forests in the north. After Tann was rejected by Aina's parents due to how forest people dislike dwarfs, Tann and Bladhus continue their journey without Aina. This time, Tanarog wants to see the sea in the far north.
This book isn't necessarily flawless, but out of these ten books, this one comes the closest. This book was just such an enjoyable ride. The book is really mainly just Tann and Bladhud wandering and wandering, but lots of interesting stuff happens. When they were in the dark forest with the evil pine tree was definitely a nice and exciting moment. I really like that Ztark and The Slayer (Dräparen) return in this book. They were my favorite characters from the book before this one. There is also a subplot involving Aina when she's at the forest with her parents, talking and stuff. This I really like because it would've been a bit boring if it was just Tann and Bladhus wandering around. But overall, this book is my favorite.
The third book in the series, Drakmötet (The Dragon Meeting) is my second favourite book of the series. It takes place a little after where the second book ended with the beast finally having been defeated and the Bonuro forest is now safe from the beast's wrath. Now the three friends have another goal. They are going to find the parents of Aina. It was revealed in the first book I think, that once upon a time when Aina was little, her parents left the forest people in the Bonuro forest to meet the forest people in the north beyond the plains but they never came back. So now they are going to find them.
A good chunk of the book takes place on the plains north of the bonuro forest. It pretty much starts off at the edge of the forest. This is the only book in which Tanarog is alone for the majority of the book. Only at the start and end of the book, he is with his friends, for the rest he's completely alone. I personally thought that was a slightly decent thing because that way I could feel the character more than when he's not alone. I love the setting though. This book personally feels the longest and is the only book in this series where I think the pacing is actually not too fast. All of these books are pretty short but I personally thought this was longer which was a good thing. And the moment when Nidaros and Tanarog actually communicate for the first time was quite epic and exciting.
personally this is my second favourite book in the series and a great book overall. With the great pacing and storytelling this is just slightly worse than the sixth book in the series.
"Dräparen" (The Slayer) is the fifth book in the series and picks up right where the fourth book left off, with Tann, Aina, and Bladhus continuing their search for Aina's parents. They have just crossed the massive plains that separated the Bonuro forest from the cliffs. The cliffs are primarily home to the cliff trolls.
These guys are some of my favorite characters in the book series. Yes, they can be incredibly annoying at times, but they were quite charming in this book, personally. Some of the trolls even have personalities. Ztoor, the main antagonist in the book, for example, is shown to be much more intelligent and smarter than the other trolls, as a good chunk of the trolls happen to be incredibly stupid. Ztark is an even better character though, as he has even more personality, and he actually receives character development later in the next book in the series. Let's not forget Dräparen (the slayer), who is the mascot of this book, a green muscular monster from the swamplands in the east. Unfortunately, he didn't appear much in this book and appeared more in the sixth book instead, but he's awesome.
Personally, the only books in the series I consider to be "awesome" are "Havet" and "Drakmötet." However, "Dräparen" is not a book that's too far from receiving the title as well. I highly enjoyed this book, and it certainly was a nice book to read. I think the book is over too fast, but other than that, it's great.
This book maybe could've been at the third spot but due to the unfortunate fact that this is so far the only book in this series that unluckily features bathroom humour (something I despise with a passion) this book is a bit lower. However it is not that big of a deal and the rest of this seventh book in the series known as "Ömannen" (The Island Guy) is pretty great.
It starts right where the previous book left off, with Tann, Bladhus and Aina having succesfully reached the sea. Now, Tann and Aina wants to explore the islands that are found off the coast so they borrow a boat. Due to bad weather they are stranded on an island with one resident, Magnus, who despises when visitors visit the island. Magnus, despite only being in this very book, and maybe only appearing in less than half of the book, is one of the most developed characters in the book. Then again most one-time characters in this book series get a lot of attention. I legit feel bad for him and his rough backstory, to why he's on the island in the first place. Gotta say he looks pretty cool as well with the yellow-green skin in my opinion.
It's a great book in my opinion. Despite the unecessary bathroom humour at times, this is one of the best books I the series in my personal opinion.
The eight book in the series, Faram den Store (Faram the Big) was certainly a memorable book and also a great-tier book in my opinion. It like many books in the series starts right where the previous book ended, and in this case, it starts with Tann and Aina having returned to the mainland after their encounter with Magnus the island guy. Now they are going to return the boat to its owner, who is Faram. And now that they are on the mainland, Tann wants to visit the dwarfs who live in the Hindus mountains, and Faram helps the company reach it.
Faram is certainly one of my favourite characters in the series. His backstory is one of the most interesting ever. Long before the events of the book series, there was a Dragon known as Marma. Once she had a baby who didn't resemble a dragon at all. This was Faram. However, marma's husband, Nidaros, tried to kill him, which resulted in the battle between him and Marma at the hindus mountain range. Marma was destroyed but Faram was safe. Faram, presumebly being hundreds of years now, was now just alone and wandered around Unadan now that he had nothing left. What they do to his character is certainly an interesting act. Not really spoiling too much but it is great.
And so is this book. It is great personally. While the weakest of the great-tier books, it's still a great book.
Dvärgarna "The Dwarfs" is the ninth installment in the series and the second-to-land book in the series. This is the first book on the list that I only consider to be "good-tier". In this book, the friends have succesfully reached the Hindus mountain range, and Tann now wants to meet the dwarfs that live there. Unfortunately the dwarfs are arrogant jackasses who despise visitors who try to enter their mountain. When Tann though manages to sneak in the mountains and then he's forced to participate in the holy competition if he wants to escape it because otherwise they will end up in the jails of the dwarfs, which he realizes then.
Best thing about the book though was the introduction of Grim, a character who grew to become the quatragonist in the last installment of the series. He's basically the exact same character as Tann. Same personality, same goal, just that he's from the hindus mountains and not the stripe mountains, and is a bit younger. However it's nice to see how Tann actually manages to interact with someone who has the same goals as him. That is a nice touch. Overall the books is good.
Skogsflickan (The Forest Girl) is the first book in the series (I mean technically second if you consider the prolouge book to be the first book, but that is more of the "zeroth" book if you understand what I am saying). In my opinion this book certainly did a good job at being a first book in the series.
It picks up about half a year after where the prolouge book ended, with spring finally arriving, and Tann can't wait to hang out with his oak tree pal Bladhus. However, surprisingly, a forest girl arrives at Bladhus as well. Tann and Bladhus learn that after they had chased away the beast from the stripe mountains, he is now causing chaos and havoc in the bonuro forest, knocking down tree after tree. Tann realizes that he must leave the stripe mountains and go out and defeat the beast, or at least chase it away from the forest. So he and Aina set off on an adventure to find the beast and chase it away from the forest.
One of the biggest annoyences I find in the book is that Bladhus barely even appears in the book, despite being obviously a main character in the series. No joke, the first time he actually appears as a "protagonist" is in the fourth installment. He only appears slightly in the beginning of this book, slightly at the end of the second book, and in the beginning and end of the third book before actually being being a major character in the fourth book. However, the chemistry between Tann and Aina is great and feels so real in my opinion. They mainly start off as just partners but they quickly develop feelings for each other and it feels so real. The beast, the main antagonist in the book is also quite a cool looking dude. He looks so badass and exotic which I certainly like.
This is the only book in the series that really has a forest setting. I mean yeah the second one did as well but they spent more time in the caves than in the forest. Forests are my favourite types of biomes so that's why I love that the setting is mainly... more
The items 8-10 are in my personal opinion "decent-tier". Besterns Håla (The Beast's Cave) is basically in my opinion how to NOT make a good book. This is probably the most boring book of the series altogether if I'm completely honest here. It takes place a while after the first book with the beast having been chased away from the forest and lacking the energy to wreck more havoc so he's resting in his cave deep in the forest now, regeneratinng so that he can get back to cause havoc in the forest later. Tann and Aina must prevent that this ever happens so they constantly wake the beast up until he just doesn't want to go out in the forest ever again.
So basically, all this book is about is Tann and Aina getting in the beast's cave, waking him up, fleeing, the beast goes to sleep again, and it goes on. That's all this book is about. Now yes each time they wake him up is a bit different and the beginning of the book was decent and some parts were alright so it's not lowest on the list but yeah this book is boring. Other than that there is not much to say about this one but it's an alright book.
Nidaros Vrede (Nidaros' Wrath) is the fourth installment in the book series. Personally I do think this book was way too short and it wasn't really significant or interesting in my opinion. The entire book is basically the friends continuing their wander through the plains, and the dragon Nidaros is super angry for some reason so he starts to spray fire everywhere.
And that's really the only thing that is significant about this specific book. Nothing really interesting happens. When the friends at the end of the book manage to get to the cliffs though in the north is probably the best part though as Nidaros gets a fine ending as he, the dragon who always tried everything to eliminate Tann, at last befriends him. Overall the book is just alright.
This is the finale of the book series, known as Trollkrig "Troll War". I expected it to be and epic and climatic finale but honestly I was a bit disappointed with it, in fact it is probably my least favourite installment in the book series. The first half was just so slow and I felt it didn't make any sense at all. Well basically, in this book, a group of cliff trolls lead by the evil pine tree Barret have decided to cut down all trees in Unadan. I will admit that Barret is quite a decent villain with understandable motivations but that's not the problem. The problem is that the first half of the book just doesn't seem to make much sense for me. The main characters, Tann, Grim, Aina and Bladhus just don't seem to come anywhere. Hard to explain but it didn't make much sense.
The second half is better as it gets more climatic but even then I didn't really feel like it was anything that interesting. The ending was really nice and I really liked the re-appearence of Ztark and the Slayer, two of my favourite characters in the series, and how they came in the last minute to fight the trolls as well. I liked the ending a lot though. Overall the book was just below decent.