An Introduction To Terry Brooks
Short Bio
Terry Brooks was born in Illinois in 1944. He majored in English Literature at Hamilton College and graduated from The School of Law at Washington & Lee University. Brooks published his first novel in 1977. The Sword of Shannara was the first fiction book to appear on the New York Times Trade Paperback Bestseller list and it remained there for 5 months. A practising attorney for many years, he now writes full-time. Brooks lives with his wife Judine in th ePacific Northwest and Hawaii.
Shannara
Probably the best known of all Terry Brooks works are his Shannara books. The very first book he wrote was The Sword of Shannara in 1977. He followed this up with two more books, The Elfstones of Shannara (1982) and The Wishsong of Shannara (1985) to complete the original Shannara Trilogy.
The Shannara trilogy is epic fantasy very much in the mold of Tolkien. The Sword of Shannara is particularly reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings while the subsequent books move things in a slightly more original direction. Central to all the Shannara books is the Ohmsford family, distant descendeds of the Elf King Jerle Shannara. Another character who looms over the original trilogy is the Druid Allanon.
After completing the original trilogy Brooks moved on to other projects for several years. Eventually though he did return to the world of Shannara with a series of four books dubbed the Heritage of Shannara which was published between 1990 and 1993. These books introduced us to a new generation of Ohmsfords and their friends, but at least for me never captured the magic of the original trilogy.
Brooks continued to write further Shannara novels though, offering up the stand alone book First King of Shannara in 1996, which I felt recaptured the feel of his earlier work. Then came the Voyage of Jerle Shannara Trilogy from 2000 to 2002. Brooks has said that these books were a deliberate effort to move the Shannara books in a new direction and I found them unsatisfactory. Most recently Brooks has offered up the High Druid of Shannara trilogy 2003-2005, which continues the transformation of the series and which I have enjoyed perhaps the least of all.
Reading Order
My suggestion would be to read the Shannara books in publication order. My personal feeling is that the original trilogy is the strongest of the series so it makes sense to start there. In addition, there are references in the later books that don’t make a lot of sense if you haven’t read the earlier ones.
Shannara
1. The Sword of Shannara (1977)
2. The Elfstones of Shannara (1982)
3. The Wishsong of Shannara (1985)
Heritage of Shannara
1. The Scions of Shannara (1990)
2. The Druid of Shannara (1991)
3. The Elf Queen of Shannara (1992)
4. The Talismans of Shannara (1993)
First King of Shannara (1996)
Voyage of the Jerle Shannara
1. Ilse Witch (2000)
2. Antrax (2001)
3. Morgawr (2002)
High Druid of Shannara
1. Jarka Ruus (2003)
2. Tanequil (2004)
3. Straken (2005)
Other Books By Terry Brooks
Brooks has also written a couple of other series which never achieved quite the success that Shannara did. The Magic Kingdom of Landover is a comedic fantasy series centering on Ben Holliday a resident of our world who buys the magic kingdom of Landover and then finds he has to save it. I have read the first 3 books in this series and found them mildly entertaining, but no more than that.
Magic Kingdom of Landover
1. Magic Kingdom for Sale - Sold (1986)
2. The Black Unicorn (1987)
3. Wizard at Large (1988)
4. The Tangle Box (1994)
5. Witches’ Brew (1995)
I’m not that familiar with The Word and the Void, not having read the books yet, but they were an attempt by Brooks to move away from his usual fantasy genre and offer up something more from the horror genre set in present day town of Hopewell Illinois.
The Word and the Void
1. Running with the Demon (1997)
2. A Knight of the Word (1998)
3. Angel Fire East (1999)
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