Terry Brooks

Terence Dean "Terry" Brooks (born January 8, 1944) is a writer of fantasy fiction. He writes mainly epic fantasy,^[2] and has also written two movie novelizations. He has written 22 New York Times bestsellers during his writing career,^[2] and has over 21 million copies of his books in print.^[3] He is the second-biggest selling living fantasy writer, behind J.K. Rowling.^[4]

[edit] Biography

Brooks was born in the rural midwestern town of Sterling, Illinois and spent a large part of his life living there.^[5] He is an alumnus of Hamilton College, obtaining his B.A. in English Literature in 1966.^[5] He later obtained a J.D. from Washington and Lee University. He was a practicing attorney before becoming a full-time author, and now resides in Seattle, Washington with his wife, Judine.^[5]

Brooks had been a writer since high school, writing mainly in the genres of science fiction, western, fiction, and non-fiction.^[5] One day, in his early college life, he was given a copy of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, which inspired him to write in one genre.^[5] While Tolkien inspired the genre, Brooks stated at the Charlotte Literary Festival that he credits the inspiration of his style of writing to William Faulkner's works. With this inspiration, he then made his debut in 1977 with his first novel The Sword of Shannara. ^[5] This novel became the first fantasy book ever to appear on the New York Times bestseller list, where it stayed for five months.^[5]

After finishing two sequels (which were originally intended as stand-alone novels^{[citation needed]}) to The Sword of Shannara, Brooks moved on to the series which would become known as the Landover novels.^[5] Brooks then wrote four-book series titled The Heritage of Shannara.^[5] For the next fourteen years, he wrote more Landover books, then went on to write The Word and Void trilogy. Continuing the Shannara series, Brooks wrote the prequel to The Sword of Shannara, titled First King of Shannara. He then wrote two series, The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara and High Druid of Shannara and recently finished a third, Genesis of Shannara, a trilogy bridging his Word and Void and Shannarra series. His next project has been announced as a novel in the Landover series.

[edit] Novels versus short stories

After writing Indomitable, an epilogue to The Wishsong of Shannara, Terry Brooks had this to say about the short story genre:

I find it much harder to write short stories than long fiction. I feel cramped by the lack of space and the dictates of the form. There is considerable difference in long and short fiction disciplines, and I am not good with the latter. I hope not to have to do many more of them, but you never know. I must have written Indomitable anywhere from four to five times, each effort different. Give me a five hundred page sprawl as an assignment any day.^[6]

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Shannara series

Note: The list below represents Terry Brooks' suggested reading order for those who are new to the series.^[7]

[edit] The Original Shannara Trilogy

1. The Sword of Shannara (1977)
2. The Elfstones of Shannara (1982)
3. The Wishsong of Shannara (1985) (The short story Indomitable is an epilogue to Wishsong)

[edit] The Heritage of Shannara tetralogy

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)

[edit] Prequel

1. First King of Shannara (1996)

[edit] Word & Void series

The Word & Void series precedes the action in Genesis of Shannara trilogy and serves as the very start of the Shannara saga.

1. Running with the Demon (1997)
2. A Knight of the Word (1998)
3. Angel Fire East (1999)

[edit] The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy

1. Ilse Witch (2000)
2. Antrax (2001)
3. Morgawr (2002)

[edit] High Druid of Shannara trilogy

1. Jarka Ruus (2003)
2. Tanequil (2004)
3. Straken (2005)

[edit] Genesis of Shannara trilogy

1. Armageddon's Children (August, 2006)
2. The Elves of Cintra (August 28, 2007)
3. The Gypsy Morph (August 26, 2008)^[8]

[edit] Shannara related works

• Shannara computer game (1995) by Lori Ann Cole and Corey Cole
• The World of Shannara (2001) (companion book)
• The World of Shannara (2nd edition) (Fall 2009) (companion book)
• Indomitable (2003) (short story published in anthology Legends II)
• Dark Wraith of Shannara (2008) (graphic novel) ^[9]

[edit] Magic Kingdom of Landover series

Note: This is not part of the Shannara series.

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)
6. Untitled Book 6 (forthcoming, September, 2009)^[10]

[edit] Novelizations

• Hook (1991)
• Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace (1999)

[edit] Other

• Imaginary Friends (1991) (short story published in anthology Once Upon a Time: A Treasury of Modern Fairy Tales)
• Indomitable (2003) (short story published in anthology Legends II)
• Why I Write About Elves (2005) (short story published as an Amazon short)
• The Writers Complete Fantasy Reference: An Indispensable Compendium of Myth and Magic (Writer's Digest Books, 2000), with Michael J. Varhola
• Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life (2003)

[edit] Film adaptations

The rights to a film adaptation for all of the Shannara novels have been sold to Warner Bros until 2010.^[11] The Elfstones of Shannara, the first planned film,^[11] will be directed by Mike Newell,^[12] who was also responsible for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.^[13] Elfstones is expected to start filming in 2009 and finished sometime during 2010. Terry Brooks believes that this is the best starting place for adapting the Shannara novels.^[11]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Terry Brooks Official Site
• The Shannara Files - a Shannara fansite
• Terry Brooks at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• An audio interview with Terry Brooks (MP3 format) from Hour 25
• Terry Brooks Has a Vision For His New Series
• FanLit.net: Terry Brooks novel synopses and reviews