Terry Brooks announces semi-retirement from writing

Fantasy author Terry Brooks has announced that he is "semi-retiring" from writing at the age of 81. His Shannara setting will continue to be explored through new books by Delilah Dawson, with him providing advice, editing and feedback. Brooks noted that his recent writing had become more difficult mentally and physically for him, and he wanted to bow out before his skills degraded further.

Terry Brooks began his career as a lawyer, and started writing as a spare-time hobby. A fan of Tolkien, he began writing his first Shannara novel in 1968 and completed it in 1974. He submitted it for publication, and Judy-Lynn Del Rey at Ballantine Books picked it up. She worked with Brooks on a thorough revision of the novel for over two years, because she had a firm belief it would be a commercial smash if handled right. Towards the end of the editing period, Ballantine gave Del Rey and her husband Lester their own imprint, Del Rey Books, and they selected Brooks' novel to be one of their first titles.

The Sword of Shannara was published in early 1977 and was an immediate smash hit, despite derisive critical reviews for its alleged similarities to Lord of the Rings. Alongside Stephen Donaldson's Lord Foul's Bane, the first book in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the novel was credited for kickstarting the post-Tolkien epic fantasy boom.

Brooks took a while to capitalise on the success. His planned sequel novel did not work out well, and he eventually junked the book to start over with a new title called The Elfstones of Shannara. Finally published in 1982, the book was more warmly critically-received (and is still often cited as his best novel) for taking the series in a different direction. The Wishsong of Shannara concluded the initial Shannara Trilogy in 1985.

Brooks did not immediately plan to over-exploit the series and instead wrote a new series of comedic fantasies called the Magic Kingdom of Landover series, which saw a person from our world inherit ownership of a fantasy kingdom, with resulting hijinks. The first book was titled Magic Kingdom for Sale - SOLD! (1986) and was succeeded by five more books, published irregularly until 2009. The series never matched Shannara's profile.

He returned to the world of Shannara in with the four-volume Heritage of Shannara series (1990-93) and prequel novel First King of Shannara (1996). His apocalyptic urban fantasy series The Word & Void (1997-99) initially appeared unconnected but was later revealed to be a prequel to the Shannara series, revealing how our world becomes the one seen in the books.

After this point he wrote the Voyage of the Jerle Shannara series (2000-2002), the High Druid of Shannara trilogy (2003-05), Genesis of Shannara trilogy (2006-08), Legends of Shannara duology (2010-11), Paladins of Shannara short story trilogy (2012-13), Dark Legacy of Shannara trilogy (2012-13), Defenders of Shannara series (2014-16) and the Fall of Shannara quartet (2017-20).

Galaphile, due for publication tomorrow (!), is the first novel in the First Druids of Shannara series and will now be the last novel written by Brooks alone. Delilah Dawson will complete the series with Brooks' input.

Brooks has also written or co-written several Shannara spin-off books. The series spawned both a 1995 computer game and a TV show that ran for two seasons on MTV in 2016-17 and kick-started the career of Austin Butler.

Brooks has written other works, including the Viridian Deep trilogy (2021-23), Street Freaks (2018), and a writing memoir, Sometimes the Magic Works (2003). He also wrote the novelisations for the films Hook (1991) and Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999).

Delilah Dawson is best-known for her Star Wars work, including the novels Phasma and Black Spire. She also worked on the Rick & Morty, Star Pig and Sparrowhawk comic series. Her original fiction includes the Blud series, Shadow sequence and, alongside Kevin Hearne, the Tales of Pell trilogy.

It's very unusual for an author to end their career gracefully and on their own terms. In a 48-year career, Brooks has published 45 novels in total, 33 of them in the Shannara universe, and sold over 50 million books, making him one of the biggest-selling living epic fantasy authors (possibly the biggest-selling, only behind George R.R. Martin). He was rarely a critical darling, but gained an enthusiastic fanbase by writing energetic, pulp fantasy and by being widely-regarded as one of the nicest guys in the business. Here's to an enjoyable retirement.

The Shannara Chronicles: Season 1

The Four Lands is threatened with a devastating invasion from demons. Millennia ago, the demons were imprisoned in the Forbidding, an alternative dimension warded shut by the Ellcrys, a giant magical tree. Now the Ellcrys is dying and the Forbidding is failing, allowing the demons to return. It falls to Wil Ohmsford (the half-elven descendant of the Shannara bloodline), Princess Amberle Elessedil and Eretria, a rover girl, to travel across the Four Lands and restore the Ellcrys and the Forbidding.

Terry Brooks's Shannara series holds an important place in the history of epic fantasy. The first novel in the sequence, The Sword of Shannara (1977), was the first big epic fantasy novel to hit the New York Times bestseller list since Tolkien, and along with Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series ushered in the modern era of fantasy novels. However, The Sword of Shannara has also become a byword for poor-quality fantasy that knocks off Tolkien rather than furthering the development of the genre. Given that the Shannara series (now encompassing twenty-eight novels) has sold almost fifty million copies worldwide, making it one of the biggest-selling fantasy series of all time (only A Song of Ice and Fire, The Wheel of Time, Discworld, Narnia, Middle-earth and Harry Potter - if you count it as epic fantasy - have sold more), it's surprising that it's taken this long for someone to attempt an adaptation.

MTV, sensibly, have ignored the first book in the series (presumably for fear of legal action from New Line) and have instead picked up with the events of the second, The Elfstones of Shannara. These early books in the series were stand-alones, so it's not too much of a problem. It was also a good idea to start with Elfstones as it is possibly the best book Brooks has ever written. MTV also made the very wise choice to emphasise the fact that the Shannara books are set in a post-apocalyptic version of the United States's west coast. Unlike the books, where geography has completely shifted and only vaguely recognisable remnants of the prior age can be seen, the TV show is partially set in the still-recognisable ruins of Seattle and San Francisco and at times adopts a post-apocalyptic vibe far more reminiscent of The 100 rather than Game of Thrones.

These attempts to give The Shannara Chronicles its own character and atmosphere are both laudable and ultimately futile. No design work, exceptional CGI or occasionally inventive genre-bending can make up for serious deficiencies in the script and casting, and the show suffers from both. Dialogue is frequently awful and occasionally reduces the viewer to tears of laughter. Characterisation is deeply flawed, with characters goals and motivations being artificially obvious and change at the whim of the plot. A lot of time is spent on subplots that go nowhere, and there is significant wheel-spinning (a visit to a town called Utopia is total padding). There is also a lot more sex and violence (if mostly of a PG-13 kind) than I remember from the book (including a tiresome  lesbian titillation scene) and a few "shock" twists that serve no purpose.  The villains are charismaless, boring monsters who are more than slightly reminiscent of the orcs from Peter Jackson's Middle-earth movies.

Among the major actors, John Rhys-Davies brings his standard avuncular charm to the role of the elven king but it falls to the charismatic Manu Bennett to single-handedly raise the acting bar for the whole cast. Ivana Baquero builds on the early promise she showed as a child star in Pan's Labyrinth to deliver a good performance as Eretria, ploughing through terrible lines with admirable enthusiasm. Poppy Drayton overcomes early episode woodenness to deliver some better moments as Amberle, but both actresses feel a little wasted on the material. Austin Butler, on the other hand, delivers a flat, one-note performance as Will that never rises above the mediocre. Of the other actors the only one who really stands out is James Remar, a veteran American actor who can chew scenery with the best of them and makes the best of a bad script.

Visually, the show is stunning. Some of the scene-setting CGI is remarkable and the use of the New Zealand landscape is often very well-done. Certainly the show is worth catching in HD if you do plan to watch it. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the music, which draws on a range of MOR American pop with the occasional more interesting track thrown in (Ruele's title song is, fortunately, very good and props to the show for dropping in Woodkid's excellent "Run Boy Run"). But those looking for an original, sweeping, epic score will be let down badly.

The first season of The Shannara Chronicles (**) isn't a complete waste of time. It's visually impressive and cleverly overcomes both the limitations of the so-so soure material and the inevitable comparisons with other fantasy works by playing to its main strength, the post-apocalyptic setting. But in terms of writing, dialogue, acting (a few honourable exceptions aside) and soundtrack, it's a major disappointment. The season will be released on DVD (UK, USA) and Blu-Ray (UK, USA) on 7 June. It has, somehow, been renewed for a second season to air in 2017.

Opening titles for SHANNARA TV series revealed

MTV have revealed the opening title sequence to The Shannara Chronicles, their TV series based on the Shannara novels by Terry Brooks.

The TV series debuts on MTV on 5 January 2016.

SHANNARA CHRONICLES gets airdate and trailer

The Shannara Chronicles has gotten its airdate: the ten-episode first season will debut on MTV in the USA on 5 January 2016.

There's also a new trailer (see above) expanding more on the characters and world.

Trailer for THE SHANNARA CHRONICLES

MTV have released a trailer for The Shannara Chronicles, their ten-episode adaptation of the Terry Brooks epic fantasy novel The Elfstones of Shannara.

The new series will debut in early 2016. If successful, adaptations of some of the other Brooks novels will follow (although, presumably, not all thirty of them).

The trailer looks promising, more promising than the so-so source material (the Shannara books are strictly entry-grade fantasy, although Elfstones is probably the best of them) may have indicated. The books are fairly straightforward epic fantasy, but Brooks does introduce some distinctly weird moments in them and occasionally brings the setting's post-apocalyptic backdrop into use in unexpected ways. The books do evolve as they go along, however, with airships and the hints of advancing technology along the way. The trailer plays up the post-apocalyptic elements more strongly than may have been expected, whilst the visual effects are extraordinarily good. There's also some nice moments of genre self-referencing, particularly the casting of John-Rhys Davis (best known as Gimli in the Lord of the Rings movies) as the King of the Elves.

As a more family-oriented take on fantasy, this should prove an interesting contrast with Game of Thrones and other upcoming fantasy projects.

SHANNARA TV series greenlit

MTV has greenlit a ten-episode TV series based on Terry Brooks's Shannara novels. The first season will be an adaptation of the second novel in the series, The Elfstones of Shannara, presumably on the basis that trying to adapt The Sword of Shannara would result in near-instantaneous lawsuits from the Tolkien Estate and Peter Jackson.

Al Gough and Miles Millar, who produced Smallville, will work as showrunners on the new project, whilst Jon Favreau (the director of the first two Iron Man movies) will act as a producer. Jonathan Liebesman, the director of Battle Los Angeles, Wrath of the Titans and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, will direct the first two episodes.

SHANNARA to become a TV series at...MTV?

Somewhat unexpectedly, MTV has bought the TV rights to Terry Brooks's Shannara series of fantasy novels. John Favreau, the director of the first two Iron Man films, is fuelling the adaptation and may direct the first episode. Smallville showrunners Al Gough and Miles Millar would helm the show on a week-by-week basis. Apparently, MTV has agreed a straight-to-series deal if they like the initial scrips, bypassing the pilot stage.

The plan is to adapt The Elfstones of Shannara, the second novel (the first, The Sword of Shannara, infamously sails a bit too close to the Tolkien winds) as the first season and proceed from there.

The hyperbolic Hollwood Reporter article contains some interesting factual errors:

"The Shannara books are estimated to be the highest-selling un-adapted fantasy book series in the world."

Apart from The Wheel of Time, the Drizzt Do'Urden books and The Dark Tower, of course.

"Brooks is considered to be the second-highest-selling living fantasy author, trailing only Harry Potter mastermind J.K. Rowling."

Not even remotely true. If the previous figures are accurate (26.5 million sales worldwide, 15 million or so in the USA alone), then Brooks has been outsold by Stephen King, Terry Pratchett, R.A. Salvatore, Christopher Paolini, Anne Rice, Stephanie Meyer, Charlaine Harris and George R.R. Martin have outsold him. If, as the article suggests, Brooks's sales are 26 million in the USA alone, that puts his world wide sales likely in the 40-50 million bracket. Even in that case, he's still been outsold by King, Pratchett, Rice and Meyer, and is at parity with Paolini.

Inaccurate reporting aside, this is interesting news. Avoiding The Swords of Shannara, which is both diabolically awful and 'similar' to Lord of the Rings, is a very good idea. The quality of Brooks's writing improves immensely after that first novel. However, given the quality of the source material (readable popcorn entertainment) and the creative forces involved (Smallville was watchable hokum at best), we're probably talking something a lot closer to Legend of the Seeker than Game of Thrones in tone and styling.

Terry Brooks's SHANNARA optioned as a TV series

After the success of Game of Thrones, it was only a matter of time before other epic fantasy works were snapped up for translation to the small screen. Now the first has been announced: an adaptation of the Shannara novels by Terry Brooks.

Terry Brooks's Shannara series was optioned several years ago as a big-budget movie to be helmed by Mike Newell, starting with an adaptation of The Elfstones of Shannara. This is the second novel in the series, chosen presumably due to 'significant' similarities between the first book, The Sword of Shannara, and The Lord of the Rings. However, the project stalled in development. Now it seems to have been revived, with Sonar Entertainment and Farah Films adapting Elfstones as a TV series. Sonar, under a different name, was previously responsible for the Lonesome Dove TV mini-series.

Obviously this is just an option, not a greenlight, and so far no director, showrunner or scriptwriter has been attached to the project.