Terry Brooks is the king of accessible fantasy. Many current day fantasy authors cite Brooks as their gateway to the fantasy genre when they were kids. Despite a mixed reception of his work, as some critics have accused Brooks of lifting many plot points and character types from Tolkien, many readers still have affection for his work. Brooks is a great way for a first time reader to get into fantasy. So here’s a beginners guide to Terry Brooks.
The Sword of Shannara - Brooks’s first book, the 1977 The Sword of Shannara, is notable for being the first fantasy novel to be a bestseller since The Lord of the Rings. Before The Sword of Shannara came out, fantasy was considered to be a dying genre. The story of Flick and Shea, living in a quiet valley of Shady Valley, they have their world turned upside down when druid Allanon shows up to inform them of their dynasty. Shea is adopted, and doesn’t know much about his past. However, Allanon informs Shea that he is the one heir to the Shannara dynasty and is the only one who can yield the infamous Sword of Shannara against a dangerous warlord. Thus Flick and Shea put together a merry band of men and go on a quest to find the magical sword. This would lead to Brooks’s longest running series, the Shannara chronicles.
The Word and Void Trilogy - Starting with Running With the Demon, Brooks’s 1997 novel, this trilogy would become one of Brooks’s most acclaimed works. The story of Nest Freeman, a teenage girl, meets a man named John Ross, who is plagued by nightmares of a dystopian future. He comes to Nest Freeman’s town to warn her she has powers she does not yet understand. This leads to a massive battle between good and evil. This trilogy is considered by many publications to be one of the best fantasy series of the modern era.
Landover - One of Brooks’s more humorous series, starting with Magic King For Sale - Sold, his 1986 series, this 6 book series follows Ben Holiday, a unhappy lawyer in Chicago who one day gets a mysterious catalogue in the mail, telling him they are selling a magic kingdom. Believing the catalogue to be a joke, he goes ahead and buys the magic kingdom. Next thing he knows, he is whisked away to a magic world, Landover, which includes a wizard, a talking dog and a mysterious green woman named Willow, who he falls for. This series is a fun adventure filled series, while at the same time, a spoof of fantasy convictions of the very gerne Brooks writes for.
Street Freaks - A rare science fiction novel by Brooks, this 2018 novel is about a boy named Ashton Collins who is left behind by his father and is forced onto the streets of a future dystopian Los Angeles. He finds a group of teens, who are outcasts, and discovers a life he never knew. As he settles into life with this new found family, he has to unveil the mystery of why his father left him behind.
These are some of Terry Brooks’s novels to start with. I think of his novels as fantasy adventure novels, as they are jam packed with action and move very fast. If you want to read fantasy, but don’t want Tolken-ish descriptions that tend to go on for a while, Brooks is a good choice. His works are page turners, and he writes a lot of books in a series. The Shannara series alone has 30+ books. So, he’s a good choice for a fun fantasy novel.
