The Sword of Shannara

Book Review

Writing for more then 28 years, author Terry Brooks has captured fantasy genre readers through his captivating series’. Most notably, The Sword of Shannara, lasted as a New York Times Best Seller for more then five months, and from there he has wrote sixteen others as well. Now he takes the reader even farther back, to the prequel of the classic Shannara series, First King of Shannara. This tale brings you a story of adventure, magic and myth that shows the secret evil that is slowly building throughout the land, and it’s up to four people of diverse races to stop it. Two main characters in First King of Shannara, Bremen and Mareth, find themselves on a perilous journey in the imagination of Terry Brooks, which proves to us the inevitable and ever-living powerful importance of friendship and how sacred it can be when everything else seems to go all wrong.

The author of the First King of Shannara, Terry Brooks, wrote the series of Shannara because of the faith and encouragement of his friends and family. He acknowledged his parents because they always “believed’ and that translates that they always encouraged him to be what he wanted, or do what he wanted to do. I think this allowed Terry Brookes to open up his imagination to new things, to allow it to piece together what he wanted to write about. Various types of situations the characters get themselves into reflect on different genres of writings. From tragedy all the way to mystery, he explains between-the-lines his interest in different types of genres, that is what makes this fantasy tale a great one.

Bremen, out of all the main characters in the story, glues it all together being the leader-like figure of the story. His old age provides a definite father for the younger characters in the story; and his wisdom is not comparable to anybody else. As the book begins, Terry Brooks comes right out and tells that he is an outcast of the Druid Council (A group of knowledgeable people of different races who search and find everything about old world magic and science.). The reason for this being is because he chooses certain beliefs about certain things pertaining to issues and is stubborn to think otherwise. For example, after he learns of the rising evil in the land, he goes directly to the Council for support of the issue, and to evacuate people in the area immediately. They laugh and mock him,...

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...Never have I read a book that actually picked me up, and placed me into the book. This book actually took me into a battle, then to a quiet town, then into the battle again. Sometimes Brooks even got me to feel the ambiance or mood of certain things or places. Never has a book done that to me. I don’t think I would recommend it for a student looking for comedy, or a laugh, but I would recommend it to everyone else. This book covers tons of different genres, in a matter of a chapter or two. This book has captured me enough to continue reading the trilogy of Shannara.

First King of Shannara showed us who we depend on when the times get tough. Because his friends and parents believed in what he wanted to do; Terry Brooks had the chance to give us a suspenseful tale of magic and adventure. The book showed us Bremen, the glue-stick of the story and a wise father figure and teacher. The book also gave us an opposite, Mareth who took us on a wild ride of her mysterious past and her creepy thoughts. Most important it showed us of just how important friendship can be; how even through the tough times we always understand that there is and will forever be someone we can trust and depend on.