Terry Brooks

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Terence Dean "Terry" Brooks (born January 8, 1944 - Age 64) is a writer of fantasy fiction. He writes mainly epic fantasy,[1] and has also written two movie novelizations. He has written 22 New York Times bestsellers during his writing career,[1] and has over 21 million copies of his books in print.[2] He is the second-biggest selling living fantasy writer, behind J.K. Rowling.[3]

Contents

Biography

Brooks was born in the rural midwestern town of Sterling, Illinois and spent a large part of his life living there.[4] He is an alumnus of Hamilton College, obtaining his B.A. in English Literature in 1966.[4] 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.[4]

Brooks had been a writer since high school, writing mainly in the genres of science fiction, western, fiction, and non-fiction.[4] 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.[4] 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. [4] This novel became the first fantasy book ever to appear on the New York Times bestseller list, where it stayed for five months.[4]

After finishing two sequels (which were originally intended as stand-alone novels) to The Sword of Shannara, Brooks moved on to the series which would become known as the Landover novels.[4] Brooks then wrote four-book series titled The Heritage of Shannara.[4] 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.

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. „

Brooks, Terry (1999-2008). "Ask Terry Q&A - Writing". Retrieved on 2008-09-14

Bibliography

Shannara series

Note: The list below represents Terry Brooks' suggested reading order for those who are new to the series.[5]

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)

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)

Prequel

  1. First King of Shannara (1996)

Word & Void

The Word & Void 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)

The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy

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

High Druid of Shannara trilogy

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

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)[6]

Shannara related works

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)[8]

Novelizations

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

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)

Film adaptations

The rights to a film adaptation for all of the Shannara novels have been sold to Warner Bros until 2010.[9] The Elfstones of Shannara, the first planned film,[9] will be directed by Mike Newell,[10] who was also responsible for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.[11] 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.[9]

External links

References

  1. ^ 1.0 1.1 Speakman, Shawn (2008). "Terry Brooks' official website". Retrieved on 2008-05-19
  2. ^ JiveMagazine Interview with Terry Brooks
  3. ^ "Studio plans Shannara film series". BBC News (2007-06-06) Retrieved on 2008-09-07.
  4. ^ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 Speakman, Shawn (2008). "Terry Brooks' official biography". Retrieved on 2008-05-19
  5. ^ Speakman, Shawn (2008). "Terry's Suggested Reading Order". Retrieved on {{{date}}}
  6. ^ "Terry Brooks' Website". Retrieved on 2008-01-20.
  7. ^ "Terry Brooks' Website". Retrieved on 2007-10-28.
  8. ^ "Terry Brooks' Website". Retrieved on 2007-10-28.
  9. ^ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Speakman, Shawn (2008). "Possible movie adaptations for the Shannara series". Retrieved on 2008-05-19
  10. ^ The Elfstones of Shannara (2009)
  11. ^ Mike Newell at IMDB.


Wikipedia This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Terry Brooks. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with The World of Shannara, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.



A Knight of the Word  Angel Fire East  Antrax  Armageddon's Children  Artifacts  Artwork  Bearers of the Black Staff  Borderlands  Characters  Chosen  Creatures  Demons  Druids  Dwarves  Eastland  Elven Royal Family  Elves  Events  First King of Shannara  Genesis of Shannara  Ghosts  Gnomes  High Druid of Shannara  History  Ilse Witch  Jarka Ruus  Knights of the Word  Legends of Shannara  Maps  Men  Morgawr  Northland  Novels  Ohmsfords  Original Shannara Trilogy  Places  Polls  Races  Running with the Demon  Southland  Straken  Stub  Stubs  Tanequil  Terry Brooks  The Druid of Shannara  The Elf Queen of Shannara  The Elfstones of Shannara  The Elves of Cintra  The Gypsy Morph  The Heritage of Shannara  The Measure of the Magic  The Scions of Shannara  The Sword of Shannara  The Talismans of Shannara  The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara  The Wishsong of Shannara  Timelines  Trackers  Trolls  Villains  Westland  Word & Void 
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