About[]
Terence Dean “Terry” Brooks (born January 8, 1944) is a writer of fantasy fiction. Terry Brooks writes mainly high fantasy, and has also written two movie novelizations.
Personal Life[]
Brooks was born in the rural midwestern town of Sterling, Illinois and spent a large part of his life there. His father was a printing company owner, and his mother was a homemaker. He is an alumnus of Hamilton College, obtaining his B.A. in English Literature in 1966. He later obtained a J.D. from the School of Law at Washington & Lee University.
After graduating, Brooks joined a small practice, mainly involved with family law. He had begun working on The Sword of Shannara in law school but did not quit to become a full-time writer until after the completion of The Wishsong of Shannara.
Brooks married Barbara O'Banion in 1972 and had two children, Amanda and Alex. In 1986, during a book tour event in Seattle, he met Judine Alba, a district manager for Waldenbooks. He left Barbara and married Judine in 1987. The couple divides their time between their Seattle home, the three acres that Brooks owns in Oregon, and a million-dollar home in Hawaii.
Writing[]
Brooks had been a writer since high school, writing mainly in the genres of science fiction, western, fiction, and nonfiction. 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. He then made his debut in 1977 with his first novel The Sword of Shannara. This novel became the first fantasy book ever to appear on the New York Times bestseller list, where it stayed there for five months.
After writing two sequels to The Sword of Shannara, Brooks moved on to the series which would become known as the Magic Kingdom of Landover series. Upon finishing these novels, Brooks wrote a four book series that became The Heritage of Shannara tetralogy. For the next fourteen years, he wrote more Landover books, then went on to write the Word and Void trilogy. He then wrote a Sword of Shannara prequel titled First King of Shannara. After First King he continued writing Shannara novels for another twenty-five years, culminating in the publication of The Last Druid in 2020; this book is the final book in the chronological order of in-universe events. Including the Word/Void novels, which were revealed in Genesis of Shannara to be a prequel to the entire Shannara series, Brooks has release over 30 full-length Shannara novels.
In the past, Brooks had a potential movie deal in the works for his first Landover book, Magic Kingdom For Sale -- Sold! For the Shannara novels, Warner Brothers had bought movie rights and had been thinking of basing an initial Shannara movie on The Elfstones of Shannara. Ultimately, Brooks worked with Viacom to produce a TV show called The Shannara Chronicles, which aired on MTV and then Spike TV for two seasons from 2016-2017.
Brooks has named The Last Druid as his final book in the Shannara timeline and has now moved on to writing a new fantasy series. The second book in this new, unnamed series is titled Daughter of Darkness and is set to be published on October 11, 2022.
Bibliography[]
All full-length original novels are sorted by chronological order of in-universe events. Other works are sorted by publication or release date.
Shannara Series[]
- Running with the Demon (1997)
- A Knight of the Word (1998)
- Angel Fire East (1999)
- Armageddon's Children (2006)
- The Elves of Cintra (2007)
- The Gypsy Morph (2008)
- Bearers of the Black Staff (2010)
- The Measure of the Magic (2011)
Prequel to the Original Shannara Trilogy
- First King of Shannara (1996)
- The Sword of Shannara (1977)
- The Elfstones of Shannara (1982)
- The Wishsong of Shannara (1985)
- The Scions of Shannara (1990)
- The Druid of Shannara (1991)
- The Elf Queen of Shannara (1992)
- The Talismans of Shannara (1993)
The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara
- Ilse Witch (2000)
- Antrax (2001)
- Morgawr (2002)
- Jarka Ruus (2003)
- Tanequil (2004)
- Straken (2005)
- Wards of Faerie (2012)
- Bloodfire Quest (2013)
- Witch Wraith (2013)
- The High Druid's Blade (2014)
- The Darkling Child (2015)
- The Sorcerer's Daughter (2016)
- The Black Elfstone (2017)
- The Skaar Invasion (2018)
- The Stiehl Assassin (2019)
- The Last Druid (2020)
Other Shannara-related Works
- The Guide to Shannara (1986)
- Shannara (1995) - computer game, by Lori Ann Cole and Corey Cole
- The World of Shannara (2001, revised 2009) - companion book, with Teresa Patterson
Magic Kingdom of Landover[]
- Magic Kingdom For Sale -- Sold! (1986)
- The Black Unicorn (1987)
- Wizard at Large (1988)
- The Tangle Box (1994)
- Witches' Brew (1995)
- A Princess of Landover (2009)
Viridian Deep[]
- Child of Light (2021)
- Daughter of Darkness (2022)
- Sister of Starlit Seas (2023)
Short Stories and Short Story Collections[]
- “Imaginary Friends” (1991) — short story, published in Once Upon a Time: A Treasury of Modern Fairy Tales and reprinted in Unfettered: New Tales by Masters of Fantasy (2013)
- “Indomitable” (2003) — short story, published in Legends II: New Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy and reprinted in Small Magic (2021)
- Dark Wraith of Shannara (2008) — graphic novel
- Paladins of Shannara — short story eBook trilogy
- Allanon’s Quest (2012)
- The Weapons Master’s Choice (2013)
- The Black Irix (2013)
- Small Magic (2021) — short story collection
Novelizations[]
- Hook (1991)
- Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace (1999)
Non-fiction[]
- Why I Write About Elves (2005) - essay published as part of the Amazon Shorts program
- Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life (2003)