First King of Shannara - Terry Brooks

Introduction Having recently been reintroduced to the Shannara series by chance, I thought it only right to go back and refresh my memory of the prequel to Sword Of Shannara. I had read this book about ten years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it but, due to my poor memory, couldn't remember anything about it other than I liked it!! Terry Brooks is an acclaimed writer of top notch fantasy novels of the Lord Of The Rings genre. The Plot Much like other fantasy books of this genre, First King Of Shannara pretty much follows the set in stone formula cast down by previous classics. It is similar in many ways to Sword Of Shannara, yet ...

In the grand tradition of everyone's favourite epic, 'Lord of the Rings' (by J R R Tolkien), Terry Brooks has managed to create a sweeping vision of good versus evil on our very own humble planet. Unlike 'Lord of the Rings', the Shannara series is set in the future not the past. At some point in the future, once mankind has grown to technological maturity, the Great War wiped out most of the world's population and laid a strange new course for the races. All the old sciences have been lost and, as new races evolved, emphasis has shifted to "magic". The First War of the Races saw a horrific misuse of magic and those who still ...

I found this book easy to read and most enjoyable. The characters are defined very well, and they all bring something relevant to the story, it provides useful background on the history of the Fourlands and how all the creatures relate to each other. The book begins with introducing an associate of the great Druid, Bremen. Kinson has been awaiting Bremen's return from the Northland to find out about the rumored return of the Evil Warlock Lord. Bremen is an extremely powerful sorcerer however because of his insistence of practicing magic the Druids banished him from his home at Paranor. He returns to Paranor to warn them of an impending invasion ...