The Fall of Shannara series by Terry Brooks

I hadn’t been planning to read this. I found the Shannara books early on after I found Tolkien, and devoured all of them, and kept on reading them as new ones came out - but that stopped a while back, and I’ve missed two or three series that Brooks has since published. I was maturing as a reader, and coming to recognize just how samey they were (though Brooks’ reputation as writing Tolkien clones is actually extremely off base, but that’s a subject for a different post). But I was aware that Brooks had said The Fall of Shannara would be the conclusion of the Shannara world, not just the next series, and the more I thought about it, the more I felt the need to actually read it. Revisit something from childhood, as it were.

I didn’t approach it without trepidation. I have a sort of tradition where every few years I will feel compelled to get a Hostess or Little Debbie cake, remembering how much I used to like them as a kid, and find that they mostly taste like corn syrup and disappointment. This felt like that sort of thing. But, as with my every-couple-years tradition of eating a bite or two off of a Hostess cupcake, I nevertheless felt compelled to give this a go.

Thanks to the Del Ray folks for the ARC of the final book in the quadrilogy.

I’ll be reviewing this series on two levels. First, as a series on its own merits, then as a conclusion to the Shannara saga.

As a series on its own, this is OK. It’s better than most of the more recent Shannara books I’ve read, but not as good as Elfstones or Wishsong. I’d rank it somewhere below the Scions quadrilogy, more or less on par with the Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy. (my personal ranking is Elfstones/Wishsong > Scions > Voyage > several series that all kind of blur together > Sword > First King) Brooks has always been able to write a page turner, and he doesn’t disappoint here - I burned through all four books in a little over a week. In some ways this was very familiar. You have a Leah swordsman, an Elessedil prince, an Ohmsford descendant or two. You have a Druid order that’s gradually devolved into petty power politics and is neglecting its duties, and as such is vulnerable to being wiped out except for one last survivor left to continue the order and fight the evil of the day. You don't have the Sword of Shannara itself, or a McGuffin, or the Vastly Outnumbered Good Guy Army fighting a Desperate Holding Action at Strategic Choke Point.

As to how things developed - it went in some directions I expected, and a lot I didn't. Not going to say much more than that. Characters were a mixed bag. Some I liked a great deal, others just fell flat. Brooks has always been kind of weak at creating believable bad guys who don't just go "Yay Evil!" and the bad guys here aren't anything to write home about. It all adds up to a series that, on its own, is a decent but ultimately forgettable popcorn read.

But it doesn't stand on its own, so now let's talk about it as a conclusion to what I'm pretty sure is the longest running of fantasy sagas.

Here, I have to say, it works very well. One of the reasons we don't have McGuffins is that Brooks has always been the Lord of McGuffins, and he leans into all the assorted talismans he's created over the years rather than invent new ones in a way that feels very organic. All the history of the Ohmsfords and Druids and the rest of the Four Lands is built on to get things where they are today. (Though I do think Brooks was being a little cheeky to name a character Shea Ohmsford, even if he did hang a lampshade on it) ("Shea Ohmsford? Really? Are you having me on?" "No, that's just my name.")

A theme going all the way back to Sword of Shannara has been the conflict between magic and science as to which was the "better" source of power. Science is more reliable than magic, but does have the rather significant mark against it of having destroyed the old world. Brooks' world has never been stuck in pseudo-Medieval stasis, and science has been advancing somewhat steadily for the thousands of years covered, while magic has ebbed and flowed. The conflict (or synergy) between the two is a central theme to this book, and it felt like a good wrap up to that debate.

The ending is ambiguous in the best way possible. It gave me the same kind of feeling as the last moment of Star Trek: The Next Generation, when Picard finally joins the poker game and the series ends with him saying "five card stud, nothing wild, and the sky's the limit." The last scene felt absolutely perfect.

So well done, Terry, and thank you for years is entertainment and providing loads of fuel for a young reader's imagination.

I commented earlier about the whole Tolkien clone thing being unfair. I think for my next audiobook relisten I'll do the original Shannara trilogy, so keep an eye out for my thoughts on that in a few months.