Wow.

[mizkit]

So I just got the Del Rey Internet Newsletter in my mailbox, and the big promo is for THE ELVES OF CINTRA, the latest in the Shannara series and part of the trilogy that I gather ties the Void books together with the Shannara books. There's an interview in the newsletter, and in it, the King of the Silver River is mentioned

Comments

[tersa]

Oddly enough, my favorite book of the original trilogy was Elfstones. I remember re-reading it over and over again all the way up through college (when I discovered a) a paycheck and b) a library that had just about every MZB book ever printed).

(Although, heh. I also remember buying Wishsong right before a trip...to camp. In trade paperback. I still have that copy, in fact, very battered at this point.)

I was so excited when the tetrology of sequels came out when I was in college...and I hated them. A lot.

I can't recall if I still have one of the Jerle Shannara prequel books or not. I know I bought it off eBay at one point but I never read it.

If some people *glares* weren't being so prolific producing their own books, I might actually be able to re-read them. As it is: too many books, not enough time! ;)

[mizkit]

I read...DRUID? Was that the first of the sequels to come out? No, SCIONS. Huh, I must've read both of them, as I'm pretty sure DRUID is the last Shannara book I've read, and I didn't like them as much as I liked the original trilogy--Walker was too unlikeable a character. But 16 years of distance from the entire series might make a difference in my opinion. And it'll probably be 20 years before I get to *reading* them all. Some people *glares* keep being prolific and taking up all my reading time! :)

And yes, ELFSTONES is, I think, the best of the trilogy. It's heartwrenching, but it wasn't the one that made me cry. :)

[tersa]

*giggles*

Amberle's decision made me cry. Especially since...okay, maybe I was slow, but it took me several *years* before I grokked all the nuances of it. I think I may have been too young/naive/inexperienced at 13 to really understand it.

(I can't remember if I cried at Allanon's death or not. He was such a bastard in the first two books, I think my opinion was colored by it. OTOH, I wanted to be Brin. But was also 14 at the time. ;)

[coppervale]

I can still QUOTE my favorite line from ELFSTONES:

"And all the while, the eyes of the Changeling watched him go."

Chilling then, chilling now. And Terry's use of a family lineage to tie novels together, and the effect it had on my OWN writing, cannot be overstated.

[gauroth]

I am currently trying to educate my neighbour's son Ryan in all things fantasy, and he is now reading both the 'Shannara' books and David (and Leigh) Eddings. He loves them because they are long series with lots of references to Past Times that are explained in prequels. In other words, the world-building is very deep. His sensawonda has also inspired me to re-read these books, which were total knock-outs when I first read them a long, long time ago. They stand up pretty well, although there are fantasy books which I now prefer ( eg urban fantasy - and, oh yes, that wonderful C E Murphy lady, whose books even my hard-sf-loving spouse likes!)

[kesmun]

Both my loving spouse and I devour every D&L Eddings book that comes out. We own them all in paperback (except for High Hunt and The Losers). I loved that the original cover artist for EverQuest was also the cover artist for the Elenium/Tamuli double trilogy. Keith Parkinson.

[rfrancis]

I guess you don't want to hear about how I read half of the first Shannara book as a kid and threw it across the room in disgust, never to crack one again, huh. :)

[tayefeth]

I'm trying to remember if the Shannara books are the ones I did that to... It might have been Eddings?, though. I repressed the memory.

I'm sorry to hear that an author Kit likes seems to have caught the dread Tie-It-All-Together disease, though.

[mizkit]

I'm not sure he so much as caught it as--I get the idea there was a lot of intent to have the Void books tie in, ultimately, with the Shannara books. That there were hints right from the start of RUNNING WITH THE DEMON that this could be the same world that the Shannara books had sprung from. So not so much a Heinlein-esque brute-forcing things together as a deliberate crafting of a very long history. (Yes, very Tolkien, I suppose, she said, looking at rfrancis's comment above. :))

[mizkit]

Nah, I know plenty of people who've done that. But I never read Tolkien, which is, I gather, what causes people to throw the Shannara books across the room, so I don't have that particular sullen reaction. :)

[msagara]

The first Shannara novel was the first fiction my father had ever read. I mean ever. Although I was a bookworm, his general feeling about fiction in my childhood was that it was a waste of time -- there was so much to learn, if you were reading, you should be reading non-fiction. But... he loved that book. And I have an unreasonable fondness for it because of that, although by the time I read it, I think I was too old for it.

And thanks for the pointer to the pbray piece about life after trilogies. I posted there. It was, of course, long, lol.

[mizkit]

I'm staggered by the revelation that the SUN SWORD books get an off-page character halfway through her story arc. *laughs* So! Much! Story!