[DiapDealer]

I recently finished up Terry Brooks' final Shannara series "The Fall of Shannara". I've not really been that excited about many of these later series', but after an investment of 40+ years, I felt compelled to at least see it through.

Much like the other Shannara series of recent years, this last four-book installment played out like a greatest hits album of Brooks' favorite rehashed plotlines and magical conundrums from his older Shannara books (only the characters' names are changed to confuse the innocent).

Simon Vance did an excellent job of narrating the audio books, but even he couldn't make it all very meaningful. Make no mistake: this was no triumphant finale, 40+ years in the making. It was a commercially-baked chocolate-chip cookie. OK, but nothing to get excited about.

He may write more prequels and gap-fillers in the Shannara universe, but I'm done. Happy memories for a younger me and these books, but older me is just tired of giving the newer stuff a chance to break out of Brooks' own quagmire of canon and plot rehashes. R.I.P Shannara.