Wired interview w/ Terry Brooks (new Shannara book)

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by BeccaPrice

How did he pronounce it?

it looks like it should be pronounced sha NAR a.

but then, I pronounce Liaden wrong too.

Terry would tell you that however you choose to pronounce it is the correct way. However, SHAN-a-ruh is how he says it.

[ebusinesstutor]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

Then just in the last few years he actually took a separate world he created- the world(set in our world) in the books of The Word and Void series- and destroyed it. That world became the seed for the Shannara world.

Who else has done that? Pulled two different series together like that? Stephen King has done it by having characters from other books appear in the Gunslinger series but i cant think of others.

Isaac Asimov did this as well when he blended his Foundation and Robot series.

[JD Gumby]

Originally Posted by ebusinesstutor

Isaac Asimov did this as well when he blended his Foundation and Robot series.

Michael Moorcock did it long before either with his various heroes (Elric, Hawkmoon, Bastable, etc.). Really quite annoying when authors do this, especially since it's generally done after the fact rather than when the stories're first being written.

[Rich_D]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

reminds me- hearing Terry Brooks pronounce Shannara in person was disconcerting. I kept feeling like I should correct him for saying it wrong.

Ha! I had the same reaction!

[taosaur]

I for one single out Brooks because he's the hack I've read. The Shannara books were some of my favorites as a tween (before "tween" was a thing), but they did not stand up to an audiobook re-read as an adult. I frequently found myself laughing or groaning at the language, and the parallels to LotR in the first book were shockingly blatant. That said, he does have his strengths--he makes battles and epic acts of magic memorable, conveying factors like terrain and tactics very well. I'm currently listening through The Belgariad for the first time, and while Eddings' has a better overall grasp of the English language, his battles are pretty vague--as relatively few battles or conflicts as there are in the books, I have a knack for falling asleep right in the middle of them.

The truth is I have a limited appetite for fantasy, especially of the Tolkien cover band variety. I find it comfortable for a brainless, non-compelling bedtime story.

[Dulin's Books]

Originally Posted by BeccaPrice

How did he pronounce it?

it looks like it should be pronounced sha NAR a.

but then, I pronounce Liaden wrong too.

thats how i've always said it too(everyone I ever spoke to about them in fact). and the NAR I pronounce NAHR not NAIR.

but he says it sha na rah(or ruh) . like sha na na in that pic before

[Dulin's Books]

Ill agree with Asimov but Id argue Morcock always meant for them to be connected

[JD Gumby]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

Ill agree with Asimov but Id argue Morcock always meant for them to be connected

It only seems that way because the Elric stories are collected out of the original writing and publication order (eg, the story in ''The Sailor on the Seas of Fate'' where Elric meets up with Corum and a version of Erekose was written well after ''Doomed Lord's Passing'', the final story in the chronology). It wasn't until 1970, in ''The Eternal Champion'', that Moorcock started tying everything together, like 9 years after the first Elric story was written and 6 years after Elric's death was chronicled in '64.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Mr. Brooks, you have served me well in the past for filling my spare time.

I only complain about Terry Brooks because I spent too much time reading his stuff when I could have been reading something else, which isn't Mr. Brooks' fault. It's mine. I have now cut back on authors named Terry to just Pratchett.


Most read authors on GoodReads:
Terry Brooks 26
Terry Pratchett 14
Stephen King 13
Terry Goodkind 12
Douglas Coupland 9
Robert Lynn Asprin 8
Douglas Adams 8
J.K. Rowling 7
Kurt Vonnegut 6
Nick Bantock 5
Neil Gaiman 5
Italo Calvino 5
H.G. Wells 5

[Ravensknight]

I gave up on Brooks after not being able to finish the second book in his Legends of Shannara duology.
I enjoyed the first Shannara trilogy, the first book in the Magic Kingdom series. I found his Word and the Void trilogy excellently written, but it depressed me so much that I couldn't really enjoy it.

so I am done with Mr. Brooks. May another generation read his backlist and increase his fortunes...