Word and Void/Shannara

I have always been a major fan of Shannara. Not long ago it came out that Brooks decided to link Word and Void into this lore. Which I found kind of fun. So I added it to my collection of stuff to read. (My list of unread Brooks novels in my collection is rather high right now. I have books from a few years that I haven't touched as of yet.) But I did find Word and Void to be a fun change of pace.

I'm slowly working though the Genesis of Shannara set right now. Almost done with Armageddon's Children. If I'm lucky I will get mostly caught up this year.

So anyone else have any thoughts on the Word and Void being merged with Shannara? For me it means my reading list got a heck of a lot longer.

I could never get into the early Word and Void stuff. I have the first two books, but I every time I read them, I lose interest after a handful of chapters. Never finished them or even tried the third. I guess the relatively modern setting just doesn't appeal to me. So, I wasn't thrilled with the linking of the two series. Not very surprised either, since there was a throw away Word reference way back in the first Shannara book, but very "meh" about the whole thing.

I gave Genesis a shot, though, and enjoyed most of it. The setting was grounded in real world locations, but it had enough fantasy elements going on to provide a nice Shannara feel overall. That was enough to keep me happy with those books. The ending could have been a little better IMO, but the journey to get there was good.

Word and Void is decent enough. A bit of a change in style given that the books only cover three days. However it was rather fun to see the "blending" of the two worlds in Armageddon's Children.

As I am reading though The Gypsy Morph I have come to the conclusion that Brooks seems to up the body count of primary characters that won't make it to the end of the books. Mind you this was a trend he started back in Wishsong. But seems to be a constant theme in his follow up books.

Rylen wrote:

As I am reading though The Gypsy Morph I have come to the conclusion that Brooks seems to up the body count of primary characters that won't make it to the end of the books. Mind you this was a trend he started back in Wishsong. But seems to be a constant theme in his follow up books.

Having just began reading the Shannara series of books last year and having read several of them by now, I think that is the one thing I really dislike most about Terry Brook's writing style which is his love of killing off major characters. It is a huge disappointment to get invested in characters, to come to know them as well as can be expected, and then to see them killed. It's almost heartbreaking. Of course you expect some characters to die at some point when reading a novel, book series, etc., but Brook's seems to go way above the norm for such events.

Right now I have begun reading "The Voyage Of The Jerle Shannara, Ilse Witch", again as I had read some of it a few months ago but got busy and never got back to it so I decided to start again from the beginning to refresh myself. I really loved the few books before this one and I think I am a little disheartened that I won't be reading about all of them and their adventures again, except for one of them who carries over into this book, if I understand correctly. Still, I am looking forward to continuing on with the story. I don't think I have reached the Word and Void stuff yet though so can't comment on that just yet.

Voyage is over all a fun read. I really loved Walker in this bit as he sets up the further books (which I have not fully read yet). Once I'm finished with the two Legacy books I'll be jumping into Voyage and working my way back up till I'm finished. Still though the books are a fun read so long as you understand the nature of how Brooks writes.

Word and Void isn't that bad over all. But the books are set up very differently vs the rest of the books so far. But it was a rather neat idea to tie Word and Void into Shannara.

Still have not gotten a copy of "The Black Staff" from the Legends Of Shannara from my local library yet as the hold I placed hasn't come through yet. So while I am waiting on that book to arrive, I thought I would try reading the Word and Void series again since we already have those at home. I previously read a little of the first book "Running With The Demon" and did not like it that well, however, I recently finished the Genesis series with "Armageddon's Children", "Elves Of Cintra", and "Gypsy Morph" and really enjoyed that series and there were many references to what may have happened in the Word and Void series. Since I have forgotten a lot of what I read previously in "Running With The Demon", I am beginning it from the first again and hope to enjoy it more this go round.

I finished Dark Legacy not long ago. That was just terrible. It felt like Brooks completely lost the plot for a while there. It starts out as an epic quest type of thing - Let's Find the Lost Elfstones, Yay! - but quickly gets derailed into Let's All Die Because We're Stupid. Seriously, it felt like Brooks was just trying to come up with ways to make the main characters walk blindly to their deaths while acting with a little common sense as possible. This is definitely my least favorite entry in the series. The body count was crazy and I hated what he did with Grianne at the end. I don't even like Grianne, but that was a lousy way to treat one of his most used characters.

I didn't like the way the Elfstones of Shannara rehash was handled, either. It was basically a side story to a lousy main story, which is a severe under utilization of the concept. That whole aspect should have been the focus of the books instead of the Doomed Elfstones quest. The introduction of airships a few books back seems like it would cut into that, but Brooks handily solved that by introducing an airship to the journey and then having it crash and killing the entire crew almost immediately. The whole changeling subplot from Elfstones was even repeated.

Just wanted to remind all the Shannara book fans that Terry Brooks newest book in the Shannara series is now published, I believe. This one is called "The Sorcerer's Daughter". I can hardly wait to read this one. Although it has been a good while since I read the previous two books in the series.

If anyone gets to read this book before I do, let us know whether you like it or not and how it fits in the Shannara series in your opinion.

Read an interesting article about Terry Brooks and the last set of Shannara books he is writing:

http://ew.com/books/2016/12/21/terry-br ... -elfstone/