The Beginning of the End of Shannara

As mentioned in a previous blog post (“Of Elfstones and Tolkien” I believe I titled it) I’m a newcomer to Terry Brooks and the main Shannara books (from Elfstones forward, timeline-wise).

I have discovered and read an interview with Terry Brooks from a few years back when he was in Montreal. He’s going to end Shannara.

His latest set of books, “The Defenders of Shannara” (The High Druid’s Blade, The Darkling Child, and the most recent Sorcerer’s Daughter) is meant to serve as a ‘pre-conclusion’ to the final trilogy which will end the entire Shannara saga. So Defenders will lead into, or be very closely connected to the final trilogy, would be my guess.

As of that interview, the first of the final three books is scheduled to be published in 2017. That interview mentions august 2017, but on his website, Brook mentioned that the ‘target’ date will be May. I’m guessing on how well the writing goes. If it goes well? May or sooner. If not as well as he hoped? Possibly August or later, but still 2017.

Since that the final trilogy will be the FINAL trilogy, I’m curious what the trilogy will be called, as well as the individual book titles. Now, I’ve yet to read any Shannara books, despite owning some of the books. I haven’t been reading any spoilers or sumamries of the books, just the names of the series within Shannara as well as the titles for the installments within. So I can't really gauge or guess what, or how, this final trilogy will go. But I’d like to make a few guesses, based on titles alone, and following a few patterns I’ve noticed. This next section of the post is all speculation, and thoughts and opinions I have.

First of all, what could the trilogy’s title be?

I’ve noticed that all the series within Shannara have the word ‘Shannara’ in them. Would it be too simple or insulting to call it “The End of Shannara”? I don’t think Brooks would go that route. It will most likely be indicated on the packaging of the book, somewhere somehow, that this trilogy will be the last. Brooks, as well as other authors, would want the title to SOUND cool, rather than “Hey! It’s the final trilogy!” or “we’re finally here….”

If “Defenders of Shannara” is meant to be a ‘lead in’ (you know, like The Two Towers, Half-Blood Prince, Towers of Midnight…) to the endgame, then perhaps the name could also mirror, relate, or reference the title of that series. So I’ve got a few that mirror it but I’m not sure how good they’ll sound as titles: “The Attack of Shannara” or “The War of Shannara” come to mind, in terms of thinking of the term ‘defenders’. But really who knows at this point! That was just me guessing. It will be interesting to see what the trilogy will be called, as well the individual book titles.

Either way, the first of the last three books will be published in 2017 sometime if all goes well for Terry. Based on his writing and publication dates of his books in the past, the final (main?) book of Shannara to be out in 2018, or 2019.

I intend to start reading them at some point - perhaps this year. I have two sets of 'reading' : physical books, and ebooks for traveling, commuting...basically on-the-go.  I'm very close to reading both movie related Warcraft books by Christie Golden (Durotan, and the novelization of the film), then I hope to delve into Shannara - could could very well be just as 2017 starts out.

[my intended reading order is, in order: Elfstones of Shannara, Wishsong of Shannara, Heritage of Shannara series, Voyage of the Jerle Shannara series, High Druid of Shannara series, Dark Legacy of Shannara series, Defenders of Shannara series, and the final series of Shannara]