Terry Brooks

Terry Brooks
Born	(1944-01-08) January 8, 1944 Sterling, Illinois
Occupation	author, former attorney
Nationality	United States
Genre	High fantasy, Contemporary fantasy
Website
http://www.terrybrooks.net

Terence Dean "Terry" Brooks (born January 8, 1944) is a writer of fantasy fiction. Terry Brooks writes mainly high fantasy, and has also written two movie novelizations.

He was born in the rural midwestern town of Sterling, Illinois and spent a large part of his life living there. He is an alumnus of Hamilton College, obtaining his B.A. in English Literature in 1966. He later obtained a J.D. from Washington and Lee University. He was a practicing attorney before becoming a full-time author, and now resides in Seattle, Washington.

Brooks had been a writer since high school, writing mainly in the genres of science fiction, western, fiction, and non-fiction. One day, in his early college life, he was given a copy of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, which inspired him to write in one genre. He then made his debut in 1977 with his first novel The Sword of Shannara. This novel became the first fantasy book ever to appear on the New York Times bestseller list, where it stayed there for five months.

After finishing the sequels to The Sword of Shannara, Brooks moved on to the series which would become known as the Landover series. Upon finishing these novels, Brooks began to write a four book series that became The Heritage of Shannara. For the next fourteen years, he wrote more Landover books, then went on to write The Word and Void trilogy. Continuing the Shannara series, Brooks wrote the prequel to The Sword of Shannara, titled First King of Shannara. He then wrote two series, The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara and High Druid of Shannara and is continuing with a third, Genesis of Shannara. The second book of his new series, Elves of Cintra, came out August 28, 2007. Now, Brooks lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife, Judine.

Brooks has a possible movie deal for his Magic Kingdom for Sale book (see here). Warner Bros has bought the movie rights to the Shannara Series and may base the first movie on The Elfstones of Shannara. [1]

Bibliography

Word & Void series

The Word & Void series series are set in the same universe as the Shannara series, and precede the action in Genesis of Shannara trilogy.

1. Running with the Demon (1997)
2. A Knight of the Word (1998)
3. Angel Fire East (1999)

Shannara series

Genesis of Shannara trilogy

1. Armageddon's Children (August, 2006)
2. The Elves of Cintra (August 28, 2007)
3. The Gypsy Morph (forthcoming, September, 2008)

Prequel

1. First King of Shannara (1996)

The Original Shannara Trilogy

1. The Sword of Shannara (1977)
2. The Elfstones of Shannara (1982)
3. The Wishsong of Shannara (1985)

The Heritage of Shannara tetralogy

1. The Scions of Shannara (1990)
2. The Druid of Shannara (1991)
3. The Elf Queen of Shannara (1992)
4. The Talismans of Shannara (1993)

The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy

1. Ilse Witch (2000)
2. Antrax (2001)
3. Morgawr (2002)

High Druid of Shannara trilogy

1. Jarka Ruus (2003)
2. Tanequil (2004)
3. Straken (2005)

Shannara related works

• Shannara computer game (1995) by Lori Ann Cole and Corey Cole
• The World of Shannara (2001) (companion book)
• Indomitable (2003) (short story published in anthology Legends II)
• Dark Wraith of Shannara (forthcoming, March 25, 2008) (graphic novel)

Magic Kingdom of Landover series

1. Magic Kingdom For Sale -- SOLD! (1986)
2. The Black Unicorn (1987)
3. Wizard at Large (1988)
4. The Tangle Box (1994)
5. Witches' Brew (1995)
6. Untitled Book 6 (forthcoming, September, 2009)

Novelizations

• Hook (1991)
• Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace (1999)

Other

• Imaginary Friends (1991) (short story published in anthology Once Upon a Time: A Treasury of Modern Fairy Tales)
• Indomitable (2003) (short story published in anthology Legends II)
• Why I Write About Elves (2005) (short story published as an Amazon short)
• The Writers Complete Fantasy Reference: An Indispensable Compendium of Myth and Magic (Writer's Digest Books, 2000), with Michael J. Varhola
• Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life (2003)

Movie adaptations

Warner Bros. has optioned the film rights to the Shannara series until 2010. This entitles Warner to adapt any or all of the Shannara or pre-Shannara novels (Armageddon's Children and The Elves of Cintra, but not the Word/Void trilogy) as a live-action movie. Brooks expects Warner to begin by adapting The Elfstones of Shannara. Warner has already bought a script adaptation of Elfstones written by fantasy author Eldon Thompson.

Universal Studios has optioned the film rights to the Landover series until 2009 .

External links

• Terry Brooks Official Site
• The Shannara Files - a Shannara fansite
• Terry Brooks at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• An audio interview with Terry Brooks (MP3 format) from Hour 25
• Terry Brooks Has a Vision For His New Series