Well, that was a blast from the past. I read "The Sword of Shannara" around 1980-or-so, followed by "The Elfstones of Shannara" and "The Wishsong of Shannara" as they were published in '82 and '85. And that seemed to be that. A fun trilogy of magic and adventure. The first book a pastiche/homage to Tolkien's books, and the remainder original stories.

I read his follow-up, the unrelated "Magic Kingdom: For Sale", but was not enchanted by this new world and it would be 5 more years before Brooks produced another Shannara novel, though I was mostly unaware of it, at the time. Next thing I know, there seemed to be an entire library of Shannara books! And, to be honest, it was simply too daunting and I turned to various other books of magic, science, mystery and so on.

Now I decided to step back into the pool and chose this one because it is a direct prequel to Sword. It sets up why and how the events of Sword "had to" happen. It fills in the crevices and shines some light in the darker corners of the world, as it appeared in that trilogy.

Once again, it was fun and easy and had it's share of thrills and buckling swashes. Not one of my favourite books, not even one of my favourite fantasy novels, but enough fun and headlong excitement that I do not begrudge the experience. In fact, enough that I am now going to read more. And more, probably... and more... god there are a lot of them! ( )

Even though I've read it before, I thought it started out pretty slow. It wasn't until after the characters parted ways that I felt it got more interesting. Definitely picked up more the more I read. ( )

I'm crushed! This is what I've always feared when rereading childhood favorites! This was good, but I didn't enjoy it very much at all. I started Sword of Shannara, I'm 130 pages in and I just can't get excited about it. I adored these books as a teenager! (It wasn't all that long ago either!) I just moved into a new apartment and brought these from my childhood bedroom, all 12 that I could immediately put my hands on! I wanted to get lost in this world that I once loved so much. Now I'm regretting the valuable shelf space their taking up here, regretting that I left Terry Goodkind's SWORD OF TRUTH in preference of these. I think maybe the time is just not right for me to try these again? I'll try again. I'm not ready to give up on Mr. Brooks. This is very disappointing. ( )

Tenho gostado muito da escrita de Terry Brooks, mas acho este livro um pouco dispensável, pois tudo o que sabíamos que tinha acontecido neste período, vem descrito agora excessivamente em pormenor. As personagens e as batalhas são interessantes mas sinto que o livro está a mais na saga Shannara e era dispensável.

( )

As a long-time reader of the Shannara books, I was very excited to read this one. "First King of Shannara" doesn't disappoint, allowing you to explore the world as it was before the time of the first set of books. Yes, it does drag a little in certain spots, but justifiably so, at least in my opinion. This is definitely one of my favorites in the Shannara series, and I'll certainly be reading is again. ( )