Shannara | |
| Picture to be Inserted | Lately I have not had much time for recreational activity but have had the time to read on my daily bus commute. Problem is, I quickly went through the books in my little library. Two of the books I had read were by Terry Brooks, parts of his Shannara series. I thoroughly enjoyed these action-packed epics and decided to purchase more of his works and shop for other good books as well. I scanned the phone book for book stores in my area. The listings are pathetic. Almost all the book stores listed are located in the west. A few are centrally located, a few in the southeast. Those very few that are listed in the northeast are all specialty book stores. Their goods are limited to pornography or gambling or religion. I have seen no general interest book stores in my area of town. Chain stores appear to have a prejudice against low income neighborhoods. Big mistake. Bus riders are usually low income (unless they are tourists traveling the Strip). Commuters like me often carry a book to while away the travel time. Reading for pleasure has enormous mass appeal and considering how many hours of pleasure a book provides this is a very inexpensive form of entertainment. Rather than go across town to a book store I went on line and joined the Science Fiction Book Club to beef up my library. The Shannara books by Terry Brooks are very well written action fantasy novels, employing the usual compliment of magic, sword play and epic quests. The series seems to span over a thousand years all in all. The best way I can describe the time frame is (absurd as this sounds) post-post apocalyptic. There are references in the books to the Great Wars of the distant past in which humanity was decimated and technological advances virtually lost. In the aftermath humans evolved divergently into what are called the races of Man, Troll, Dwarf, Gnome and Mwellret. The Elves are sometimes thought to be another human subspecies but claim descent from powerful magical beings that preceded humanity. During the time span of the Shannara series, these descendants of humans have managed to form new civilizations largely without the technologies that were lost after the Great Wars. Magic is not prevalent and is widely viewed with distrust, except by the Elves, who see magic as the lost technology of their ancestors. |
| List of books | |