Return to Landover

I've written several times here on the blog about my love of author Terry Brooks. I've always talked about books in (or related to) his best-known series, the Shannara books, because that's what he's been writing in one form or another for the last 15 years or so.

But he does have another series, The Magic Kingdom of Landover. These are a bit more light-hearted and fanciful in tone, as much fairy tale as high fantasy. They also didn't sell as well as the Shannara books, and I suspect that he may have had some small pressure from his publishers to steer clear of the series. More than a dozen Shannara books since, however, appears to have given him the leeway to return to this other series -- the sixth book, A Princess of Landover, comes out tomorrow in hardcover.

The books in this series each stand alone, complete tales unto themselves, but since it had been a decade-and-a-half since I'd last read any of them, I felt like "preparing" for the new book by catching up on the previous five.

It started with Magic Kingdom For Sale -- Sold! The story is about a lawyer from Chicago who has reached a crossroads in his life. He's profoundly unhappy, and desperate for any sort of change in his routine. He happens across a bizarre ad in a department store catalogue, and though he knows it can't possibly be for real, purchases the kingship of an honest-and-true fantasy land.

Of course, it does turn out to be true -- though not without some unexpected complications. The kingdom is in a poor state, with feuding vassals, rampaging demons, and failing magic. Our Hero must put all of this right and comes to terms with the reality of this fantasy.

Magic Kingdom for Sale -- Sold! is an interesting book in Terry Brooks' career. It's the first one he wrote as a full-time author after leaving his previous profession as... you might have guessed... a lawyer. You can tell in reading it that there are some personal issues being worked out in the writing of it, of abandoning the stability of life to run around in a fantasy world. Some of it is not quite engaging, but it does stay well clear of being self-indulgent, as I think many writers who put a lot of themselves into a work sometimes get.

The writing style is interesting to compare and contrast with some of the books he's written more recently. In some cases, you can see his technique is rather less evolved here -- as you'd expect of a 20-year old book. He sometimes has a tendency of repeating information, sometimes several times a chapter as a character tries to "reason through" a particular puzzle.

But on other occasions, the writing is different in a very good way. When writing Shannara, Terry Brooks must always find ways to describe things completely within the walls of a high fantasy perspective. Here, his main character is a regular guy from our world, and some of the action takes place in it. That frees him up to use other kinds of language, draw other metaphors, reference bits of pop culture (well... mid-80s pop culture), and so forth. It's a writer stretching outside of the area in which he's most comfortable, often succeeding in that, and to be commended for the effort.

Before setting out to re-read this book, I don't think I could have recounted the plot with any great accuracy, but as soon as I was a few chapters in, most of it had come rushing back to me. I suppose that speaks well of it, since it's been so many years. Still, it's not quite as satisfying a ride as some of his other books. I would recommend it, but a bit less enthusiastically than the trilogy he just completed. I give Magic Kingdom a B+.

More books to follow...