The Druid of Shannara

By: Terry Brooks

Narrated by: John Lee

The second volume of The Heritage of Shannara, which continues one of the most popular fantasy series of all time

Ancient evil forces remain in control of the Four Lands. To restore the Kepp of the Druid Allanon, Walker Boh sets out on a journey to find the black Elfstone. After narrowly escaping death, he learns that the Elfstone lies in the hands of the Stone King. Now Walker Boh must venture into perilous, unknown lands with a strange band of fellow travelers that includes Morgan Leah, whose once-magic sword has been broken; Quickening, the daughter of the ancient King; and Pe Ell, an assassin who hatches his own dark, sinister plot.

Thus continues the enthralling Shannara epic, a spellbinding tale of adventure, magic, and myth....

©2016 Terry Brooks (P)2016 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"If Harry Potter has given you a thirst for fantasy and you have not discovered the magic of Terry Brooks, you are in for a treat." ( Rocky Mountain News)

"If you were delighted and entranced by Michael Ende's The Never Ending Story, you will definitely want to sample one of more of Terry Brooks's books." ( Santa Cruz Sentinel)

Pretty Good

Great performance from John Lee, however the story is decent. Like some have said before, this story felt like filler content. I never really felt the urge to continue listening after the breaks I took from the story. The only reason I continued through this book was to get to the next one. The characters that were specific to this book were ok. None felt memorable or very impactful. This story could have been played out much better, but unfortunately the majority of the story was predictable.

Classic epic continues

Great, yes. Dated, a bit. For example, this one has a bit of a gender bias, but the next book compensates.

For me, I feel this novel and its corpus mark a clear contrast to the brevity of style that marks the works specifically aimed at the younger end of the YA audience. This book is totally suitable for younger readers in content and theme, but I think its wordiness and lengthy interior monologs might be less engaging. It does not read like Tolkien and I would recommend that youngest readers become enamored with Middle Earth first.

Great story

I remember reading this what it was first published. Now I revisited as an audiobook, and I really enjoyed the performance.

does not disappoint

This book is an excellent continuation of the Shannara Chronicles. And no one could narrate it better than John Lee.

It's Slow!

This is the slowest book I've read in the series so far. Overall it was not a fun book for me.

Classic

One of my all time favorites. Terry Brooks almost never disappoints. And this one is one of his best.

Terry Brooks and John Lee: Great for Shannara!

I am thoroughly enjoying Shannara by Brooks, as read by John Lee. Great Audible Experience!

How can these books, get "better and better"?

😃
I've even gotten used to John Lee's "ups-and-downs"... lol...
And now, I just HAVE TO , buy the third book.
Now...
Now...
Immediately!
🤩

Best book of the series so far

Could not stop listening to this one. Same way it was reading the story in 93. Already looking fed to the elf queen. Hope the story is just as good.

Finding the Black Elfstone

The Druid of Shannara continues the story begun in The Scions of Shannara. In that story, three descendants of the Ohmsford family were charged with three tasks to save the world of the Four Lands from the latest threat by the current crop of evil beings. You will probably enjoy this book more if you have read the previous book.

This second book focuses primarily on the quest of Walker Boh, who was meant to find the Black Elfstone and use it to restore the Druid Keep of Paranor to the world. His first attempt doesn’t work out well – instead of getting the Elfstone, he is bitten by some sort of stone serpent and his arm begins to turn to stone. The only way for him to get out before turning completely to stone involves leaving part of his arm behind. He goes back home to suffer and spends his time moping around, vowing never to get mixed up in the plots of Druids again.

But the King of the Silver River has taken pity on the world and created a magical construct that he calls his daughter to help set things right. Her name is Quickening, and she comes to the Dwarf town where Morgan Leah has come to check on the Dwarf orphans and their keepers. There she restores the town’s garden, to the wonderment of everyone. She also recruits Morgan Leah and an assassin by the name of Pe Ell to accompany her and Walker Boh on his quest.

Quickening is able to convince Walker to come with her and her group to the city of Eldwist, an ancient city from the time before the return of magic, to confront the Stone King, Uhl Belk. Uhl Belk, like Quickening herself and her father, is an elemental. According to Quickening, he has stolen the Black Elfstone.

They travel north through cold and mountains, picking up a couple of other characters along the way. Though it is dangerous, they succeed in making their way into the city, only to discover it has been turned almost completely to stone. Apparently, it once had subways, and it also has an extensive underground network of tunnels of various kinds. For a long time, they find only find two (sort of) living things in it – something they call a ‘creeper,’ and a monster that Quickening informs them is the son of Uhl Belk, in the same way as she is the daughter of the King of the Silver River. Either of these monsters would be happy to eat them.

Lives are lost, before, during, and after the adventure in Eldwist. The one we miss least is the assassin, Pe Ell, who was obsessed with taking the Elfstone for himself, and/or killing everyone, especially Quickening. He is the most interesting character in some ways, but he was not a nice person.

We don’t see much of the other Ohmsford children in this one. The only useful thing we learn about them is that Col has not been turned into a Shadowen after all.

The narrator on this one is good – much better than the narrator for the original Shannara series.