The Measure of the Magic

Pre-Shannara: Legends of Shannara, Book 2

By: Terry Brooks

Narrated by: Phil Gigante

After more than three decades of captivating epic fantasy audiences, the storytelling magic of New York Times best-selling author Terry Brooks’s Shannara saga continues to enthrall. Now the fascinating chronicle of Shannara’s prehistory reaches a thrilling new peak in the sequel to Bearers of the Black Staff.

For 500 years, the survivors of the Great Wars lived peacefully in a valley sanctuary shielded by powerful magic from the blighted and dangerous outside world. But the enchanted barriers have crumbled, the borders have been breached by predators, and the threat of annihilation looms large once more. Sider Ament, bearer of the last black staff and its profound power, devoted his life to protecting the valley and its inhabitants—and, in his final moments, gave stewardship of the black staff to the young tracker Panterra Qu.

Now the newly anointed Knight of the Word must take up the battle against evil wherever it threatens: from without, where an army of bloodthirsty trolls is massing for invasion; and from within, where the Elf king of Arborlon has been murdered, his daughter, Princess Phryne Amarantyne, stands accused, and a heinous conspiracy is poised to subjugate the kingdom.

But even these will pale beside the most harrowing menace Panterra is destined to confront—a nameless, merciless figure who wanders the devastated land on a relentless mission: to claim the last black staff...and the life of he who wields it.

©2011 Terry Brooks (P)2022 Random House Audio

Another GREAT Story by Brooks

I just can’t enough of Brooks, the story, characters and plot never cease to impress!

Amazing story - almost as good a tolkin

Adventurous and epic story with a classic theme of good vs evil… however, The Genesis trilogy should read first.

Very awkward sex part… not explicit but just plain awkward touching… with innuendo of sex… I think these are young teens, not young adults… 4 stars for that reason.

Narrator was perfect, but only one guy for all voices.

Terry Brooks

I love this series!!!! It will give you all the feels! chefs kiss! 💯

measure of the heart

the story is pretty good. not one of terrys better works but I still enjoyed it. definitely a story about following ones heart no matter the consequences

The characters

My favorite of the Shannara series so far. I am reading them in chronological order as the events happened.

Slow

This could have been much better, but it moves too slow. The narrator does an awesome job with the mountain of characters in the vast number of story lines. By the time I reached the end of the book, I was ready for all of them to die.

You have an elf queen that frames her step daughter for murdering the king. You have a demon that tries to kill everyone. You have 2 normal everyday teenagers that end up receiving magic from two different sources, and a teenage elven princess that receives magic elf stones from her dead grandmother’s ghost.

The story starts with trolls threatening to invade a valley that’s been magically hidden for hundreds of years, but this part of the story gets shoved to the end with a big climatic battle scene that was used to bring it all together. Even the demon that no one could kill throughout the story, was killed in a way that made no sense. A magic bird distracted the demon. Really?

Overall too dramatic

Too much whining and crying… been a brooks fan for decades but ugh what a disappointment

Just So So

I enjoyed the narration, but the story was pretty pedestrian and lackluster. Not terrible but nothing special either.

Scooby-do on monster island

I mean it’s great for a much younger audience 10-12. For growed Shannara fans not so much.