Dear Mr. Terry Brooks,
I spent many of my childhood years immersed in the Four Lands, getting to know its inhabitants. From the First King of Shannara all the way to Straken, I realize that I have followed 50 years shy of a millennium’s worth of events. I loved reading about Tay Trefenwyd, Bremen, Allanon, Panamon Creel, Walker Boh, Truls Rohk, Rue Meridian, and countless other characters that made the Four Lands such a dynamic setting. Druids of the Four Lands were figures I looked up to, whom I would imitate by splaying fingers and casting imagined flames of azure. I loved the Elfstones, even though I thought The Elfstones of Shannara was the equivalent of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in terms of ridiculous displays of emotion, harking back to the Romantic period of English literature (I’m thinking Wuthering Heights). Once, I went on a school field trip in order to see how sifting for gems worked and how you got precious stones and minerals out of silt. At the end of the trip, we got to bring home a bag full of polished rocks. I picked out three of the bluest, smoothest stones and held them in a small pouch. Then I would carry them around with me, allowing me to ward off Skull Bearers, Demons from the Forbidding, Shadowen, and the like. I enjoyed the idea of the Wishsong, even though Wishsong of Shannara was my least favorite novel of the original Shannara trilogy. I even liked your Voyage of the Jerle Shannara series, though solar powered flying boats are kind of a stretch. Of course, I also took pleasure in reading your Scions of Shannara series and thought The Sword of Shannara was genre defining and couldn’t understand why my classmates and peers hadn’t read it.
I loved all of these novels because of the usual reasons, for the incredible clash between good and evil despite doubts about where one lies on this spectrum, the development of characters that let you relate to them as people and not as a set of actions that made them into myth and legend. See, I loved these books because, like Orson Scott Card once said in his review of Joss Whedon’s Serenity, you created a community that I, the audience, wanted to belong to. You created leaders that “even audience members who don’t follow anybody would willingly follow.” I wanted to be there with Allanon, passing through the Hall of Kings or with Walker Boh as he traveled to recover the Black Elfstone from Uhl Belk.
But then you wrote the High Druid of Shannara series. I am not going to mince words. I hated them. You included all the usual- the Ohmsfords, the Elessedils, elves, and even tried to include trolls in this one (which you haven’t in a long time), but there was something about them that was lackluster. I mean, “Liquid night?” “darkwand?” An Ohmsford who can talk to animals but doesn’t know why until he accidentally discovers that he could use the Wishsong all along? I think what I truly hated was that there was no central druid (Bremen, Allanon, Walker) that kind of drove the story. Grianne has to be one of the worst druids in history. She turns into a spirit and finds freedom? What is that nonsense? What of the Druids? What are they supposed to do now? Wait until the Four Lands decide they’re necessary? That’s never going to happen! Druids were never seen as “necessary.” That’s what made them cool. They kept to themselves and were manipulative but seemed to have what was best for the Four Lands in mind. She was like the President Bush of Druids. Became the leader, failed miserably, and then dumped the problem on others.
If that wasn’t bad enough, you then wrote your Genesis of Shannara series, which I have not read because of my traumatizing experience with the High Druid series. BUT, I heard that these books’ aim were to connect your Knight of the Word series with your Shannara novels. No. Don’t do that. Leave some things a mystery. You made it pretty obvious that Shannara takes place in the future. Please don’t give an unnecessary explanation for what happened between now and that time. In other words, I tire of your superfluous lengthening of your Shannara series.
To make matters even worse, I just found out that you sold the movie rights off to Warner Bros. and that they’re producing “The Elfstones of Shannara” first. Oh God. I also read that you were the one who suggested making this one first. Really? Movie adaptations of novels are rarely good, Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” being an exception. I really can’t see how this movie could be good. At all. First of all, the guy who directed “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” Mike Newell, is directing it. THAT MOVIE SUCKED. I’m incredulous as to why it still has an 89% on RottenTomatoes.com. The book was easily one of my favorites in the Harry Potter series and the movie did nothing to reflect the novel. Furthermore, it seemed as if the director were just throwing scenes together and performing a haphazard suture between film strips. That is not what I want to see in a Shannara movie. I need to see the temperament of the characters and their heritage and what makes them unique and able to continue on despite adversity. Newell isn’t going to do that! He’s going to put a bunch of action sequences in there and put some traveling scenes in between. He’s going to toss in the inconvenient and delicate love between Wil and Amberle as if it were just any typical relationship that happens in movies whenever you put a good looking man and woman together. Another thing- the demons from the Forbidding cannot look stupid and I doubt Newell has any aesthetic sense because I saw what Voldemort looked like in “Goblet of Fire” (seriously, how can a director look at that and NOT say, “No. Take your face off. We need to make a new one.”) Newell has to find a way to put a new spin on self-sacrifice for the benefit of an entire race of people (Amberle for the elves) so that it is not cliché and possibly even corny.
What I’m saying is- he can’t do it. Mike Newell will not be able to pull it off. Whoever writes the script for the movie adaption will not be able to pull it off. It was a terrible idea to sell the rights to these novels which I regarded as treasures. I mentioned before Orson Scott Card’s review of Joss Whedon’s “Serenity” because he also says this in the review-
“Those of you who know my work at all know about Ender’s Game. I jealously protected the movie rights to Ender’s Game so that it would not be filmed until it could be done right. I knew what kind of movie it had to be, and I tried to keep it away from directors, writers, and studios who would try to turn it into the kind of movie they think of as ‘sci-fi….’ The key to this kind of movie is that you create a community that the audience wishes they belonged to, with a leader that even audience members who don’t follow anybody would willingly follow. That will be the key to Ender’s Game if the movie is ever successfully made; and it is the key to Serenity.”
Although the genre may be different, this is still what you should have done, Mr. Brooks. You should have jealously protected the movie rights to your novels. You should have waited until you knew that a competent director and a stunning script was presented to you.
The Four Lands will be destroyed, will be dead to me in 2009 with the release of “The Elfstones of Shannara” and I hold you, Mr. Terry Brooks, responsible.
The Orson Scott Card Review-
http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2005-09-30-extra.shtml
