The Wishsong of Shannara

The Shannara Series, Book 3

By: Terry Brooks

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 20 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

Fans of the Shannara epic will revel as the forces of good battle an evil book, the Ildatch, which sends the Mord Wraiths to destroy mankind. To overcome this dark force, the Druid Allanon needs Brin Ohmsford, for she holds the power of the wishsong, a magic invoked by singing that can make plants bloom instantly or turn trees from green to autumn gold.

As Brin reluctantly joins Allanon on his dangerous journey, a prophecy foretells an evil plan to trap the unsuspecting Brin into a fate more horrible than death. But she has the help of her brother, Jair, and the protection of Rone Leah, who takes his job very seriously, as the comic rustics, Weapons Master Garet Jax and Slanter the gnome, leaven the fantasy.

©1985 Terry Brooks (P)2003 Books on Tape, Inc.

A fitting end to a great trilogy

I read this trilogy many years ago and was thankful that there was an unabridged version on audible that allowed me to revisit the Shannara stories. The Wishsong is clearly the darkest of the trilogy and the best written. Contrary to an earlier reviewers comments, this is NOT a LOTR knockoff. If someone writes a book that has a shark kill someone does that mean its a JAWS ripoff? Of course not. It's a fantasy book. There is going to be a good and evil character in it. Deal with it. Terry Brooks is an excellent writer and storyteller and the world he creates is dark yet full of hope. I also found the pace to be much quicker in this book then the other two and much less predictable to figure out who was going to die and what was going to happen. As for the narration, Scott Brick is the MAN! Anyone who thinks otherwise has obviously never heard Charles Keating butcher these novels. For those who venture into the Shannara realm you will be rewarded with some of the best storytelling of our time. Treat yourself and make sure you get the "unabridged" edition so you don't miss a beat.

Great book and Great reader

This is a great book. I wish I had heard the other 2 books unabridged (Sword of Shannara and Elfstones of Shannara). Hope they get more unabridged books for this series.

Lord of the Rings Rip Off

I have read 3 other books from Terry Brooks and have enjoyed them. This book on the other hand seemed like an obvious rip off of the lord of the rings. Instead of a hobbit taking a magic ring to distroy a dark lord, you have a quarter elf girl taking her innate magic to distroy a dark book before it creates a dark lord. There are dark shadowy creatures called Moord Wraiths which are obvious Ring Wraiths. You have the Druid Allinon who is an obvius rip off of Gandolf. Then you have Rone Lee who is a cross beween Aragorn and Sam. The narrator's reading is as stirring as a reading from Ben Stein. I thought he did a fine job on the character voices but his narration is drolling. If you haven't read or watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy and you don't mind a book reading by a 7th grade science teacher you will probably enjoy this book. Other wise buy the Lord of the Rings and read the book this one was obviously based on.

20 years after reading

I read the Shannara series and Heritage of Shannara 20 years ago. It is a pleasure to listen to. I plan on catching up in the series and wanted to listen to the original trilogy before diving into this wonderful world again.

Good story; terible narration.

Terry Brooks tells a terrific story. Even the filler is pretty good. The narrator leaves quite a bit to be dsired. His pronunciation of some of the words is incorrect and grateson the ears and nerves.
Add is inability to show a range of character voices caused me to wonder what character was speaking.

Very Good Book

I found this book enjoyable with lots of twist and turns.

Narration makes it hard to follow

The narration is so overly dramatized that it makes the story line hard to follow. I had this problem with The Sword of Shannara too (also narrated by Scott Brick), but I was able to push through it. I've started and stopped listening to The Wishsong of Shannara 3-4 times but I just can't get past the 12 hours mark. So, I have decided to forgo the rest of the series and just listen to the ones narrated by Simon Vance.

The narration problem is on a few levels. One: the narrator over emphasizes words (based on the word meaning), and sacrifices sentence meaning to do so. Two: when it comes to bits that the narrator seems to think are exciting he uses a fast and forceful "mood" to the reading that sacrifices meaning, and he uses it for long lengths. I do find punctuated pick ups and slow downs to be a useful narration tool, but this isn't that. For me it amounts to feeling like someone is doing so much blustering that what they are saying gets lost.

It is too bad, because the narrator has a good voice as a basis for his performance, he just over acts it to such a degree that meaning is lost. For me, it is bad enough that I am forgoing a series that I would love to hear. I realize this is harsh criticism and so I feel it should be accompanied by something that might be useful. My advice to the narrator would be try to forget you are acting and imagine two regular guys just talking to each other, not two actors, nor two guys in a theatre performance, but just two regular Joes, and one of them is telling the other guy a story. Be that guy telling the story. I will be returning this book.

Scott Brick spoils a great story

Would you consider the audio edition of The Wishsong of Shannara to be better than the print version?

No, because I found the narrator hard to stick with.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Wishsong of Shannara?

The friendship that develops while facing hardships.

What didn’t you like about Scott Brick’s performance?

He reads like every word is the climax of the story.

Any additional comments?

I've read all the books & loved them. I thought I'd enjoy the audio version as well. But I will be skipping any more books read by Scott Brick.

Typical Brooks

Plot is much like the rest of his longer books, but still captivating, if you liked one you will more than likely enjoy The Wishsong as well.

Good not great

Very good. Liked earlier books better. Liked the many twists. At times seemed very verbose. Still liked it very much. Performance was exceptional.