The Druid of Shannara

By: Terry Brooks

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 16 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

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)

So, so, err, yeah, not sure

Any additional comments?

So, first the performance is very good. Second the story, viewed from beginning to end, is also very good, and well thought out. Third, it annoys the hell out of me at times. Now, this could be a reflection of personal taste, so your interpretation may differ, but, the story is very "overly wordy/pompous/full of itself" at times. "He took a step forward, not because that is how one walks, but because that was the force of man to the world, the weight of existence in a single step that would have meaning for a thousand, thousand years...if not for the second step, which thundered in the minds and body of the million souls that watched from the woods of damnation...but then came the third step" .....so if, you can ignore each step of the 1000 mile journey, the story is quite pleasant. If you can not, then save the credit. If you can sorta ignore it on and off, then do so. I can only hope that book three eases up on the preaching.

Lot if filler

I like the books but it has a lot of filler material like he was going for page count hope the next ones better

Classic

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

Fabulous Reading by John Lee

Terry Brooks! Read by John Lee, I have enjoyed it greatly and I know I will again.

The Druid of Shannara

Out of the four Heritage novels this one is my favorite. Walker and Morgan grow into far deeper characters in this one.

Extraordinary!

Terry Brooks has done it again! I got interested in his work because of the series on television, The Shannara Chronicles. His work far exceeded my expectations. This amazing adventure, paired with John Lee's phenomenal performance narrating, keeps me wanting more! Four thumbs up!😁

Still good but I see where the Problems Start

This is book #5 in the Shenandoah books That I've read And as I've read them people have told me They get worse Although this 1 is still good I can understand and see now where Where the Similarity to each other come in comes in

My Review of Terry Brooks' "The Druid of Shannara"

Hello.
Firstly I want to avoid any confusion by saying I do not believe myself to be anyone of any particular importance. According to several Psychologists and Psychiatrists I am "sort of intelligent", but even tough I have joined some half-dozen or so "High IQ clubs", I do not believe I am any kind of genius. While "Smarty Clubs" like Mensa, some "triple 9" societies and a 4 Standard Deviation or two have all accepted me (the so-called "triple 9" societies are meant to admit people who have documentation to prove to be at or above 99.9 percentile of the population (which last time I checked was something like 146 or 147 with "Standard Deviation 15". "Glia" is the only such "Smarty Club" I currently recall. The so-called "4 Standard Deviation Smarty Clubs" are a few, most of which I have forgotten. One is called "Prometheus" for which I have never applied to. A couple of others I "kind of" recall and am member of are...I believe "HELLIQ Society" and "PSIQ" or whatever, My first 160 S,D, 15 score was by a Dutch guy named Paul Cooijmans on some test I think he called "Test for Genius" or something about equally original, age 16 or 17. Anywho, I totally don't believe in any of these tests or "Smarty-Pants Societies". I don't consider myself any sort of genius, and I'm probably something like "Smartish", About as "extremely" tall as I am which is something between 6ft 1 and 6ft 2 (or in Metrics something between 1.85 and 1.88 meters.

Only thing, in my opinion, which is of ANY importance is my Asperger Syndrome condition. At least in my own case I am psychologically and biologically incapable of knowingly tell a lie (excluding jokes, of course).

So I believe I can say with absolute 100% certainty my EXACT opinions and beliefs. Take my statement with whatever degree of skepticism you choose yourselves.

So, sorry for wasting maybe a page or two of your times, but I feel it important enough to mention.

My Review of the Audiobook "The Druid of Shannara" is worth comparing to classics like J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and LotR Books, which are, of course Fantasy classics. I would rate "The Hobbit" maybe a 4/5 star, "Fellowship of the Ring" maybe a 4.1/5. "The two Towers" maybe a 4.3 and "Return of the King" maybe a 4.6/5.

My ratings of all other Terry Brooks "Shannara" books are all in the 4 to 5 star ratings, but I suspect this review alone will be longer than most people will like or want.

I will review other six "First King of Shannara", "Elfqueen of Shannara", "Sword of Shannara", "Elfstones of Shannara" and "Wishsong of Shannara" on other days I have time and feel like doing so.

So in conclusion, I give "Druid of Shannara" something like a 4.1/5 star. Not my all-time favorite, but probably on my top 10 or 20 list.

Review end. By Jonas Hiller of Iceland.

Great story but hard to follow voice, production

I love Terry Brooks and his books are all five stars in my opinion. However the narrator here uses one of only three or four voices for every character in the books, and sometimes switches which one he's using for a given character, so I constantly found myself no knowing who was talking. And the breaks in the text aren't breaks in the production, so it always sounds as if the reader is reading the next sentence when sometimes it's the beginning of an entirely different section. It was nearly impossible to follow what was happening.

Terry please have the Heritage of Shannara books on Audible re-recorded and professionally produced!

does not disappoint

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

disappointed

The story is OK.....but the narration left a lot to be desired., ...he did not bring the characters to life, he sounded bored with the story

brilliant

loved it start to finish kept me wanting to know more and off to the next I go

the story is great. John Lee is awful

John lee is awful, the story is great but please change narrator as soon as possible. His style is just terrible. He cannot read properly and thinks that by talking in staccato he will do well. pathetic.

One of my absolute favourite books of all time.

This may ha mve been my first ever fantasy novel and I still love eit to this day.
the narrator gets better over the course of the series but is still not phenomenal. He is however decent and if you like the series dont let the misgivings of the comments get in your way.