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Terry Brooks gets Tanequil
Fantasy author Terry interviewed about his new novel, Tanequil,
the second book in the High Druid of Shannara trilogy, on growing
as an author, and his plans to return to his earlier Word & Void series.
Del Rey: Your new novel, Tanequil, is the
second book in the High Druid of Shannara trilogy. In many ways,
this seems to be a book of testings - all the characters are tested,
forced to confront aspects of themselves that they would prefer
to ignore or deny. Can you talk a little bit about these challenges?
Terry Brooks: I hadn't thought of the book in these terms,
but on reflection they seem accurate. I know I approach my stories
from this direction often. Testing of self is a regular part of
our own lives, so it seems natural to make it a part of the lives
of my characters, as well, albeit on a much different level. We
are constantly being put to the test by trying circumstances and
difficult people and problems not necessarily of our own making.
It is the same with the characters of the Shannara books. What is
interesting to me is how the characters respond, how they change
and grow by facing what often seem overwhelming difficulties.
DR: Is Pen Ohmsford's magic a form of the wishsong?
TB: Stay turned for Book Three of High Druid for the answer
to that one!
DR: What is the Forbidding, and what is its relationship to the
world of the Four Lands?
TB: The Forbidding is the place to which the Elves and their
allies consigned the demons and their ilk after a long struggle
for dominance in the old world of Faerie, before the age of Men.
It was written about extensively in both Elfstones of Shannara
and Elf Queen of Shannara, but readers have never had a chance
to see what this world is like. The books of High Druid make it
clear that the Forbidding is an alternate version of the Four Lands,
one in which its imprisoned denizens have shaped the landscape to
mirror their own personalities and life habits. It is darker and
far more dangerous than any place in the Four Lands, totally inhospitable
to humans. Even without having been there themselves, Shadea a'Ru
and her allies know it is a place in which Grianne cannot survive.
DR:Grianne is imprisoned by the Straken Lord, Tael Riverine.
Who is he, and what does he want from her?
TB:Well, I don't want to give away a key plot point for Tanequil,
so I can't tell you exactly what Tael Riverine wants from Grianne.
I can say that the Straken Lord's plans for her come as a real surprise
to the Ard Rhys and are not at all what she initially thinks.
DR: Does the term 'Straken' refer to a race of demons, or does
it have another meaning?
TB: Straken is a term that the Jarka Ruus (the banished people,
as the denizens of the Forbidding refer to themselves as) use to
denote a powerful magic wielder, one who controls and manipulates
the lives of less skilled creatures.
DR:When Grianne entered the Forbidding, a demon
called the Moric emerged into the Four Lands. Is the Moric a servant
of Tael Riverine? What is its purpose?
TB:Gee, here we go again. The answer to this question comes
to light right at the end of Tanequil, so I don't want to
give it away here. Suffice to say it isn't anything that will benefit
the peoples of the Four Lands.
DR:Grianne has fought to put her previous life as the Ilse Witch
behind her. But I sense that she hasn't fully come to terms with
that part of herself. Is that what attracts Tael Riverine to her,
not just her powerful magic but a certain taint of evil?
TB:Yes. Tael Riverine is attracted to her for the power she
wields, which is an inherent part of her, but also for the potential
she has to become something evil. The demon knows she was the Ilse
Witch once and could become so again. But her real usefulness to
the demon comes from what it sees in her make-up, a combination
of magic and determination and strength that can serve it well,
if she can be broken.
DR: How has your thinking about the Shannara series and the Four
Lands evolved since The Sword of Shannara?
TB: How long do we have? The most obvious answer to this
question is that when I began writing Sword of Shannara I
was only thinking about the one book. Even after Sword was
published, I was still only thinking about the next book, Elfstones.
The idea for an extended series really didn't take shape until I
began work on the four books of Heritage of Shannara. At that point,
I began to see how the series could be shaped to become something
much more complicated than I had initially envisioned. On the other
hand, I still approach each book with the same basic plan in mind
- to put some people under severe stress and see how they hold up.
DR: How have you grown as a writer over the years? In what ways
are you a different writer than the Terry Brooks who wrote The
Sword of Shannara? And in what ways are you the same?
TB: I think I make better use of language and imagery than
when I started out. I have learned to do more with less, so you
don't see the big books anymore. I quit using adjectives and adverbs
as if sheer numbers would make a difference. But I am the same storyteller
as always. I think that has always been my strength. I might add
that you change as a person as you grow older, so you change as
a writer, too. My interests are different now than they were thirty
years ago. What I want to write about has changed somewhat, and
the scope of the storytelling has changed accordingly.
DR: Do you have any plans to return to your earlier Word &
Void series? Those books always seemed related to the world of Shannara
to me; it would be fascinating to see the story of John Ross woven
into the Shannara saga!
TB: I fell off a ladder over Christmas and had to have surgery
to rebuild my right knee. As a result, I had a lot of time to use
up sitting around healing. In that time, I finished Straken.
So for the first time in a long while, I am able to take a few months
off. I might not go back to work until the first of the year, I
don't know. But meanwhile, I am thinking through new books in both
Word & Void and Magic Kingdom, all of which I expect to write
over the next few years.
DR: That's great news - well, except for the part about falling
off the ladder. Which one will you tackle first?
TB:I haven't decided. I thought earlier it would be Magic
Kingdom, but now I'm not so sure. We'll see.
The following material is being
reprinted from the Del Rey Internet Newsletter. Thanks to Fleetwood
Robbins. To subscribe to their free, monthly e-newsletter, visit
http://www.delreybooks.com.
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OTHER CONTENT - November 2004
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Terry
Brooks gets Tanequil
Fantasy author Terry interviewed about his new novel, Tanequil, the second book
in the High Druid of Shannara trilogy, on growing as an author, and his plans
to return to his earlier Word & Void series.
(AUTHOR INTERVIEWS)
Sea,
Sky by Rosemary Kirstein
The author of The Language Of Power ruminates about world creation and comes
to the conclusion that there are basically two ways to do it. You can begin
from the top down, or from the ground up.
(ARTICLES)
Third
World
One of our famous one page stories by GF Willmetts.
(FICTION)
Black
Cat Investments Ltd. - Your Money Is Safe With Us
One of our famous one page stories by Rod MacDonald.
(FICTION)
San
Diego Comic-Con '04
So, it looks like half the people who voted in a Crowsnest poll a couple of
months back have never been to a convention. Which is a little sad when you
come to think of it - there's really nowhere else on earth you get to indulge
your genre weakness like a Con. If only because everyone else there is doing
exactly the same thing.
(CON REPORTS)
One
Page Stories Submissions (or What To Do, What To Write And How to Submit)
This is an experiment on the website for all of you writers and neo-writers
out there. One of the criticisms that I raise when working my way through our
slush pile is that writers need to learn how to tell a story with a limited
word count to make everything count and tell a good story.
(ARTICLES)
I
Remember Superman
Christopher Reeve, 1952-2004 - a lament by: GF Willmetts.
(ARTICLES)
Offworld
Report: Science Fiction and Fantasy, November 2004
Interviews with Stephen R. Donaldson, Clive Barker, Matt Stone and Trey Parker,
Clark Kent's foster father, and John Clute, Dell Magazines' SF boat cruise,
fiction by Peter Crowther, and getting laid at a science-fiction convention.
(NEWS)
Offworld
Report: Weird Science, November 2004
Iran's first satellite, the X Prize is won, a fossil dragon, robot fish, why
space access costs must, and can, drop dramatically, and has the Great Galactic
Ghoul lost its appetite for Martian probes?
(NEWS)
Resident
Evil: Apocalypse (Frank's Take)
Director Alexander Witt takes over this elaborate gory gaming gimmick by ushering
out the second installment Resident Evil: Apocalypse. The labored formula remains
the same regarding a curvy and calisthenics cretin-kicking cutie leading the
charge in eliminating some serious zombie butt.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shark
Tale (Frank's Take)
DreamWorks tries awkwardly in their blind ambition to continue the delightful
digital-animated ditties in the celebrated spirit that has been previously so
vastly successful at the box office. As a result, the DreamWorks creative machine
conjured up a spry but uneven underwater adventure in the derivatively upbeat
animated feature Shark Tale.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Sky
Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Frank's Take)
In the stylistically ambitious sci-fi fantasy Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,
Conran concocts a colorful creation dripping with cheerful arty set designs
armed with a refreshing old-fashion storytelling sentiment that drives this
opulent noir to its creative core.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shaun
of the Dead (Frank's Take)
The devilishly dandy flesh-eating farce Shaun of the Dead certainly fits the
bill as a monstrously subversive parody that delivers the ghoulish goods. With
its British-oriented sense of stinging wry wit coupled with some truly genuine
gloomy gumption, Shaun of the Dead is a delightfully sick-minded yet spry frightfest
that captures the twisted imagination.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Ghost
In The Shell 2: Innocence (Mark's Take)
Mark checks out this popular Japanese anime flick and discovers the animation
is never flat, but demonstrates varying degrees of dimensionality, frequently
within the same frame.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Hero
(Mark's Take)
China tries to make its own Crouching Tiger with a story of an enigmatic stranger
who has killed a triad of assassins for the benefit of China's first Emperor.
The stranger tells the emperor multiple versions of how he killed the emperor's
enemies. Visually Hero is stunning. The telling is operatic in style but becomes
muddled.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Les
Revenants (Mark's Take)
A creative and intelligent recycling of the horror concept of the dead returning,
but this time it is used for non-horror purposes. Les Revenants runs into pacing
problems toward the middle.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Primer
(Mark's Take)
This SF film gets the research environment and the baffling scientific techno-jargon
just about right. The story is hard to follow, but that might not be so unrealistic
either. Definitely this is a demanding and puzzling film that does a lot with
its minuscule budget.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shark
Tale (Mark's Take)
Dreamscape's latest animated film is set in a sort of undersea urban environment
and should entertain the whole family. The story is familiar but the jokes come
in a rapid fire.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shaun
of the Dead (Mark's Take)
This film is like a crossbreeding of George Romero and Mike Leigh. Oblivious
lower-middle-class Londoners slowly become aware that the dead are returning
at trying to eat the living. This satire laughs at the tropes of the zombie
movie, but even more at the foibles of English life today. The first half is
very funny and the second half is at least witty.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Sky
Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Mark's Take)
The Art Deco future as it was seen from the late 1930s is the background for
this super-paced sci-fi adventure. The plot is just a chain of action sequences,
one leading to the next, and the characters are one-dimensional. Even the artwork
is a little too dark, but the images are genuinely exciting and they are what
make the film worth seeing.
(FILM REVIEWS)
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