Terence Dean Brooks was born on January 8, 1944. He is an American writer who creates fantasy fiction. Most of his books are epic fantasy stories, and he has also written two film novelizations. Over the course of his career, he has written 23 New York Times bestsellers. His books have sold more than 25 million copies. He is one of the most successful fantasy writers still alive. In March 2025, he announced that he would be retiring partially from writing.
Early life
Brooks was born in the rural Midwestern town of Sterling, Illinois. He lived there for much of his life. He graduated from Hamilton College, where he earned a B.A. in English literature in 1966. Later, he earned a J.D. degree from Washington and Lee University. Before becoming a full-time author, he worked as a lawyer.
Career
Brooks began writing during high school, focusing on science fiction, western, fiction, and non-fiction. In his early college years, he received a copy of The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, which inspired him to write in one genre. However, Brooks later explained during a TEDxRainier talk titled "Why I Write about Elves" and at the Charlotte Literary Festival that his writing style was influenced by William Faulkner's works. Inspired by these authors, Brooks published his first book, The Sword of Shannara, in 1977.
After completing two sequels to The Sword of Shannara, Brooks created the Landover novels. He then wrote a four-book series titled The Heritage of Shannara. Over the next fourteen years, he continued writing Landover books before starting The Word and Void trilogy. Brooks later wrote a prequel to The Sword of Shannara, titled First King of Shannara. He also authored two series, The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara and High Druid of Shannara, and completed a trilogy called Genesis of Shannara, which connected his Word and Void and Shannara series. The sixth book in the Landover series, A Princess of Landover, was released in August 2009.
Brooks returned to the Shannara series with a two-book series, Legends of Shannara, which followed the events of Genesis of Shannara. The first book, Bearers of the Black Staff, was published in August 2010, and the second, The Measure of the Magic, was released in August 2011. He then wrote a trilogy titled The Dark Legacy of Shannara, including Wards of Faerie (February 2013), Bloodfire Quest (June 2013), and Witch Wraith (December 2013). Brooks followed this with The Defenders of Shannara trilogy, which includes The High Druid's Blade (July 2014), The Darkling Child (June 2015), and The Sorcerer's Daughter (May 24, 2016).
Brooks completed the final four-part series of the Shannara series, The Fall of Shannara. The first book, The Black Elfstone, was released on June 13, 2017. The second book, The Skaar Invasion, was published on June 19, 2018. The third book, The Stiehl Assassin, appeared on May 28, 2019. The fourth and final book, The Last Druid, was released on October 20, 2020. In March 2025, Brooks announced his semi-retirement, stating that Delilah S. Dawson would continue writing the Shannara series.
A television series based on the Shannara books, The Shannara Chronicles, premiered on MTV in January 2016. The show began with the second book of the original series, Elfstones, because it features strong female characters not present in the first book. The second season aired in 2017 on Spike TV. On January 16, 2018, the series was canceled after two seasons. Producers later said the show might be offered to other networks.
Brooks has written other books, including novels based on movies and science fiction stories. These include Hook, published on November 24, 1991, and Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, released on April 21, 1999. He also wrote two books about his own writing life: Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life (February 3, 2004) and Why I Write About Elves (2005). A science fiction book, Street Freaks, was published on October 2, 2018. Brooks has also written e-book short stories collected in a book titled Small Magic.
Brooks received a World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2017. He was honored with an Inkpot Award in 1997 and was nominated for six Locus Awards.
Novels versus short stories
After writing "Indomitable," a short story that serves as an ending part to The Wishsong of Shannara, Terry Brooks stated:
I find it much harder to write short stories than long stories. I feel limited by the small space and the rules of the format. There are big differences between writing long stories and short stories, and I am not very good at writing short stories. I hope not to have to write many more of them, but you never know. I probably wrote "Indomitable" four to five times, each time changing it a lot. I would prefer to write a long story with 500 pages as an assignment any day.