The Fall of Shannara
It's been a tough few weeks personally (and socially and politically), so when I was in my local Barnes and Noble a few weeks ago to ask about the new Final Fantasy Magic set (my local one quit carrying MTG cards, unfortunately), I decided that I wanted a comfort read. I love a good horror novel and will always be happy returning to Discworld, but I was in the mood for something new to me but also comfortable.
Imagine my surprise when I was browsing the fantasy section and saw that there was a new Shannara series. I've not read most of the books in the Shannara universe, nor have I played the P&C game from 1995, but what I did read I remember really loving.
The series is fairly old, with the original trilogy coming out from 1977 to 1985. I remember reading a copy of Sword that my dad had bought in the early 1990s so I was surprised to find a new set of books effectively ending the world(?) that was build then. I've only finished the first book of the series so I'm not yet sure where it will end up, but I'm very impressed with it. The plot is fairly standard. It opens with seemingly unrelated stories of people across space and time but they all ultimately converge by the end. There's magic and technology, political intrigue, assassinations, and plenty of other tropes. With that said, these tropes are handled really well. Instead of being frustrating, they were comforting. I had a sense of what was to come and thoroughly enjoyed the ride.
The series itself is pushing 50 years old and has dozen of entries in it and for it to have an ending(?) written by the original author is impressive. I look forward to seeing more of the Fall.