5 Reasons to Read Terry Brooks’ The High Druid’s Blade

Comparable in size and scope to Tolkien’s Middle-earth, Feist’s Midkemia, and Silverberg’s Majipoor, Terry Brooks’ Shannara is among the most richly described and meticulously historied fantasy realms in literature. And Brooks has expanded his Shannara canon even more with the release of The High Druid’s Blade, essentially a standalone novel that takes place 100 years after the events of The Dark Legacy of Shannara trilogy (which begins with Wards of Faerie).

If you’re looking for an enveloping new fantasy release, here are five reasons to seek out and read The High Druid’s Blade:

1. Shannara’s longevity. Brooks released The Sword of Shannara way back in 1977, and has continued to expand and enrich his Tolkienesque storyline with more than two dozen novels since (the High Druid’s Blade is the 26th novel set in the Shannara universe). The majority of these releases have been New York Times best-sellers—he has to be doing something right!

2. The series’ historical significance. When The Sword of Shannara was released, it reinvigorated the flagging fantasy genre. This classic—which sold phenomenally well but was initially panned by some critics—was literally the fantasy gateway novel for millions, and has transformed countless readers into lifelong fantasy fans, myself included. (I still have my original limited-edition paperback copy from 1977, with interior illustrations by the Brothers Hildebrandt!) The historical impact of this series is undeniable—just as Tolkien’s saga inspired Brooks, Brooks’s series has inspired countless other writers.

3. It’s a departure for Brooks. The Shannara novels are all about epic storylines, grand-scale battles, and perilous quests, making The High Druid’s Blade in many ways a dramatic departure for Brooks. The storyline is decidedly intimate, focusing largely on one character (Paxon Leah, a descendant of the Ohmsford family and current holder of a certain ancestral heirloom) and his journey of self-discovery. Fans of this series will be pleasantly surprised by the coming-of-age storyline, the narrative intimacy, and the satisfying conclusion.

4. Existential profundity. There’s a misperception out there that fantasy is mindless literary escapism—essentially action/adventures with a cast of elves and dwarves and such— but the fact is that many fantasy novels are thematically profound and existentially and spiritually transformative. The High Druid’s Blade is one of those novels, filled with philosophical nuggets like this: “People are capable of terrible things. We think we know them, but we really don’t. We let ourselves be deceived because we are always expecting the best out of those who seem willing to provide it.”

5. World-building. One of the essentials of a good fantasy is a sprawling, vividly imagined, fully immersive realm. As mentioned earlier, Brooks is a master of world-building, and his realm of Shannara and its Four Lands is the archetypal fantasy playground—epic in scope, richly historied, and filled with dark secrets and magical wonders. One of the main reasons I picked up The High Druid’s Blade was because of the opportunity to revisit this beloved realm!

If you’re a frequent visitor to The Four Lands—or if you’ve never traveled there before—this standalone novel is  a great place to start!

Will you be reading The High Druid’s Blade?