Shannara/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alas, Poor Villain: Antrax was never really evil, being essentially a victim of its programming, and its panicked attempt to understand what is happening to it is rather sad.
  • Complete Monster:
    • The Morgawr is disgustingly evil, has truly vile abilities, and doesn't have the excuse of being a Demon, having a sympathetic backstory, or suffering from corruption by The Ildatch. He eats peoples' brains for crying out loud, and just look at the rest of this trope list. Undoubtedly the most evil thing to come out of Brooks' writing.
  • Cree Bega is a sadistic, torture-loving monster who's only slightly less monstrous than his boss. And that's got more to do with a lack of opportunity than greater morality. Even the Ilse Witch treads carefully with him.
  • Crazy Awesome: Cogline in Wishsong. By Heritage he's recovered his sanity. Mostly
  • Executive Meddling: Positive example, in the author's note for Elfstones, he freely admits that his original story was much inferior to what it ended up being after he got some feedback from his editor.
  • Growing the Beard: While Sword has a few twists along the way, and plenty of hints that the underlying mythology of the world is very distinct, it distinctly resembles The Lord of the Rings in many respects, to its detriment. Elfstones established that the series could stand on its own as page-turning High Fantasy adventure, and remains perhaps the single most beloved volume for fans.
  • Ho Yay: In Sword, the first book, Menion Leah is so obviously head-over-heels in love with Shea Ohmsford. He falls in love with Shirl Ravenlock at the very end of the story, because Shirl doesn't sound anything like Shea.
  • Jerkass Woobie: The Ilse Witch's been through hell. She's also an utter bitch to everyone around her. Your Mileage May Vary on how much of a Woobie (or how much of a Jerkass) you find her.
    • She drops the Jerkass part in the next series, then she goes through hell again, this time sort of literally.
  • Never Live It Down: Terry Brooks wrote exactly one book that was a shameless ripoff of The Lord of the Rings followed by a series of highly original fantasy adventures, but most people who know of him but haven't read his books think he's made a lifelong career out of plagiarism.
  • Nightmare Fuel:
    • The Reaper
    • Truls Rohk is a half-man, half-Shape Shifter and his body reflects this, with parts of it constantly mutating, even as others stay exactly the same.
    • The Morgawr
  • No Yay: There are some serious rape overtones to Rimmer Dall's attempted possession of Par.
  • Protection From Editors: Averted, while Brooks meets all the criteria to qualify for it, he has made quite clear that he actually considers his editors a vital part of making his books great
  • Selfish Evil: Morag and Mallenroh do what they want, when they want, to who they want, and damn anyone who gets in their way.
  • Strangled by the Red String: Pick one. With a few exceptions, Brooks' romance subplots come across as very forced and tacked on. Especially Logan Tom and Simralin in the Genesis Trilogy. They never meet through the three books, take one look at each other and are suddenly willing to go to the ends of the Earth and DIE to protect the other.
  • Tear Jerker: Allanon's death in Wishsong.


  • Title Confusion: Shannara is not the name of the world the books are set in; it is the name of an Elven royal family.
  • The Woobie:
    • Nothing good happens to poor Ahren.
    • Tay Trefenwyd Did Not Get the Girl, he has to watch her with his best friend, and finally he dies retrieving the stone. Yeah, he qualifies.
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