From Publishers Weekly
Brooks's resounding, action-filled conclusion to the Heritage of Shannara series was a nine-week PW bestseller. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Having fulfilled the quests imposed upon them by the shade of the druid Allanon, the children of Shannara must now attempt to use their newfound powers and allies to defeat the Shadowen who are ravaging the Four Lands. Drawing together the threads of the three previous series titles, Brooks orchestrates an exciting, though predictable, conclusion to his second Shannara series. Brooks's appeal lies in his fidelity to tried-and-true quest fantasy and his ability to create engaging protagonists. Most libraries will want this title to satisfy patron demand. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/92.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
Concluding the second series of Shannara yarns (The Elf Queen of Shannara, etc.) as the scions of Shannara--namely, the newly made Druid, Walker Boh, the Elf Queen Wren Elessedil, and the magical Ohmsford brothers, Par and Coll--somehow must unite their efforts in order to bring a final end to the evil Shadowen and their leader, Rimmer Dall. The latter, of course, has other ideas: he will send the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse against Walker Boh; he will confuse Wren with a seeming friend who will betray her; Coll--even if he escapes the magic Shadowen cloak that is corrupting him--will seize the Sword of Shannara, to the consternation of Par, who thought the Sword intended for him; and Par, his magic wishsong growing ever more uncontrollable, will be seduced into believing that his true destiny is to become Shadowen himself.... Flabby and predictable work, not helped by the whole increasingly threadbare Shannara concept, now clearly past its sell-by date. Still, fans of the series won't be dissuaded. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"If Harry Potter has given you a thirst for fantasy and you have not discovered the magic of Terry Brooks, you are in for a treat."


"If you were delighted and entranced by Michael Ende's The Never Ending Story, you will definitely want to sample one of more of Terry Brooks's books."



Review
"If Harry Potter has given you a thirst for fantasy and you have not discovered the magic of Terry Brooks, you are in for a treat."


"If you were delighted and entranced by Michael Ende's The Never Ending Story, you will definitely want to sample one of more of Terry Brooks's books."



Book Description
Although some of the goals to keep Shannara safe had been met, the work of Walker Boh, Wren, and Par was not yet done. For The Shadowmen still swarmed over the Four Lands, poisoning all with their dark magic. Each Shannaran had a special death waiting for him- at the hands of The Shadowmen-unless Par could find a way to free them all with the Sword of Shannara.



From the Inside Flap
Although some of the goals to keep Shannara safe had been met, the work of Walker Boh, Wren, and Par was not yet done. For The Shadowmen still swarmed over the Four Lands, poisoning all with their dark magic. Each Shannaran had a special death waiting for him- at the hands of The Shadowmen-unless Par could find a way to free them all with the Sword of Shannara.


From the Back Cover
"If Harry Potter has given you a thirst for fantasy and you have not discovered the magic of Terry Brooks, you are in for a treat."


"If you were delighted and entranced by Michael Ende's The Never Ending Story, you will definitely want to sample one of more of Terry Brooks's books."



About the Author
A writer since high school, Terry Brooks published his first novel, The Sword of Shannara, in 1977. It was a New York Times bestseller for more than five months. He has published seventeen consecutive bestsellers since, including The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara: Ilse Witch and the novel based upon the screenplay and story by George Lucas: Star Wars®: Episode I The Phantom Menace™. His novels Running with the Demon and A Knight of the Word were each selected by the Rocky Mountain News as one of the best science fiction/ fantasy novels of the twentieth century.

The author was a practicing attorney for many years but now writes full-time. He lives with his wife, Judine, in the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii.

Visit us online at www.shannara.com.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Dusk settled down about the Four Lands, a slow graying of light, a gradual lengthening of shadows.
The swelter of the late summer’s day began to fade as the sun’s red fireball sank into the west and
the hot, stale air cooled. The hush that comes with day’s end stilled the earth, and leaves and
grass shivered with expectation at the coming of night.

At the mouth of the Mermidon where it emptied into the Rainbow Lake,
Southwatch rose blackly, impenetrable and voiceless. The wind brushed
the waters of the lake and river, yet did not approach the obelisk, as
if anxious to hurry on to some place more inviting. The air shimmered
about the dark tower, heat radiating from its stone in waves, forming
spectral images that darted and flew. A solitary hunter at the water’s
edge glanced up apprehensively as he passed and continued swiftly on.

Within, the Shadowen went about their tasks in ghostly silence, cowled
and faceless and filled with purpose.

Rimmer Dall stood at a window looking out on the darkening countryside, watching the color fade from the earth as the night crept stealthily out of the east to gather in its own.

The night, our mother, our comfort.

He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, rigid within his dark
robes, cowl pulled back from his rawboned, red-bearded face. He looked
hard and empty of feeling, and had he cared he would have been pleased. But it had been a long time since his appearance had mattered to the First Seeker--a long time since he had bothered even to wonder. His outside was of no consequence; he could be anything he chose. What burned within mattered. That gave him life.

His eyes glittered as he looked beyond what he was seeing to what one
day would be.

To what was promised.

He shifted slightly, alone with his thoughts in the tower’s silence.
The others did not exist for him, wraiths without substance. Below, deep within the bowels of the tower, he could hear the sounds of the magic at work, the deep hum of its breathing, the rumble of its heart. He listened for it without thinking now, a habit that brought reassurance to his troubled mind. The power was theirs, brought from the ether into substance, given shape and form, lent purpose. It was the gift of the Shadowen, and it belonged to them alone.

Druids and others notwithstanding.

He tried a faint smile, but his mouth refused to put up with it and it
disappeared in the tight line of his lips. His gloved left hand squirmed
within the clasp of the bare fingers of his right. Power for power,
strength for strength. On his breast, the silver wolf’s-head insignia
glittered.

Thrum, thrum, came the sound of the magic working down below.

Rimmer Dall turned back into the grayness of the room--a room that
until recently had held Coll Ohmsford prisoner. Now the Valeman was
gone--escaped, he believed; but let go in fact and made prisoner
another way. Gone to find his brother, Par.

The one with the real magic.

The one who would be his.

The First Seeker moved away from the window and seated himself at the bare wooden table, the weight of his big frame causing the spindly chair to creak. His hands folded on the table before him and his craggy face lowered.

All the Ohmsfords were back in the Four Lands, all the scions of
Shannara, returned from their quests. Walker Boh had come back from
Eldwist despite Pe Ell, the Black Elfstone regained, its magic fathomed,
Paranor brought back into the world of men, and Walker himself become the first of the new Druids. Wren Elessedil had come back from Morrowindl with Arborlon and the Elves, the magic of the Elfstones discovered anew, her own identity and heritage revealed. Two out of three of Allanon’s charges fulfilled. Two out of three steps taken.

Par’s was to be the last, of course. Find the Sword of Shannara. Find the Sword and it will reveal the truth.

Games played by old men and shades, Rimmer Dall mused. Charges and
quests, searches for truth. Well, he knew the truth better than they,
and the truth was that none of this mattered because in the end the
magic was all and the magic belonged to the Shadowen.

It grated on him that despite his efforts to prevent it, both the Elves
and Paranor were back. Those he had sent to keep the Shannara scions
from succeeding had failed. The price of their failure had been death,
but that did little to assuage his annoyance. Perhaps he should have
been angry--perhaps even a little worried. But Rimmer Dall was
confident in his power, certain of his control over events and time,
assured that the future was still his to determine. Though Teel and Pe
Ell had disappointed him, there were others who would not.

Thrum, thrum, the magic whispered.

And so . . .

Rimmer Dall’s lips pursed. A little time was all that was needed. A
little time to let events he had already set in motion follow their
course, and then it would be too late for the Druid dead and their
schemes. Keep the Dark Uncle and the girl apart. Don’t let them share
their knowledge. Don’t let them join forces.

Don’t let them find the Valemen.

What was needed was a distraction, something that would keep them
otherwise occupied. Or better still, something that would put an end to
them. Armies, of course, to grind down the Elves and the free-born
alike, Federation soldiers and Shadowen Creepers and whatever else he
could muster to sweep these fools from his life. But something more,
something special for the Shannara children with all their magics and
Druid charms.

He considered the matter for a long time, the gray twilight changing to
night about him. The moon rose in the east, a scythe against the black,
and the stars brightened into sharp pinpricks of silver. Their glow
penetrated the darkness where the First Seeker sat and transformed his face into a skull.

Yes, he nodded finally.

The Dark Uncle was obsessed with his Druid heritage. Send him something to play against that weakness, something that would confuse and frustrate him. Send him the Four Horsemen.

And the girl. Wren Elessedil had lost her protector and adviser. Give
her someone to fill that void. Give her one of his own choosing, one who
would soothe and comfort her, who would ease her fears, then betray her and strip her of everything.

The others were no serious threat--not even the leader of the free-born and the Highlander. They could do nothing without the Ohmsford heirs. If the Dark Uncle was imprisoned in his Keep and the Elf Queen’s brief reign ended, the Druid shade’s carefully constructed plans would collapse about him. Allanon would sink back into the Hadeshorn with the rest of his ghost kin, consigned to the past where he belonged.

Yes, the others were insignificant.

But he would deal with them anyway.

And even if all his efforts failed, even if he could do nothing more
than chase them about, harry them as a dog would its prey, still that
would be sufficient if in the end Par Ohmsford’s soul fell to him. He
needed only that to put an end to all of the hopes of his enemies. Only
that. It was a short walk to the precipice, and the Valeman was already
moving toward it. His brother would be the staked goat that would bring him, that would draw him like a wolf at hunt. Coll Ohmsford was deep under the spell of the Mirrorshroud by now, a slave to the magic from which the cloak was formed. He had stolen it to disguise himself, never guessing that Rimmer Dall had intended as much, never suspecting that it was a deadly snare to turn him to the First Seeker’s own grim purpose. Coll Ohmsford would hunt his brother down and force a confrontation. He would do so because the cloak would let him do nothing less, settling a madness within him that only his brother’s death could assuage. Par would be forced to fight. And because he lacked the magic of the Sword of Shannara, because his conventional weapons would not be enough to stop the Shadowen-kind his brother had become, and because he would be terrified that this was yet another trick, he would use the wishsong’s
magic.

Perhaps he would kill his own brother, but this time kill him in truth,
and then discover--when it was too late to change things back--what he had done.

And perhaps not. Perhaps he would let his brother escape--and be led to his doom.

The First Seeker shrugged. Either way, the result would be the same.
Either way the Valeman was finished. Use of the magic and the series of shocks that would surely result from doing so would unbalance him. It would free the magic from his control and let him become Rimmer Dall’s tool. Rimmer Dall was certain of it. He could be so because unlike the Shannara scions and their mentor he understood the Elven magic, his magic by blood and right. He understood what it was and how it worked. He knew what Par did not--what was happening to the wishsong, why it behaved as it did, how it had slipped its leash to become a wild thing
that hunted as it chose.

Par was close. He was very close.

The danger of grappling with the beast is that you will become it.

He was almost one of them.

Soon it would happen.

There was, of course, the possibility that the Valeman would discover
the truth about the Sword of Shannara before then. Was the weapon he carried, the one Rimmer Dall had given up so easily, the talisman he
sought or a fake? Par Ohmsford still didn’t know. It was a calculated risk that he would not find out. Yet even if he did, what good would it do him? Swords were two-edged and could cut either way. The truth might do Par more harm than good . . .

Rimmer Dall rose and walked again to the window, a shadow in the
Night’s blackness, folded and wrapped against the light. The Druids
didn’t understand; they never had. Allanon was an anachronism before he had even become what Bremen intended him to be. Druids--they used the magic like fools played with fire: astounded at its possibilities, yet terrified of its risks. No wonder the flames had burned them so often. But that did not prevent them from refusing their mysterious gift. They were so quick to judge others who sought to wield the power‰Û”the Shadowen foremost‰Û”to see them as the enemy and destroy them.

As they had destroyed themselves.

But there was symmetry and meaning in the Shadowen vision of life, and the magic was no toy with which they played but the heart of who and what they were, embraced, protected, and worshipped. No half measures in which life’s accessibility was denied or self-serving cautions issued to assure that none would share in the use. No admonitions or warnings. No gamesplaying. The Shadowen simply were what the magic would make them, and the magic when accepted so would make them anything.

The tree-tips of the forests and the cliffs of the Runne were dark humps against the flat, silver-laced surface of the Rainbow Lake. Rimmer Dall gazed out upon the world, and he saw what the Druids had never been able to see.

That it belonged to those strong enough to take it, hold it, and shape
it. That it was meant to be used.

His eyes burned the color of blood.

It was ironic that the Ohmsfords had served the Druids for so long,
carrying out their charges, going on their quests, following their
visions to truths that never were. The stories were legend. Shea and
Flick, Wil, Brin and Jair, and now Par. It had all been for nothing. But
here is where it would end. For Par would serve the Shadowen and by
doing so put an end forever to the Ohmsford-Druid ties.

“Par. Par. Par.?”

Rimmer Dall whispered his name soothingly to the night. It was a litany
that filled his mind with visions of power that nothing could withstand.

For a long time he stood at the window and allowed himself to dream of
the future.

Then abruptly he wheeled away and went down into the tower’s depths to feed.

ANNOTATION

The anxiously awaited conclusion to the Heritage of Shannara series--by one of fantasy's phenomenal bestselling authors. The descendants of the Elven house of Shannara had all completed their quests . . . but their work was not yet done, for the Shadowen still swarmed over the Four Lands.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The descendants of the Elven house of Shannara had all completed their quests. Walker Boh, using the power of the Black Elfstone, had restored the lost Druid's Keep, Paranor, and become the last Druid himself. Wren had found the missing Elves and brought them back from the island of Morrowindl to the Four Lands. Now she was Queen of the Elves. And Par had found what quite possibly was the legendary Sword of Shannara. But their work was not yet done - the Shadowen still swarmed over the Four Lands, poisoning all with their dark magic. And the leader of the Shadowen, Rimmer Dall, was determined that the scions of Shannara would not share with each other the knowledge that would end the sickness. Against Walker Boh then, he would dispatch the Four Horsemen. To Wren Elessedil, he would send a friend who would betray her. And for Par Ohmsford, whose wishsong was growing steadily more uncontrollable, he had devised the most terrible fate of all... The charges given by the shade of the Druid Allanon were doomed to fail - unless the Shannara children could escape the traps being laid for them, and Par could find a way to use the Sword of Shannara. Here, in the final volume of his bestselling series, The Heritage of Shannara, Terry Brooks tells of the culmination of the struggle between a handful of determined heroes and the insidious, pervasive evil that seeks to crush them.

SYNOPSIS

Although some of the goals to keep Shannara safe had been met, the work of Walker Boh, Wren, and Par was not yet done. For The Shadowmen still swarmed over the Four Lands, poisoning all with their dark magic.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Brooks brings his best-selling tetralogy, which began with The Scions of Shannara, to a resounding, action-filled conclusion. The three quests set by the Druid Allanon to save the Four Lands have been fulfilled, but the results are endangered or useless. One of the questers, Shannara scion Par Ohmsford, flees Federation soldiers and Shadowen Seekers with his love, Damson Rhee, only to be hunted by his brother Coll, made mad by the Shadowen leader Rimmer Dall. Par carries the powerful Sword of Shannara but cannot use it; the magic of his wishsong intensifies but becomes increasingly uncontrollable. Walker Boh, Allanon's heir, is trapped inside the restored Druid fortress of Paranor by four powerful Shadowen who have taken the form of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The third quester, Wren Elessedil, now queen of the elves, has brought her people back to the Four Lands, but they face extermination by the Federation. The three searchers must be tempered by disaster, conquer their self-doubts and discover within themselves the true nature of their quest and the means of salvation for their peoples. Cutting from one group to another, Brooks builds tension and suspense, weaving a rich and complex tale.

Library Journal

Legendary sf author Brooks here weaves a tale about an apocalyptic showdown in a small Illinois town between humans and the amber-eyed trolls from another realm that only a girl named Nest can see.

BookList - Roland Green

Brooks here concludes "The Heritage of Shannara". Despite apparent success in their various quests, Walker Bob, Wren, and Par Ohmsford still face the poisonous plague of the Shadowen. Indeed, they may well fall to it unless Par can actually use the Sword of Shannara itself--at what cost to himself and his friends no one knows. In the course of reaching a satisfactory conclusion, this volume, like so much of Brooks' work, drags in spots and reaches compelling power in others. Overall, the tetralogy may well have been loading more on the Shannara universe that it can bear, particularly in the face of competition from such better-wrought worlds as those of David Eddings' and Robert Jordan's multivolume sagas. Shannara's large and faithful audience will see Brooks to the end, though, making this volume a mandatory acquisition.

AudioFile - Rita Nappi

One need not be a fantasy follower or Terry Brooks devotee to find this dark tale completely gripping. Kate Burton satisfies teen and adult listeners as she convincingly speaks for Nest Freemark, 14; her chain-smoking, vodka-drinking grandmother; and her grandfather, Old Bob. The narration of the hellish dreams of John Ross, Knight of the Word, is powerful. Burton introduces the six-inch sylvan with the easy, high-pitched voice expected of a wood creature with magical powers. As Burton￯﾿ﾽs voice mesmerizes the listener, characters from different worlds are readily accepted. Many plots lead to occasional abruptness in the abridgment, but the force of the production is not diminished. R.N. ￯﾿ﾽAudioFile, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

New contemporary fantasy from the author of two interminable series, one about Shannara (First King of Shannara, 1996, etc.), the other set in a Magic Kingdom (Witches' Brew, 1995, etc.). In Hopewell, Illinois, 14-year-old Nest Freemark defends the town's ancient parkland against encroaching "feeders" (they feed on dark emotions) with the magic she inherited from her mysteriously dead mother and her drunken Gran, with whom she lives. Nest's helpers are Pick, a tiny, 150-year-old woody "sylvan"; Daniel the owl; and the eerie, wolflike Wraith. As July 4th approaches, a demon arrives in town, as does good-guy John Ross, Knight of the Word; Nest is the key to the looming good vs. evil showdown. But soon she begins to wonder why nobody will tell her the truth about her missing parents, or what's really going on in the park. The demon tempts Nest, then torments her, and finally tells her that he's her father! As Nest wavers, the demon tries to force the issue by killing Gran, capturing Pick, and exposing Wraith (whom Nest thought of as her faithful protector) as an elemental under his control. Thus deprived of her allies, how will Nest resist the demon?

An intriguing and well-balanced scenario with believable characters, but undermined by unsurprising story developments and therefore little or no narrative tension.