Kaitlin Heller and David Pomerico—two obviously busy editors at Del Rey and Spectra—thought that it would be fun to take some time out of our schedules to speculate on who would win if the greatest fantasy and science fiction characters were put into a March Madness-style bracket, and asked to duke it out.

The answer, though, would be determined by the experts, namely, you.

Cage Matches 2010!

Here is the direct link for Garet Jax vs. Kvothe!!

Go Team Garet Jax! Ha!

As readers, I'm sure you know many of these characters intimately. You know their strengths, you know their weaknesses.

And most of all, you know that there's no way in hell Drizzt Do'Urden would ever lose a sword fight with Hiro Protagonist...or would he?

What Kaitlin and David did, then, is all the leg-work, culling through the tomes of science fiction and fantasy to put together a field of thirty-two worthy* combatants. They—as well as a number of dedicated members of the Del Rey, Spectra, and Suvudu teams—put together stat sheets, just in case someone wasn't as familiar with the character as they ought to be (Yes, ought! And you call yourself nerds) to be.

And then they ran extensive simulations** to see who would come out on top in these first rounds of match-ups. The results, in some circumstances, might surprise you. They definitely surprised us.

But those were just simulations. It's up to the readers to vote on who they think would win. It's up to them to convince others they're right. Think their analysis is wrong? Let us know. Clearly it's you who are wrong, but we'll humor you.

At the end of the day, what matters is that two men (or women... or elves... or one elf and one "other") are entering the ring starting Monday, and a few days later (voting for the Monday matches close Thursday; voting for the Wednesday closes Sunday), only one of them is leaving.

And then the second round begins!

Make your voice heard.

The Matches:

Monday, March 8th

1st Division: Dragon Army

1) The Shrike vs 32) Arthur Dent

16) Kahlan Amnell vs. 17) Drizzt Do'Urden

8) Ged vs. 25) Edward Cullen

9) Aragorn vs. 24) The Wee Free Men


2nd Division: Gryffindor

5) Rand Al'Thor vs. 28) Locke Lamora

12) Harry Dresden vs. 21) Conan the Barbarian

13) Roland Deschain -- The Gunslinger vs 20) Elric

4) Gandalf vs 29) Hiro Protagonist


Wednesday, March 10th

3rd Division: Nightwatch

3) Aslan vs 30) Eragon

14) Kvothe vs 19) Garet Jax

6) Raistlin Majere vs 27) Ender Wiggin

11) Dumbledore vs 22) Vlad Taltos


4th Division: The Fellowship

7) Temeraire vs 26) Haplo

10) Polgara the Sorceress vs 23) Anita Blake

15) Jaime Lannister vs 18) Hermione Granger

2) Cthulhu vs 31) Lyra Silvertongue


* You don't agree? Well isn't that a surprise...

** We made stuff up

Labels: garet jax, Shannara

I wrote a post for Suvudu.com detailing how Terry and his publisher come up with book titles. You will be surprised to know that not every title has been Terry's original choice.

Click HERE to find out what the original titles of The Gypsy Morph and A Princess of Landover were!

Labels: A Princess of Landover, Armageddon's Children, Bearers of the Black Staff, High Druid of Shannara, Legends of Shannara, Shannara, The Gypsy Morph

Since I've been receiving a lot of email from fans about this, I thought I would simply put the issue to bed.

Terry is doing a 2009 Holiday Letter. In it, he describes his last year of work and what work he plans on doing in the next few years. He talks about the two movies and where they stand, as well as discusses the illustrated version of Indomitable that Subterranean Press will be doing.

I now have this letter and will be posting it on Thanksgiving, much earlier than I usually post it. But I have a great gift to give you all next month, so I'm not worried about spoiling too much by releasing the holiday letter early.

I hope you all are okay with that. Ha!

So log in on Thanksgiving. The 2009 Holiday Letter will be posted. I hope you all have a safe coming week and, for those of you in the United States, eat until it puts you to sleep!

Labels: Genesis of Shannara, Holiday Letter, Movies, Shannara

On October 20th, I posted news about the opportunity for fans to bid on an auction where the winner would have the chance to have their name put into a future Shannara novel written by Terry.

The proceeds from the auction would go to schools, libraries, and children.

I am here to report the auction was a great success! It exceeded Terry's expectations. Two years ago Terry did this and the winning bidder gave around $1500 for the opportunity to have his name in the book. That is how the G'Home Gnome Shoopdiesel came into being.

This time, the winning bidder gave $7325.00 to have his/her name in the future Shannara book!

$7325! That is great! The money is going to children and that has to make everyone feel great about it. Terry and I are pleased and excited the auction went that high and Terry is excited to write those future Shannara books!

So congratulations to the winner, but an enormous thank you for everyone who bid. It shows the spirit of Terry's fans and I'm happy to be affiliated with all of you!

Labels: Auction, Shannara

Terry has answered your questions from October 2009! They are posted here!

Labels: Ask Terry, Genesis of Shannara, Shannara

More than two years ago, Terry offered a similar auction at BiddingForGood. The proceeds from the auction go to schools and similar non-profit entities around the world. For three weeks people could bid for the opportunity to have their name used in Terry's next Landover novel—what would eventually become this year's bestseller A Princess of Landover.

There was a winning bidder. That person had an unusual email address though and Terry fell in love with it immediately. He offered the winner a much larger role in the book if he could use the email address handle—which did contain elements of the winner's real name—instead of the winner's actual name.

That is how the annoyingly mute G'Home Gnome Shoopdiesel came to be.

Terry is doing it again this year! This time for a forthcoming Shannara book!

The question is: How much is it worth to be immortal?

The Shannara series has been one of the most beloved fantasy series of all time. It is literally one of the foundational pieces of the genre. One can easily make the argument that without The Sword of Shannara the genre would not look the same, might not exist with the size it does now. After all it was Sword that defied other publishers and their belief that fantasy beyond Tolkien just couldn't sell.

If you would like to have your name used in a forthcoming Shannara book, Terry invites you to click HERE!

For me this is a huge deal. I love charity activity like this!

Bid often! Best of luck to you!

Labels: A Princess of Landover, Contest, Genesis of Shannara, Shannara

A Dribble of Ink has got their hands on Terry's upcoming graphic novel, Dark Wraith of Shannara and just recently posted a review!

Here's a little of what they had to say:

"Brooks explores interesting territory with Jair's Wishsong, drawing parallels to drug addiction and it is as Jair struggles with a magic that is slowly eating away at him - but also necessary for his survival - that we find the true strength of the story and the character."

"...couldn't stop this Shannara fan from feeling slightly giddy at finally seeing the Four Lands brought to life visually and with a fun story to back up the pictures. This is one piece of fan service that Shannara fans won't want to miss..."

You can find the full review HERE!

Labels: Dark Wraith of Shannara, Shannara, The Wishsong of Shannara

Here is the first of several really cool things that are being released here on the website.

Terry and Del Rey have released the trailer for Dark Wraith of Shannara. Dark Wraith is the 208 page graphic novel detailing Jair Ohmsford's seductive fight against the mounting power within, all the while trying to protect the Four Lands from a serious new threat. Robert Napton adapted Terry's story, and Edwin David supplied the artwork. The trailer has a lot of images of the graphic novel set to music and voice, and it is the first peek for fans of the Shannara series.

Right now, it is only available in .wmv format. Quicktime will come soon.

February will also see some new content from the graphic novel posted on the website. And in March, Dark Wraith will ship to comic shops and bookstores everywhere on March 25!

Visit the Dark Wraith of Shannara trailer by clicking HERE!

As for what else is coming, January 1st will see the next update: an audio file of Terry reading from Book Three in the Genesis of Shannara trilogy!

We hope everyone has been safe and continues to be safe during this holiday time!

Labels: Dark Wraith of Shannara, Shannara

With the impending release of Terry's latest novel, The Elves of Cintra, only hours away we here at the Official Terry Brooks web site know just how excited everyone is to get their hands on what A Dribble of Ink calls "easily his most complete and entertaining book since 2000's Ilse Witch," and Fantasy Book Critic says that The Genesis of Shannara trilogy is "is shaping up to be one of the author's most accomplished works and I can't wait to see how it ends"!

Many web sites and publication have received early review copies of The Elves of Cintra and below you will find a collection of those reviews that we've run across on the Internet. Be sure to check them all out, as they each bring new opinions, praise and interesting commentary to light about Terry's newest, most exciting novel!

A Dribble of Ink (Thumbs Up!) | "it is with great pleasure that I can say that The Elves of Cintra, the sequel to Armageddon's Children, is even better, a rare accomplishment for a middle book of a trilogy."

Bookie Monster (Highly Recommended)| "It was very hard to pinpoint exact things that made Elves of Cintra and its predecessor such a great read, but that is probably because even as a reviewer my mind was drawn away from the artifice and into the story."

Fantasy Book Critic | "I think anyone who calls themselves a fan of Mr. Brooks would be hard-pressed not to enjoy the new trilogy. For readers new to Terry Brooks, I think the Genesis of Shannara would be accessible to you since it's basically serving as the ultimate prequel to the Shannara series."

Publishers Weekly (A Starred Review) | "Celebrating his 30th year as a professional writer, Brooks provides another fascinating group of characters tackling harrowing and inspiring life and death issues."

SFRevu (Beware of Spoilers!) | "Fans of epic fantasy will enjoy The Elves of Cintra. For anyone who's a fan of Terry Brooks, this is a must-read."

We're proud to say that each any everyone of these reviews have been glowing! If you find any others floating around the 'net, be sure to leave a comment and we can add it to the list! Hopefully these reviews will help when your appetite for The Elves of Cintra!

Labels: Reviews, Shannara, The Elves of Cintra, The Genesis of Shannara, Word and Void