The Druid of Shannara

In the three hundred years since the death of the Druid Allanon, the mysterious, evil Shadowen have seized control and are ruining the Four Lands. Using Cogline as messenger, the shade of Allanon summons the four scions of Shannara: Par, Coll, Wren, and Walker Boh. To Walker Boh he gives the duty of restoring the lost Druid's Keep, Paranor. For that, Walker needs the black Elfstone, but his search leads him only to a trap.

Meanwhile, the King of the Silver River, a fabulous being as old as mankind, creates a daughter named Quickening and sends her to help. She is joined by Morgan Leah and Pe Ell, an assassin who plans eventually to kill her.

They find Walker Boh dying after an attack by the Shadowen, Rimmer Dall. Quickening heals him and tells him that the Elfstone is in the hands of another ancient being, the Stone King, who seeks to turn all the world to stone.

The journey will lead them to the far north, through the Charnal Mountains and beyond, into a perilous and unknown land. And no one knows what horrible monsters the Stone King has set to guard his citadel.

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.

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From the Paperback edition.