Terry Brooks talks finishing The Shannara Chronicles, which began in 1977

Fantasy author Terry Brooks, who has been writing The Shannara Chronicles for 40 years, agrees with critics of the finale. “I’m burnt out.”

All good things must come to an end, including Terry Brooks’ Shannara Chronicles series, which the fantasy author has been writing over the course of four decades. In an interview with SyFy Wire, Brooks talked about his decision to finally end the series, how it came about and why it was so important to get it done.

The Shannara Chronicles began in 1977 with The Sword of Shannara, which quickly found an audience. Brooks’ saga is set on Earth in the distant future, after civilization as we know it was wiped out by some kind of disaster. The books follow characters trying to navigate a world where science and magic coexist.

The final book in the series, The Fall of Shannara: The Last Druid came out last October, although some longtime fans through it left something to be desired. Brooks isn’t just aware of the criticism, he kind of agrees with it. “I’m not surprised,” he said. “I’ve been competing against myself for 30 books. I don’t think I can write a book better than [1982’s The Elfstones of Shannara] and [1985’s The Wishsong of Shannara], The Genesis of Shannara, the Heritage series. Those books, I was at the top of my game, but I’m burnt out.”

It’s not often that wildly popular authors like Brooks have the humility to admit when a book is lacking. Many authors would sooner let the saga go without a conclusion, or wait for someone else to take up the mantle. For Brooks, this wasn’t an option. “When you get into your seventies, you start thinking about how much time you have left. I thought, ‘I’m going to be really pissed if I die and don’t get this written.’ The concept that I’d had earlier in life — that I would live forever — might not turn out to be true.”

Brooks joked that he didn’t want his friend Brandon Sanderson writing the conclusion of his saga after Sanderson famously finished Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time saga. Brooks noted that the last thing he needed was for people to like Sanderson’s work better than his own.

The Fall of Shannara: The Last Druid is available now.

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