Here’s a first glimpse at the cover for The Wards of Faerie by Terry Brooks, first volume in his next trilogy, The Legacy of Shannara, which takes place after Straken, instead of being part of the series of prequel’s he has been working on for years.
The cover’s a bit of a change of pace from his last several (like this one), but it’s a welcome change. I never really groove on Steve Stone’s figure-based covers, so this turn to a more emblematic cover, somewhat reminiscient of the recent George R.R. Martin covers, is aright with me. It’s interesting to see that they’ve dropped the branding in the title of the series by going with a different font (though Brooks keeps its looped Os). In all, a little boring, but should look nice enough with a foil-stamped cover.
UPDATED: Here’s a short synopsis for the book from Shawn Speakman, Brooks’ webmaster and friend:
Wards of Faerie, Book I in The Dark Legacy of Shannara, is the indirect continuation of the story found in High Druid of Shannara. Only one character, Khyber Elessedil, is left from those previous books. She is the Ard Rhys of the Druid Keep Paranor and lives in a world where technology has the upper hand against the Druids and all they stand for. When one of her fellow Druids comes upon information that might lead to the missing Elfstones of Faerie—talismans that might help shift the magic/technology balance back to the middle—Khyber knows she must try to attain them at all costs.
What she finds is a threat much larger than technology.
Sounds good. The prequel books have been hit-or-miss in quality, so I’m sort of looking forward to getting back to ‘present day’ Shannara and dealing with the conflict between magic and emerging science. It’ll be interesting seeing Khyber as a lead character. Surely there’ll be an Ohmsford in there somewhere.
