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I was intrigued by the premise of buying a fairy world (kingship included!), and thank God I was, because it took a few chapters for this to take off for me. Once things got settled, this was a pretty fun and entertaining read for me.Ben Holiday, lawyer and widower, came across as mopey and unbalanced at first. I can't say he didn't have his reasons, though. His wife was dead, and he was contemplating buying the kingdom of Landover for one million dollars, all on a whim. He was full of doubts fo...
I saw this in a used bookstore and picked it up as a nostaglia re-read.It's a good book, and I enjoyed it. But the pace of the story is much *much* slower than I remember. Part of this might be that I already had read it in the past. Or that I'm much *much* busier than I was as a kid. But the result is that I ended up doing something I rarely do: I skimmed chunks of the book, mostly description or narration of the main character's thoughts, so I could get to the next bit of action or dialogue.Fo...
The end of this story brings the rating from 1 to 2 stars. While I just may have been happy to get it over with, there was a dearth of excitement until the end. Even then, the conclusion could have expanded some finer points, but fails to do so. 3 of 10 stars
I love fantasy books, so of course Terry Brooks was on my list of must reads. The Landover series books were great for many reasons. First it was a light read. I am not saying there is no moral dilemas or complexity, just that you dont have to wrap your brain too deeply around it. I also liked it for the entertainment factor. There was action, but not too much, love interests, but not too much, magic... well you can't overdo that in a fantasy book, evil villians, a bumbling wizard (every fantasy...
It took me a while to sink into this book... seemed like a lot of time was spent in Ben Holiday's disbelief at finding himself in Landover. Yes, it was any sane person's natural response to leave town and enter a hidden world where a person can be accidentally half-transformed into a dog; I just don't want to spend so long wallowing in it. It took me a while to feel any sort of sympathy for any of the characters. For most of the book I was laughing when they got into trouble - although some of t...
This is my first Terry Brooks and I was a little hesitant going in. One of my good friends had recently skewered Swords of Shannara and I thought I might be stepping into a pile of crap. However, I was pleasantly surprised with this story. It was light and fun and I had a good time reading it. Maybe Brooks got better as he continued to write or maybe this story just hit me at the right time. Whatever it was, I liked this.
A really interesting story with a good premise, but could have been filled out a bit better and expanded upon to give a richer feel for the land, the people and the events. The message of fear being one's worst enemy and defeating you before you even start was a good one and because of this I got a lot out of the book, but I felt that events and descriptions were far too sparse and that this was the abridged version, though I know it wasn't. If you're not bothered by a story that isn't fleshed o...
I actually enjoyed this series better than his more serious offerings.My attention drawn back to this one sentence review...I found a typo.The book is a humorous one but not a straight comedy. This falls into the category of literature (and media for that matter) which might be called "humorous or comedy drama". It's done pretty well. (By the way, if you read/finish the book you may think that I had a sort of "prejudice" toward the hero because of, one of the characters...not so, really.) Lesson...
This is lighter fare - the kind of book that takes your mind off the real world. Having read it almost three decades ago, I don't know if I'm truly qualified to review it now, but I remember it as a refreshing palate cleanser at the time. I went on to read and enjoy three more in the series. Plot wise, it's not overly original. It's the basic portal Narnia type of novel. So I can't say that it shaped the field or massively influenced it. Basically, your white American male, Ben Holiday, is a lit...
This was a book that constantly frustrated me by not making the most of its premise. Here you have a pretty original premise, a humorous tone, and a diverse cast of characters, and yet all that emerges is a mildly engaging but not wholly entertaining read. There were countless missed opportunities, and I couldn't help wondering how this book would have fared in, say, Terry Pratchett's far more capable hands.
3.0 to 3.5 stars. A pretty good book if you are looking for a "lighter fare" fantasy novel. I thought the main character was well written and the story was engaging.
I have read all this author's works as have two of my children. We usually read them as they were released. He and John Grisham are both lawyers who now write.
Back in the early 2000s when I first discovered Terry Brooks, I read this series mainly as a way to pass the time when I read out of "Shannara" books. Now rereading this, I appreciate it much more now. I think it is perhaps as an adult, I better appreciate Ben's world weariness and the thought of "What would you do if you had the chance to rule a country and essentially create your own government". This book is also very fun and imaginative with a snarky main character. I also really like the g'...
Re: _Magic Kingdom for Sale--Sold" by Terry Brooks This is part of Brooks' Magic Kingdom of Landover series. This book is the series opener. My GR friend, Werner says: "With this series, there is a case for reading the books in order; the first one gives some essential basic information, and there is a progressive development of the characters...".I enjoyed reading this book of fantasy. It kept me reading. It was easy to follow and the fantasy characters were fun to read about. There's suspense
My wife Barb enjoys being read to (as well as reading by herself), and generally likes fantasy, as do I. So it's not surprising that we've read a fair amount together in that genre, nor that Terry Brooks was an author we ran across early. We first read and liked his debut novel, The Sword of Shannara, reasonably well; but we both agree that it has a very derivative dependence on Tolkien, which goes far beyond the obvious influence the British genre giant exerted on all the fantasists who followe...
It sounds like the premise of a hilarious comic fantasy: Successful lawyer sees a magic kingdom for sale in a Christmas catalogue, buys it, and becomes king. Except, things are not as grand as they seem, and he finds himself accompanied by a talking dog, an incompetent wizard, and two goblins as his only retinue...Unfortunately, the book never really delivers anything at all. The writing is bland, the humour is, for the most part, absent, and the story is altogether a misfire. There is a touch o...
This is my favorite book by Terry Brooks! A normal business man finds himself looking to a propertiy for sale... but its a kingdom! He doesn't even believe it and he goes to find out about it. He ends up buying it and goes to a far off world of new kinds. Where he meets a wizard who turned himself into a dog, and his friend Willow a girl who at night turned into a tree. This was not what he had expected to find in his new home. As well as the responsability to go on an adventure to save the town...
What a neat idea! Very well done other world fantasy novel that's just plain fun & a fast read. The writing is tight for Brooks & the characters are all vibrant. Highly recommended for a beach read.Brooks is not my favorite author. The first book of his I read was The Sword of Shannara & it absolutely infuriated me since it was such a rip-off of The Hobbit. I wouldn't read anything else by him for years, but eventually I relented since my wife & I had read almost everything else the library had
I always thought this was a funny read. But it wasn't! To tell you, managing a fantasy kingdom is not as easy as it sounds. But I had a good time here. I had a good time at Landover that it makes me sick of frustration that I could not find the second book of the series!
What an awesome book to kick off 2021 with! The concept was very intriguing to me and had me curious and as I began to read I just dissolved into it. This isn’t at all like Terry Brooks’s Shannarah series. I was half expecting to find it similar, but also this isn’t a humorous novel like I had expected it would be. (.ie Hitchhikers, or Discworld). Sure there are funny moments, but there are those in most novels. This read more like a twisted Narnia story for adults. Not as Grossman’s Narnia in “...