Dark Wraith Of Shannara by Terry Brooks (book review)
There are surly no fans of fantasy who have not heard of Terry Brooks. His seminal first novel, ‘The Sword Of Shannara’ is not only a classic of the genre but also received two sequels, ‘Elfstone Of Shannara’ and ‘Wishsong Of Shannara’. The former even inspired a television series in 2016. Along with a complete cycle of books following named ‘The Heritage Of Shannara’ and numerous prequels, it is clear that Brooks has legions of fans. For this reviewer, however, his best work has been his gently humorous alternative series, ‘The Magic Kingdom Of Landover’, of which I can honestly say I am a fan.
‘Dark Wraith Of Shannara’ is something of a departure for Brooks in that it is a graphic novel rather than a literary novel. In his introduction, Brooks notes how his publisher, Del Ray, felt it was time to produce a graphic novel in the ‘Shannara’ series and Brooks nervously agreed, worrying that it would not come up to his usual standard of work.
Eagle-eyed readers will notice that the authors of this book include Robert Napton and Edwin David. From page 163, there is a useful afterword which describes ‘The Making Of Dark Wraith Of Shannara’. In this section we can read how Brooks wrote the outline of the story and Robert Napton `adapted’ this into the final format. Napton describes Brooks’ outline as being ‘dense, rich with detail’, so I wonder what Napton’s job was. Did Napton have to cut down on this dense detail? What did he have to add? To be honest, it is not really clear, so one is left wondering how much of the book is Brooks, how much Napton.
Edwin David was the primary artist creating all the character designs and illustrating them from Brooks’ descriptions. David describes how this was daunting and several of his earlier concepts are included which is a nice way to show how he developed the looks of the characters.
The story itself is billed as a direct sequel to ‘Wishsong Of Shannara’ and focuses on Jair Ohmsford and his sister, Brin. In the introduction, Brooks relates how he did not wish to adapt an existing tale of Shannara into a graphic novel but wanted to give fans something new. Brooks considered that the story of Jair and Brin could have been better resolved and so decided to use this as the basis for this book.
The story opens on what I assume to be a retelling of a climax from ‘Wishsong’, whereby Jair destroys the final page of the Ildratch. This is the tome of evil that seems to have influenced the villains all through the series from ‘Sword Of Shannara’ right up to this tale. Brooks states, ‘No introduction in the form of previous Shannara stories is needed to read this book.’ Given that intention, the introductory pages seem to spend a long time setting the scene and telling us what has gone before. It is, for example, important to know that certain major characters are considered dead so that we can feel the full impact of those same characters seemingly not quite so dead as previously described. It may indeed not be essential to have read the previous ‘Shannara books’ but I bet it helps a whole lot.
The art itself is something of a fusion between the western sensibility and the eastern manga tradition. A quick on-line search reveals that Edwin David has tried many forms of art but that this does include a ‘Battle Of The Planets’ manga (respect!), so it is not surprising that some of the action sequences and placement of the panels, etc. feels decidedly manga-esque. The art in this volume is more fully rendered in its shading and details than is usual for a manga and this helps root the book in a more western tradition.
The actual graphic novel runs to 160 pages and so has plenty of space to get through the story. Following the flashback first section, we find that friends of Jair and Brin’s have been kidnapped by a nefarious new villain who is going to force them to reveal where the Ildratch is hidden. These friends are likely to be familiar with Wishsong’s readers being Kimber and Cogline. The aged Cogline knows much of druidism and the villain believes she can extract the pertinent details directly from his mind. Cogline lives with the younger Kimber who is portrayed as something of a traditional barbarian lady, complete with fur bikini. Hurrah for the stereotypes I guess. Anyway, Jair heads off to save them but not before being admonished by Brin for his use of the Wishsong magic. Brin believes that if Jair keeps using it he will `lose himself’ in it. So Jair promises not to use it again. Let’s see how long that lasts, shall we?
The villains themselves are to be honest a little one-dimensional. We have the Mwellrets as minions who are portrayed as cowled reptilian folk clearly evil for evil’s sake. They are being led by The Croton Witch who is described as a dark agent and mistress of the black arts. Naturally, The Croton Witch is cut from evil whole cloth. The problem, as far as I see it, is the villains don’t appear to have much motivation beyond pure evil. As such, it is hard to sympathise with them and so the threat seems less sophisticated and the reader never really feels as if the villains might actually win. Having said that, my experience with other works by Brooks does tend to feature goodness versus evil that seems to be evil for its own sake so I guess this book follows suite.
Nonetheless, the book builds up to a fairly satisfying conclusion with an ending that is at least more subtle than kill all the baddies. I’m not sure that Mr. Brooks has sufficiently resolved the stories of Jair and Brin Ohmsford. In particular, Brin isn’t really in the story much. This is much more a tale of Jair and his relationship with his magic and he rides off into the sunset literally thinking this does not end it. So not very well resolved at all really.
Should you pick this up? Well, if you are a fan of Brooks’ other ‘Shannara’ books then it is something of a no-brainer. Existing fans will surely enjoy the next chapter in these character’s stories and may take some delight at how they have been realised in the artwork. As for the others, the blurb states, ‘If you’ve never ventured into the wondrous world of Shannara, consider this an ideal opportunity’ which I don’t think is really true. If you want to dip into ‘Shannara’, I suggest reading some of Brooks’ novels. You can read this graphic novel in isolation but it will feel like you are missing great chunks of stuff. So one for the existing fans really.
Dave Corby
August 2025
(pub: Del Rey/Ballantine Books, 2014. 208 page graphic novel. Price: $13.95 (US), $15.95 (CAN). ISBN: 978-0-345-49462-7)
check out websites: www.delreybooks.com, www.orbitbooks.net, www.shannara.com, www.terrybrooks.net and www.terrybrooks.co.uk
