The Measure of the Magic: Legends of Shannara (Pre-Shannara: Legends of Shannara) Mass Market Paperback – July 31, 2012

the book was brand new just what i wanted

I highly enjoyed this story. I laughed and cried my way through it. The ending was surprisingly well done although I cried a lot. Thank you. You are one of my new, favorite authors.Amber Rose

Terry Brooks has written an excellent conclusion to the "Legends of Shannara" duology. At the end of "Bearers of the Black Staff", a dying Sider Ament passes possession of the black staff to Panterra Qu, the young tracker from Glensk Wood. The protective barrier surrounding the valley has disappeared, and a massive troll army stands ready to invade and make it their own. The Elves stand ready to defend against the trolls. However, a menace even greater than the trolls threatens the inhabitants of the valley; a demon with tremendous power. His sole purpose: to dispose of the bearer of the staff and take the staff for himself.Panterra's battle is not solely with the trolls. In Arborlon, the Elven king has been murdered, and his daughter, Phryne Amarantyne, has been framed by her evil stepmother. Somehow, Phryne must manage to escape from the clutches of her stepmother so she can help the other elves. Panterra sets off to help Phryne in her quest and along the way, the two develop a very close relationship.This book is loaded with action from the very beginning. Having read the previous book, as well as the "Running With The Demon" and the Genesis of Shannara series, when a demon shows up, only bad things happen, as is the case in this book. The reader can almost feel the presence of the demon as Brooks describes him. The other characters, including Pan, Prue Liss, and Phryne, are well-developed, as well. I liked reading about Pan and Phryne's developing relationship, and the continuing description of the demon's and troll's actions were some of the best parts of the book. The dragon flying overhead was cool, too.I've been a Brooks fan since "The Sword of Shannara", and I've read all of his books. I thought this series, although short, is one of his best. I beleive he does some of his best storytelling in these two books. The character development and storylines are excellent, and the book is fast-paced and full of intrigue.I give this book my highest recommendation. Brooks fans will not be disappointed.

My review of "Bearers of the Black Staff," the volume immediately preceding this one in the Shannara universe, criticized it as formulaic. I think "The Measure of the Magic" improves on "Bearers" in several ways, the primary one being that the storyline moves along at enough of a clip to keep you interested. Where it falters is the ending. I felt that the ending was too rushed and got tied up too easily and cleanly without ever answering some of the questions that were raised throughout the story. For example, it was clear from both books that some of the characters had histories with each other--Skeal Eile and Isoeld, for example--yet we never learned anything about those histories. The only relationship that gets explored in any detail is the one between Panterra and Phryne (and their relationship breaks new ground for a Terry Brooks novel because it's the first time there's any evidence of characters having sex with each other--which just makes the ending all the more bittersweet). I thought the story was building up reasonably well, but due to the Kindle's indicator bar that shows how far you've read in a book, it was readily apparent that the end was going to come fairly quickly and that there would have to be some sort of deus ex machina for the story to conclude within the assigned amount of space. I don't know whether the publisher established a page limit, or whether Mr. Brooks simply said all he wanted to say, or what, but I was left vaguely dissatisfied.In fairness, I should also concede that because this is a prequel, anyone who's read the other Shannara novels knows how the story has to end in an overall sense. That is to say, you may not know what might happen to an individual character, but I don't think it's a spoiler to say that because we know that in the books' internal chronology the Races have moved out beyond this valley and have inhabited the area called the Four Lands, there can only be one possible resolution for the story in the "Legends of Shannara" duology. That means that this is more of a "how does it happen" novel, rather than a "what will happen" novel, if that makes any sense. (I suppose in a sense you could say it's like the Star Wars prequel trilogy, where everyone knew that Anakin Skywalker would become Darth Vader and went to see the movies to see how it would happen.) I guess the fact that we knew what the outcome had to be is another reason why Mr. Brooks could skip over some details, such as what happens when the characters do go out into the wider world to explore--we know they went out and found new places to settle, so the details of that may not be so important.All that's fair, but I feel that the deus ex machina nature of the ending was simply too convenient, and so I feel that a promising story ended with a let-down. The bittersweet nature of the ending deserves some credit, though.PS. Incidentally, regarding the exploration of sex, I found it rather amusing from a male point of view that it was the male character who found deep significance in it while the female character seemed to feel that "it's just sex," simply because that's so much the opposite of most stereotypes. After I read that chapter I said, "Hey, this may be the first time the guy actually gets the girl in one of these books." Terry Brooks got the last laugh there, of course, and I had to say "well-played" in that respect.

It's a good story with a few twist. Some of it was predictable, such as the demon becoming Skel and the red dove being killed causing Prue to become completely blind. It needs another entry though. I want to know what happened to those that remained.

When it comes to “The Measure of magic” – Book Two of the Legends of Shannara, Terry Brooks mixes the ingredients of high adventure in perfect proportions.The remnants of mankind have not learned the harsh lessons inflicted upon them over five hundred years before that led to them being sequestered from the rest of a world ravaged by a demon instigated nuclear war. Come to that, neither have the elves, nor the other races that came into the hidden valley along with them.Still divided, ever suspicious of creatures not of their own kind, they have remained fragmented and fractious. So much so that their ongoing squabbles and petty politickings play right into the demon’s hands with catastrophic consequences.How catastrophic?You’ll see when we rejoin Panterra Qu, Prue Liss and Phryne Amarantyne as they struggle to come to terms with a drastic change of circumstances. Each has gained varying degrees of magical ability. Yet it is apparent they are ill prepared for the consequences such responsibility involves, nor the hurdles their long-established insecurities seem to place in their way, despite the best of intentions.This is a darker and altogether grittier tale of how easy it is to rise – or fall – to the occasion, no matter how personally important things may be or how much you want to succeed.In a nutshell? I absolutely loved it. Frustrating, engaging, poignant and bitter-sweet. Not all fantasy adventures end happily ever after... and I’m glad they don’t.A superb continuing introduction to the later world of Shannara.

I've been a long time fan of Terry Brooks ever since my Uncle introduced his books to me in 1987 and although not my favourite 'mini series' in the Shannara world I did really enjoy this book and it's predecessor Bearers of the Black Staff. I absolutely loved the Word and the Void initial trilogy and was made up when the Genesis of Shannara trilogy was released as few years ago which tied the Shannara world with the Word's servants.***Warning beginning of the book possible spoilers***This book continues on from the Bearers of the Black Staff and picks up with Prue Liss trying to escape from the Trolls after Deladion Inch sacrificed himself to save her. There's a new 'player' in the book with a seemingly harmful rag-picker making an appearance which actually is a Demon in disguise. The Demon has sensed the magic from the Black Staff since the valleys protective walls have fallen and is determined to own that magic as his own as he had long thought he had rid the world of the bearers and their black staffs from him systematically hunting them down since the apocalypse. The Demon has also sensed some sort of magic from Prue Liss and is now quickly on her heels. Will Prue escape the Trolls and the Demon?Panterra Qu has now taken up the black staff following Sider's death and has to make the decision between warning the people of Glensk Wood that the defences at Declan Reach have fallen or going after Prue Liss. He finally makes the decision to warn the people first and then continue on to save Prue not knowing that she has actually already escaped the Trolls camp with Deladion's help.Phryne Amarantyne is locked up following her Father's murder and accused of being the perpetrator by her wicked Step-Mother Isoeld and the First Minister Teonette. She has not been allowed to contact the outside world to get a message to her Grandmother or to her cousins the Orullian's and is awaiting trial for her Father's murder. With no seeming escape or way of proving her innocence all hope seems lost.This book definitely picks up pace from the first with the threat of the Troll invasion and now the Demon on the people of the valley. I was glued to the book throughout and it's yet another brilliant book from Terry Brooks. If you liked the Word and the Void and Genesis of Shannara series then I think you will enjoy this series too however I do agree with some of the other reviews that this should probably have been a trilogy and for that reason only I've knocked off a star.Terry Brooks continues to be my longest standing favourite author and I'm looking forward to his new trilogy Legacy of Shannara which according to his website starts next year with the first book The Wards Of Faerie released in August 2012. For once the other two books in the series will be released within a year (March 2013 & August 2013) so I won't have to wait a year in between each book for once!

Always loved Terry Brookes, dont know why but Ive read everything this guy has printed without complaints. However, I think that this story line is way to similar to his previous writing/novels. I think he needs to refresh his way of thinking in some parts of the story lines. For those that have not read Terry Brookes previous works, well I guess you will throughly enjoy this second helping! The story continues, mankind and elven are fighting for there homeland, which was protected with magic, now the magic is down and they have to come face to face with an invading Troll army and a Demon who will stop at nothing to get what he desires..mainly the Magic Rod carried by the Staff Bearer.It weaves in and out of there lives, as the story progresses, mainly running around a forest, being hungry, thirsty and trying to save mankind from the invasion and this rather miffed off ancient demon. It does continue to repeat itself from different prespectives, but I guess hes just trying to fill out the pages.He does however make the characters feel real, and somewhere you feel for them as they ramble on through the book. And I do MEAN Ramble! Will get the third book, as I dont want to miss out on the ending. However, I do feel a bit of a let down, as the areas he writes about are very very familiar with his other older works. FOur stars as I enjoyed it, but did flick through a few ramblings as they were repetative. Four stars.

Really liked this book, the ending was left wide open and I'm hoping Terry Brooks will return to do another book or two about what our three adventurers find and meet outside the valley. It would also be interesting to see if one of the elves becomes a King at some point, as it was left wide open as to who would be next in line for the throne, and if Prue was to take more than a brotherly interest in the remaining two adventurers. I'm not going to give too much away in terms of the content as that is for you to discover, only that it was well written and very entertaining. It was also a relief to see Brooks separate the Elves from the Humans.

Despite the promise of the first book, the second book just didn't quite live up to expectations. One of the challenges of fantasy books like this is you always have the magic to fallback on. One of you main characters gets into a sticky experiences they should not get out of, introduce some new magic or some new magical character to allow them to escape and continue the narrative.This happened a few too many times for my liking. However, I still like how Brooks develops the world and more importantly the characters in it. I continued to read as i cared about what happened to these people, and this is what will keep me coming back for more Brooks' books.