- Anna Gregson - September 2nd, 2011
Released 01/09/2011
This week Terry Brooks’ The Measure of the Magic (UK /ANZ) is released. It’s the striking conclusion to his Legends of Shannara duology, which began with Bearers of the Black Staff (UK / ANZ) and explores the pre-history of Terry’s beloved Shannara world. You can read a sample chapter here.
To mark the occasion, we’d like to draw your attention to a special auction that is happening for a very good cause.
Stuart Finnie, who lives in Scotland and is undoubtedly one of Terry Brooks’ biggest ever fans, has been collecting Terry Brooks books and memorabilia of all kinds since age 11. From manuscripts, proof copies and first editions, to a spectacular sword and stunning maps, the collection is extremely extensive and wide-ranging, with almost all of the items included signed by Terry or the artists involved. The estimated value of Stuart’s entire collection, which he calls his “whole life”, is £30,000.
And Stuart has now decided to auction this whole collection off, with proceeds going to the cancer charity Macmillan. Having suffered from cancer himself, Stuart now wants to give back to the people who have helped him. We and Terry think this is a fantastically generous idea and wish Stuart all the best with the auction. You can read more about it in this article from the Evening Times.
Anyone who is interested in buying the collection or would like further information please contact April Andrews at Macmillan on 0141 952 0085 or e-mail westofscotland@macmillan.org.uk
by Anna Gregson • Post a Comment • Posted in: New Titles, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Signings and Events
- Anna Gregson - July 7th, 2011
To celebrate today’s release of Terry Brooks’ Bearers of the Black Staff in paperback, we’re giving a few lucky UK readers the chance to be extremely smug and read its sequel The Measure of the Magic weeks before anyone else!
The official UK release date of The Measure of the Magic, the second book in the Legends of Shannara duology, is 1st September 2011. But at the start of August, we’ll be giving away 5 exclusive advance copies, allowing 5 people the chance to get their hands on it weeks before publication.
All you have to do to enter is be based in the UK and enter your details in the form below. The closing date is 22nd July, and winners will be announced on 1st August 2011 via the Orbit Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Good luck everyone! Read the rest of this entry »
by Anna Gregson • 2 Comments • Posted in: Contests, Orbit UK
author post
Bearers of the Black Staff begins a new chapter in the pre-history of the Shannara world - now revealed to be our own at a time in the distant future. I got started on this with the Genesis of Shannara trilogy which chronicled the destruction of civilization in the Old World and the efforts of a handful of survivors to escape what would prove to be an even greater cataclysm. Having gotten past that, we now pick up on their descendants some five hundred years later and find – I am sure, to no one’s great surprise – that things haven’t yet been resolved and that survival of those who remain is not yet assured.
What’s both interesting and difficult is that having written the Shannara books early on, I now have to find ways to make this current series dovetail into all the stories we already know while at the same time making everything seem new and interesting and revealing secrets that to this point I haven’t. For example, how did the various Races come to be? How did the magic evolve? We have Knights of the Word in the pre-history, so what happened to them? Did they end up becoming the Druids in the Shannara world of the future? Read the rest of this entry »
by Terry Brooks •1 Comment • Categories: Guest Post, New Titles, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK • Tags: Terry Brooks
- The Orbit Team - September 16th, 2008
You say ‘to-MAY-to’ and I say ‘to-MAH-to’,
You say ‘shu-NAR-a’ and I say ‘SHAN-uh-ra’,
‘shu-NAR-a’ . . . ‘SHAN-uh-ra’,
‘shu-NAR-a’ . . . ‘SHAN-uh-ra’,
Let’s call the whole thing Geekspeak. . .
Behold! The Gods of Geek have seen fit to bestow upon me a brand new, super-shiny iPhone, and – lo! – I have become addicted to podcasts.
Hmm. So what does the above mock-portentous gibberish have to do with the ill-conceived George and Ira Gershwin pastiche that opened this blog post? I’m glad you asked! This morning on the train in to work, I passed the time standing up, plotting horrible deaths for the train company executives who can’t organise enough seats for paying customers listening to Terry Brooks discussing his career on Rick Kleffel’s excellent Agony Column podcast.
This particular episode is a ‘cast of Geekspeak, Santa Cruz public radio station KUSP’s live weekly show. Terry talks about how he got started as a writer, his Shannara series (the latest volume, The Gypsy Morph, is available now), Star Wars, writing the Episode One tie-in and a whole lot more.
Check it out
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by The Orbit Team • 2 Comments • Posted in: Audio, Contents, Interviews, New Titles, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK
