FORMAT: PAPERBACK,HARDBACK (REVIEWED), DIGITAL | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Terry Brooks is one of those fantasy authors that has been around for so long they’ve become part of the background noise of fantasy fiction. Trends in fantasy writing may come and go but you can usually rely on a book from Brooks to be fun, familiar and an entertaining (if rarely challenging) read.

Ever the crowd-pleaser, this collection mostly contains stories from the Shannara series. They are some Landover  and Word and Void  tales, as well as a unique story set in Poul Anderson’s Queen of Air and Darkness  world, but it’s mostly Shannara.

The order of stories in this anthology is a little bit rocky; they’re presented in such a way that amuses the author and each story gets a lovely little introduction from Brooks himself. The problem is that this means that if you read the book from cover to cover the shift in tone can be very noticeable; however most fans of the author are more likely to dive into stories connected to their favourite series first, so this is hardly a problem.

Though most of the stories require little context and work fine as stand-alone tales, you’re going to get a little bit more out of them if you’re familiar with Brook’s longer form work. You can tell that that the author is uncomfortable with brevity, but each story is concise and entertaining.

Small Magic: Short Fiction 1977  – 2020  serves as a solid sampler of Brook’s long running career. It’s not a good way to introduce readers to his worlds, but if you love his writing you’ll adore this.