Wards of Faerie is published today in fine US bookstores!
Many of you will read the book in one sitting. I don’t know how you do it but you do it every year. For those people, the wait for Bloodfire Quest and Witch Wraith—the sequels to Wards—will be agonizing.
The one consolation you have is you don’t have to wait a year between books to get to the end of The Dark Legacy of Shannara trilogy. Bloodfire Quest will publish March 2013 and Witch Wraith will publish August 2013!
The covers for those books are featured inside the US edition of Wards of Faerie. Since many of you will be buying that book this week, I might as well show the sequel covers off in larger glory!
Here they are:
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I love the Witch Wraith cover. It’s dark and moody and features what can only be a different set of Elfstones! What do they do? Who has them? How will they figure into the story? So many questions that have yet to be answered.
But they will be. In time. For now, enjoy them! They are the beginning of what will come in 2013!
Post your thoughts below. Would love to hear what you guys think of these two covers!
14 responses to “US Covers: Bloodfire Quest & Witch Wraith”
I do miss the days when it was one long book..not 3 long waits.
Terry’s stories are sadly much longer than Sword and what a physical book can hold these days without a ton of returns to the publisher for breaking bindings and the like. That’s why they are split.
I disagree a bit, The Voyage Series could’ve easily fit one book, look at Dance with Dragons to see the proof there, or To Green Angel Tower.
Considering that my first two copies of To Green Angel Tower fell apart and only the third survived my reading, I don’t think your argument is the best. 🙂 As I’ve said, large books with massive bindings break at a larger percentage than smaller, resulting in defective returns to the publisher. Those defective returns cost the publisher money. It is best to split those stories part once they reach a certain size.
I’ve also had to return a number of Terry Brooks omnibus editions for the same reason. FYI.
Weird, I have first editions of Green Angel and have read them many times and they remain in near perfect condition as has the hardcover I’ve had for nearly 20 years.
Maybe you got cheap copies or as the years have gone by they’ve resorted to using lesser materials. Either way he could put the hardcovers out in one big volume and split them up for the mass market releases. Most of his new trilogies and two book sets would easily fit into a single hardcover.
I think they are very consistant with Wards of Fairie. The important thing in trilogy’s for me is the 3 books MUST look like they match or belong together, which DIDNT happen in the Genesis of Shannara series for Book 1 at least. Nothin irritates me more than a bad cover, than a set that doesn’t look like a set, as far as the overall layout and font styles. This was very well planned and I am glad that the publishers made sure to keep them more uniform. The elfstones in the third book are very ominous and I like that. Not sure how I feel about the coin and the ring in the first two though. I guess I will have to read them to see if they are symbolic with something in the story line.
I don’t think you can blame Terry for Genesis covers. Shawn can confirm or deny this but I don’t think Terry ever meant for Shannara to be in the titles since it was prequel set before Shannara. It was the publishers who wanted to add Shannara to the title with the 2nd book because of book sales. Thus the covers were out of wack. For whatever reason, if it doesn’t have Shannara in a title his books don’t sell as well. Which really sucks I might add but it is what it is.
First, I want to say ‘Thank You’ to Shawn for all the great work he does in updating this site. I have followed this site through the years and you have done an extraordinary job. I even followed this site when I was based in Iraq a few years back.
I have read Terry’s works since 1990 and I think I have a decent idea where hes taking this series.
‘Bloodfire Quest’ The stone looks like an elfstone but is it really. Elfstones are supposed to come in sets of three. Loden and Black Elfstone are exeptions. After further inspection could this singular stone with the band be the seed of the Ellcrys.
‘Witch Wraith’ Clearly this red set of stones are elfstones. Could they be fire elfstones. Before reading ‘Wards of Faerie’ today I had an idea the lost elfstones were probably in the forbidding. Heres the catch: four sets of elfstones were lost and probably went into the forbidding. There is no way all four sets will be recovered in this series. We may see two sets recovered at most. Terry never writes in a way that complete recovery of lost artifacts is possible in any of his novels. I see no exeption here. Honestly, these red elfstones may be the only ones that are recovered. Thats my two cents.
The covers look amazing! I think the wait between books will be agonizing no matter what! Especially for me, I am one of those who read his books in one setting and sometimes jump to different parts of the whole series just to refresh my memory..lol! This site is truly a wonderful help. It is very helpful when I introduce new readers to the series and they can come here to find your reading order, which books to read first exc.
The new direction for the series cover art is a refreshing change. I’ve always loved the Shannara artwork, but I for some time I have felt it needed a change. Fortunately, it’s not drastic. It still looks like a Shannara novel, but it’s different enough that I’m constantly excited to see what’s next. Great covers, especially the Witch Wraith.
I love all three covers. The covers are beautiful and interesting. Each object on each cover probably has a deep meaning or importance in each book. I can’t wait to read each one to find out.
Shawn you don’t have to justify how often these books are put out.I would rather read a book of quality every year or in this case three in a year (which I think is brilliant by the way)than a bigger book which just go’s on and on which I think to green angel tower did .To mention it in the same breath as Terry’s work is insulting.Shawn Terry keep up the fantastic work.
I agree with the comments. Thank you so much Shawn for keeping the site up to date. I love being able to come on here and see new information and read the forums. Since the Genesis series was mentioned, if it wouldn’t have had Shannara in the title, what would Terry have wanted the titles to have been? I don’t mind the Shannara titles at all and I am kind of glad they turned out that way. Just curious about the titles. Thanks again!!