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After a career that’s lasted almost 50 years and nearly the same number of books, acclaimed fantasy author Terry Brooks is retiring — but that doesn’t mean that the stories of Shannara are about to come to an end. Just announced at Emerald City Comic Con 2025, Delilah S. Dawson will take over as the primary Shannara writer.

Brooks, now 81 years old, told the crowd at his Spotlight panel at ECCC 2025 that he had spent “a year of fiddling around with a manuscript that never went anywhere” before asking himself, “Why am I doing this?” Instead, he made the joke announcement, “I quit!” before naming Dawson — who had been hiding in the audience the entire panel — as his successor.

There’s a tradition of series being passed from one author to another, Brooks said, citing everything from Nancy Drew to the Tarzan books — while joking that Tarzan managed to write a lot of books from the middle of the jungle. Traditionally, he added, that transition happens after the death of the previous author, but he said that he would rather he was around to watch what came next. Dawson, he said was the perfect choice to take over the series because she was someone he liked, could work with, and had no shortage of chutzpah… a comment that amused Dawson to no end: “Wait, you’re going to be troublesome with this?” she snapped back.

Brooks’ final Shannara novel, Galaphile: The First Druids of Shannara, will be released on March 11, 2025.

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