Rating: 
Summary: A good book, seriously toned...
Review: A highly successful lawyer falls into deep depression over a death in the family, as I remember. To fight this crisis he decides to do something brash: answer and ad he sees in the newspaper: to buy a magic kingdom for one million dollars. To the shock of his partners, he leaves his law practice. Then, having bought the kingdom, he discovers it has...quirks, which he has not expected. As king, he must rid the kingdom of a dark paladin and other evils. This book was good, with a spiritually resonant ending. I enjoyed it, and I will read its sequels. But it is not the refreshing, zealous sort of work he took delight in writing in Sword of Shannara and Elfstones of Shannara. This is sometimes a sad book, sometimes speckled with humor. Overall, it comes across as a mysterious adventure. I award it three stars instead of four because of occasionally strained humor that did not make me laugh, and a few thematically heavy turns that initially dragged me.
Rating: 
Summary: Different from the rest
Review: Ben Holiday, a long-time lawyer, who recently lost his wife Annie, finds an odd advertisement in the Wishbook Catalogue. The ad stated that a magical land, Landover, is for sale for one million dollars. He decided that this would be perfect because it would allow him to forget his sorrow. Thus begins his adventure and his ascension to the throne of Landover. In Landover, he must overcome demons, dragons, witches, as well as human obsticles. This was a fairly enjoyable book. It lacked the usual complexity of other fantasy novels, but had a very interesting twist to the story line. The author writes with a sense of humor. He also adds love into the mix. I would recommend this book for a short quick novel to pass some free time.
Rating: 
Summary: Just plain and simple fun
Review: Ben Holiday, a successful lawyer and recent widower purchases a magic kingdom out of an exclusive catalog for a million dollars.
A great fantasy done by one of the best. A fun and action packed adventure that is refreshingly unpretentious. What makes this work is that the book never tries to be more than what it is. There is no deep rooted symbolism or abstract concepts to be found here. Just a cast of great semi-quirky caracters in a book with a unique charm. Those who like their fantasy in an epic scale look elsewhere. All others enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Great series!
Review: I'm an avid fan of fantasy, but I'd read (or tried to read) other books by Terry Brooks, and not really been able to get in to them (probably my fault, but still. . .) Anyhow, this book was captivating from the first page to the last, and I found myself wishing that I could find a magic kingdom for sale in some odd catalogue, as Ben Holiday does in this book. As he journeys to the magic kingdom of Landover, he finds that being king of a fairy kingdom isn't all strolling through ferny forests and sunlit meadows -- for all is not well in this kingdom, and the king is the one with the heaviest load of responsibility. . . and the most pressing weight of danger. . . I highly recommend this book to any fantasy fan, which at points is funny, mystical, romantic, action-packed; and it's interesting throughout. Enjoy, and the check out the rest of the series, because they're all great reads!
Rating: 
Summary: Lackluster
Review: Maybe I'm just not a fan of Terry Brooks' style, but I find his work extremely boring and dry, incapable of capturing either my imagination or my heart. I've read the Landover series (which begins with this book) and the Sword of Shannara, and I was disappointed to find it all quite tedious. The worlds and characters are so stereotypical and flat that I can't bring myself to care about any of it. Worse, many of his plot points and frameworks seem to be lifted directly from Tolkien, the parallels were so obvious it started to smack of plagiarism. I recently sat down with Magic Kingdom for Sale...Sold again and couldn't get through the first three chapters. I have given up on Terry Brooks.
Rating:
Summary: A great start to a fresh series
Review: Terry Brooks broke into the fantasy scene with his widely popular Shannara series, but here he breaks out of the epic fantasy mold and creates a fresh new series, one that challenges us right down where we live and breathe. Ben Holiday, a successful trial lawyer is having what amounts to a mid-life crisis, exacerbated by the recent loss of his wife and unborn child in a tragic auto accident. Lost, bereft of purpose and will, he stumbles onto an add in a catalog for a magic kingdom that is for sale. And then the fun begins. He buys the kingship, travels to the land, and realizes that behind all the magic and fantasy of Landover, the problems of running a kingdom are pretty similar to normal every day challenges that face us in life. The collection of characters that Ben meets in this new world are extremely entertaining, especially the dragon Strabo, who may be one of the most unforgetable characters in all of fantasy. Humor, action, mystery, and times of deep reflection: this series has it all, and is sure to please. Every book in this series is a solid 4 stars or better in my opinion. One of the few fantasy books that made me laugh out loud at times when I read it, especially any time Strabo and the hapless wizard Questor Thews get together. I read this series again and again, and you should too!
Rating:
Summary: My wife's first SF/Fantasy book
Review: Terry Brooks has a very charming writing style, totally disarming. You could notice that evenin his first Shanarra book; even while the story was a 100% rip-off of Tolkien.
I bought a used copy to read on the plane over the Atlantic; it served its purpose of providing good, sometimes clever, well written entertainment. My wife then read it - the first book of this genre she has ever read.
The story hoovers between science fiction and fantasy. A lawyer buys a magic kingdom. The kingdom is dying, and just a few faithful servants to the throne try to save it. The lawyer finds out that they seller has tried to cheat him, but instead of running he sets out to do his kingly duties.
Rating:
Summary: Magical Adventures in the World of Landover
Review: Terry Brooks has done it again in the first non-Shannara book he has written. Boredom is experienced in the first half of this book, but results in a stunning ending. This book does not compete with the Shannara series, but is one great book to read. This book has a few humorous parts, but still is packed with classic fantasy adventure. Ben Holiday, a lawyer, buys a magical kingdom in need of a king badly, not knowing the troubles the kingdom faces. A witch and a dragon are terrorizing the land and no one but a puny race will support the Ben. Ben has to go through many near death experiences with the aid of no one but Paladin who only shows up when Ben is in danger. His only servants are a bumbling wizard named Questor Thews (who can't cast the spells he tries to cast), a talking dog named Abernathy (who is very critical), two disgraceful gnomes (who are also eaters of dogs, which is a practice Abernathy finds disgusting), and a fairy called Willow (who turns into a tree when threatened). Overall, the book is pretty entertaining. The only part I didn't like was that it was a little boring in the first part. If it weren't for that, I would have rated this book a 9 or a 10. Rent it, buy it, just read it!
Rating:
Summary: Landover is Brooks' first non-Shannara book
Review: The book cover for 'Magic Kingdom' didn't look very promising to me, but I was inspired by its reviews, its comical premise, and the fact that Terry Brooks wrote it--hey, one of fantasy's best supposedly, though I never really made it through the first book of Shannara. The name itself suggests a fun, light-weight, humor filled adventure and that's what I went in expecting. I was disappointed. Almost all elements of Landover follow standard fairy-tale cliches. Granted, that is pretty much what was promised, but the book did little to make up for its lack of originality, in humor or otherwise. It's actually quite serious and dry, and too much of it is just plain boring. Sometimes I found myself taking in the words as quickly as possible without bothering to visualize the scenes or soak it in, just to get on with it. Strange since usually when a book doesn't interest me I'll hardly finish it, I guess in this case, like Ben, I was stubborn. It starts slow enough, introducing us to Ben Holiday's normal life preceding the purchase of Landover, and doesn't really pick up that much once he moves into the Kingdom and we are introduced to his four companions: bumbling wizard Questor, the talking dog squire Abernathy, and a couple of fierce monkeyish warrior kinda guys. One major gripe I have is that Landover feels so barren, like endless plains of uninhabited earth. For the most part it fails to give us a sense of a real, living world. "Where are all the people?" I asked myself at one point. There was no sense of things happening, until of course the fivesome journey forth to wherever they must be for the story to progress and people seem to appear. At some points you'd think they're living on the moon or something. It's really the last 100 pages that save my impression of the book, it turns into a real page-turner with some surprising and captivating elements. The character of Strabo the dragon is awesome, very well done, my favorite in the entire book. Most of the characters throughout are quite well done I think, if not outstanding. I take that back. They serve their purpose I should say, though some of the scenes between them strike me as cringe-worthily melodramatic. Let me quickly inject a complaint that the constant quibbling of Questor and the dog wore swiftly thin. I didn't care much for Willow, she seemed thrown in just to serve the "necessary" romance portion, which I didn't care for at all. It's forgivable since it wasn't the focus of the book but it was pretty straightforward and cringe-worthy. Throwing in a fairy-tale creature more-or-less reserved for Ben just seems like the easy route, and it kinda annoyed me adding to the "substanceless fantasy" feel. For being the only other female character can't say I'm too impressed. Now I realize this review is starting to drag on so I'll sum it up. Terry Brooks still has work to do to esteem himself in my eyes, from what I've read of him he doesn't strike me as that creative and his writing lacks that... grandeur. I will pick up book two of this series because, even though it's far from the best out there, somehow it managed to keep me reading to the end and I came to enjoy Landover and its tiny group of mismatched characters. I wish to stick around a little longer.
Rating:
Summary: I was expecting more
Review: The book cover for 'Magic Kingdom' didn't look very promising to me, but I was inspired by its reviews, its comical premise, and the fact that Terry Brooks wrote it--hey, one of fantasy's best supposedly, though I never really made it through the first book of Shannara. The name itself suggests a fun, light-weight, humor filled adventure and that's what I went in expecting. I was disappointed. Almost all elements of Landover follow standard fairy-tale cliches. Granted, that is pretty much what was promised, but the book did little to make up for its lack of originality, in humor or otherwise. It's actually quite serious and dry, and too much of it is just plain boring. Sometimes I found myself taking in the words as quickly as possible without bothering to visualize the scenes or soak it in, just to get on with it. Strange since usually when a book doesn't interest me I'll hardly finish it, I guess in this case, like Ben, I was stubborn. It starts slow enough, introducing us to Ben Holiday's normal life preceding the purchase of Landover, and doesn't really pick up that much once he moves into the Kingdom and we are introduced to his four companions: bumbling wizard Questor, the talking dog squire Abernathy, and a couple of fierce monkeyish warrior kinda guys. One major gripe I have is that Landover feels so barren, like endless plains of uninhabited earth. For the most part it fails to give us a sense of a real, living world. "Where are all the people?" I asked myself at one point. There was no sense of things happening, until of course the fivesome journey forth to wherever they must be for the story to progress and people seem to appear. At some points you'd think they're living on the moon or something. It's really the last 100 pages that save my impression of the book, it turns into a real page-turner with some surprising and captivating elements. The character of Strabo the dragon is awesome, very well done, my favorite in the entire book. Most of the characters throughout are quite well done I think, if not outstanding. I take that back. They serve their purpose I should say, though some of the scenes between them strike me as cringe-worthily melodramatic. Let me quickly inject a complaint that the constant quibbling of Questor and the dog wore swiftly thin. I didn't care much for Willow, she seemed thrown in just to serve the "necessary" romance portion, which I didn't care for at all. It's forgivable since it wasn't the focus of the book but it was pretty straightforward and cringe-worthy. Throwing in a fairy-tale creature more-or-less reserved for Ben just seems like the easy route, and it kinda annoyed me adding to the "substanceless fantasy" feel. For being the only other female character can't say I'm too impressed. Now I realize this review is starting to drag on so I'll sum it up. Terry Brooks still has work to do to esteem himself in my eyes, from what I've read of him he doesn't strike me as that creative and his writing lacks that... grandeur. I will pick up book two of this series because, even though it's far from the best out there, somehow it managed to keep me reading to the end and I came to enjoy Landover and its tiny group of mismatched characters. I wish to stick around a little longer.
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