Terry Brooks Shannara Series is a monstrous and delightful fantasy world. When I read the original trilogy (Sword of, Elfstones of, Wishong of Shannara) as a young reader I had never yet encountered anything quite like this level of high-fantasy.

The four-book follow up series, Heritage of Shannara (Scions of, Druid of, Elf Queen of, Talismans of Shannara) expanded the world beyond any fantasy I had ever encountered. Still it remains the single broadest scoped fantasy I have read-the scale of the stories is simply enormous. I loved them. I read these seven books twice before the end of junior high.

That’s where I left off the Shannara series.Talismans was published in 1993. I’ve never been inclined to return.

But Brooks kept on writing and now, in 2013, there are 25 Shannara books, with 3 more on the way. They’ve been very successful. Terry Brooks is the second-best selling fantasy author of all time (J.K. Rowling is #1, of course). And his series is the best selling fantasy series never adapted for the screen.

But that’s about to change. MTV has announced their plan to adapt the books for television. I don’t know how they plan to embark on this massively complicated, extremely long-lasting (generations in real life, generations upon generations in the story) series. All we know is they’re starting with Elfstones, which makes sense. But it’ll be a shame if we never see Flick and Shea.

Given an inspirational, creative start and the right budget (large) it could turn out to be a wonderfully bizarre fantasy creation.

Shannara is deep fantasy. Game of Thrones is its natural contemporary for tv comparison. But I’d say Shannara is even deeper in the genre woods than Game of Thrones (on TV at least) has yet traveled. Regardless, this kind of fantasy story is truly rare on television.

Brooks will be involved in the project, and he seems encouraged. Says the author: “What makes me excited for the future is the extent to which we are all on the same page with regard to how the series should be developed and how much everyone is committed to seeing that it sticks close to the heart and soul of the books.”

The success of Game of Thrones is likely encouraging for MTV, especially given the number of TV viewers (like myself) who cannot afford HBO but are eager to get their hands on GOT. The market for high-fantasy on cable is pretty open. Starz will be bringing another fantasy show to the world with Ronald Moore’s Outlander.

Perhaps a Shannara television series can work? I’m not sure what to make of MTV taking on the series, but it’ll be very interesting to see what they can come up with if they give Shannara a fighting chance.

The pilot will be directed and produced by Jon Favreau, with the producers of Smallville, Al Gough and Miles Millar, taking over producing if the Shannara series is taken on.

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