Since I was a child, soon after Terry Brooks published The Sword of Shannara (1977), I have enjoyed his writing. I know he has his critics, and as any author (especially of sci-fi/fantasy), he has struggled with continuity issues.
I noticed a drastic one in reading the Heritage of Shannara series. One that I discovered Brooks admitted was a challenge and issue in this set (from an interview with Patrick Rothfuss, Brooks' words):
My biggest, most horrible consistency issue was with Walker Boh in the Heritage of Shannara set. Early on, Walker lost his arm up to the elbow. Even now, I forget which one. Back then, I had to deal with him for those four books and then later in the Voyage of the Jerle Shannara set for two more. What happened was I kept forgetting which arm he’d lost. Or I would have him use the missing arm or his hands (plural). So I had to keep going back and checking everything he did that involved the use of his arms. Even with at least six or eight readings of the books, I missed one or two. But the kid in Boise didn’t. So I heard all about it. Even worse, the publisher reversed the print of the cover art that featured Walker with his arm missing and showed the wrong arm gone.
There were other incidents of this sort, but that was the worst.
From The Druid of Shannara, it is clear that it is Walker's right arm, to the elbow, that gets removed (p.7, 109, et al.). I seem to recall three places that I noticed an inconsistency while I was rereading the series, but at present can only track down two (I think there is another in The Druid of Shannara, but it may be in one of the two following books in the series):
- "Walker folded his hands before him thoughtfully." (p.301, The Druid of Shannara)
- "Walker took them to it's [Southwatch's] walls, to where the obsidian surface rose smooth and black out of the earth, and he placed his hands against the stone." (p.402, The Talismans of Shannara)
The question is, are there any other places where Brooks wrote Walker's character, forgetting he was missing his right arm? They would be in:
- The latter part of the Heritage of Shannara series
- The Druid of Shannara
- The Elf Queen of Shannara
- The Talismans of Shannara
- The historically later Walker Boh in The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara series
- Ilse Witch
- Antrax
- Morgawr
Clear use of the wrong hand/arm, reference to hands (plural), or some other action that really would require two arms/hands to do might qualify. I'm only interested in the writing within the books (as Brooks notes, some art might have been flipped that would be a publishing issue, but not necessarily a continuity issue Brooks introduced).
My interest in this is that I have a book series I may someday publish, and learning from the mistakes of others may help me to not make similar mistakes in the future. Seeing how many places Brooks missed, despite knowing he was struggling with this detail, helps to understand how small details, yet major to the story/writing, can make or break the reader's experience.
So I'm interested if anyone has cataloged all the places this discrepancy about Walker creeps into the above works.
(NOTE: I chose to post on this SE site, rather than like Writing SE, because I'm sure I'm more likely to find readers of Brooks' work here).
