Magic Kingdom for Sale--Sold! (The Magic Kingdom of Landover) (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "The catalogue was from Rosen's, Ltd..." (more)
Key Phrases: bog wump, lake skimmer, cave wight, High Lord, River Master, Questor Thews (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Brooks bestselling Shannara trilogy may have been at heart a formulaic fantasy but its vigorous storytelling and intriguing characters won many readers. In his first non-Shannara novel, he takes on another well-worn premise: the contemporary Earthling transported to a fantasy world. Ben Holiday is a lawyer who finds little satisfaction in his work. His yearning for a simpler life seems thwarted when he finds the magic kinddom of Landover, a close analogy of Earth, with precariously balanced powers threatening each other, massive pollution, and general discontent centering on a lack of faith in leaders. This first volume in the new series is mainly introductory as Ben meets the locals and dashes off a few impossible tasks to assert his right to the throne. While still inventive, Brooks fails badly in his lackluster, unbelievable protagonist, his preachy moral tags and the adolescent, daydream quality of Ben's triumphs. Shannarafans are in for a disappointment. 150,000 first printing; major ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

After Ben Holiday purchased Landover, he discovered the magic kingdom had some problems. The Barons refused to recognize a king and the peasants were without hope. To make matters worse, Ben learned that he had to duel to the death with the Iron Mask, the terrible lord of the demons--a duel which no human could hope to win....

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey; 1st THUS edition (March 12, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345317580
• ISBN-13: 978-0345317582
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (145 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #32,553 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great series!, August 4, 2000

By	M. Tidman (nowhere in particular) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Falling apart - I've read it so many times!, October 6, 2002

By	Christina M. Roberts "Neyjour" (Texas, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

What can I say!? Terry Brooks is the one who pretty much spearheaded my interest in Fantasy with The Sword of Shannara, and from there I also went on to enjoy the tales of the magical kingdom of Landover. Magic Kingdom For Sale Sold is one of my all-time favorite books. I loved it as a child, and still love it as an adult. In fact, I've lost track of how many times I have read and re-read it over the years. It is a definite keeper, and one that I have recommended to all my friends, and anyone that has a love of Fantasy.

Have you ever wished that you could find a portal to another world? Have you ever dreamed of being swept away into a magical land with fantastical creatures? Well that is exactly what happened to Ben Holiday. He answered an add in a Christmas catalogue, thinking it to be a joke, and instead found himself stepping through the boundary between our world and the world of Landover ... and as it's king no less! Sounds wonderful right? Well, let's just say that things were not exactly what he expected!

Terry Brooks has spun a thoroughly enchanting tale with Magic Kingdom For Sale Sold! It has so many wonderful elements; magic, romance, fascinating creatures, humor, a hint of mystery, and lots of wonderful, quirky characters. But be warned ... once you pick it up, you will not be able to put it down until you have read the last page! And the adventure doesn't end there. There are four more books in the series, all equally as good as the first; The Black Unicorn, Wizard At Large, The Tangle Box, and Witches' Brew.

I highly recommend this book. If you haven't yet read it yet, then what are you waiting for?!! Buy it now! You will not be disappointed ... I promise.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I was expecting more, July 7, 2004

By	I. M. Umoh "- Ivin" (Somewhere big) - See all my reviews

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.