[Morgeruat]

in general the Shannara series each revolve around seperate generations, which provides Brooks a great deal of leeway in who he kills off (there has been a change since Heritage (4-books series) that has evolved into the Jerle Shannara Series (3 Books) and High Druid (another 3) but each series is self-contained, only restricted in characters to cameos of less than important prior characters (this began to change with the current series where the parents of the main character are involved but otherwise the only important recurring character has been the druid(s).

That said, the magic seems to have gone out of his world, and he has to keep stretching farther and farther to have a new story, rather than looking at the fact that it's been over 1000 years since the events of Sword and they could revisit some of the towns and cities of the original books and show how they've grown (sort of did this in the Heritage series), rather than fleeing the four lands for unexplored territory to have adventures in (the elves in Elf Queen, the search for the black elfstone in First King and Druid, search for whatever in Jerle Shannara, etc) and it only really serves to make the main world seem smaller and less important. The westlands were vast and uncharted in Elfstones, now it's a very small area with a few noted cities that were developed early and are now ignored, same thing with the eastlands (explored in WishSong and the Heritage books) etc etc.

But I have the WoT book ten in hardcover but haven't been able to bring myself to read it, I have just lost interest in the series completely, while at least Brooks can keep me coming back knowing I'll probably be disappointed (it's been 4 books now and I haven't been happy with one yet)