Poll: What is your favorite Terry Brooks short story?

For years, Terry Brooks avoided writing short stories. It makes sense. He likes a large canvas, one that he can spend some time working on in a sprawling way. The complexity. The ability to develop characters. The chance to go on an adventure that transports the reader from this world to another. Short stories don't allow for that and Terry has admitted he hates being constrained in that way. In my opinion, if anyone was built to write epic fantasy novels, it was Terry. Up until 2012, Terry had only written two short stories. Del Rey Books approached him in 2012 though with the idea of writing several short stories a year, to be published online to promote the books. Like any writer, Terry had a lot of ideas for short stories but had no motivation to write them. He changed his mind and spent time writing several of them that year and earlier this year. And he found that he enjoyed the process a lot more now than he did a decade ago. As it stands, here are the short stories Terry has written:

• Imaginary Friends
• Indomitable (epilogue to The Wishsong of Shannara
• Walker and the Shade of Allanon (set during Ilse Witch
• Allanon's Quest
• The Weapons Master's Choice
• The Black Irix
• The Fey of Cloudmoor (forthcoming in Multiverse)

Imaginary Friends is a prelude of sorts to the Word/Void series. Indomitable is a story set after the events of The Wishsong of Shannara. Walker and the Shade of Allanon is a short short short story omitted from Ilse Witch featuring the encounter between Walker and the Shade of Allanon. Other Shannara short stories are Allanon's Quest, The Weapons Master's Choice, and The Black Irix. Then there is The Fey of Cloudmoor, a sequel to The Queen of Air and Darkness by Poul Anderson, which will be featured in the Subterranean Press anthology Multiverse edited by Greg Bear and Gardner Dozois. Today's poll is: What is your favorite Terry Brooks short story? Vote and discuss!