Imaginary Friends - Review and LendMe

"A friend like Pick belonged only to him, and that was the way he should keep it." -Imaginary Friends (p.60)

Back in 1991, Terry Brooks wrote this little short story about Jack, a young boy facing tough facts, and fan favorite Pick, who eventually appeared in Running With the Demon. The story went out of print and in 2011 Terry Brooks decided to reprint it, giving all royalties to his Web Druid, Shawn Speakman, to help cover his growing medical bills. Like young Jack, Shawn has fought with cancer. Being a big fan. not only of Terry Brooks, but also Shawn Speakman who has marvously managed Brooks's website for longer than I can remember, I of course bought the rereleased short story for my Nook. And I am glad that I finally got the chance to read it.

Technically speaking this book should have been on next year's list when I take on the challange of reading all the series on my book shelves seeing as how this short story is what inspired Brooks's hit series the Word and the Void; which later transforms into the Shannara series. However, this also being a short story I should have waited until the end of the year to tack it onto my challange numbers. But this is Terry Brooks we are talking about! So I went ahead and read the story on my phone over the course of this week, and I am glad I did.

The story is not up to par with the rest of his work, but one must take into consideration that this is 1) a short story, 2) was written 6 years before the books came along, and 3) was a very early work. Keeping all that in mind I still really liked this story. It has a nice little twist at the end while setting up bits of the world that we see in Running With the Demon and the books that follow.  It was a nice short read that kept me in touch with my favorite author and got me ready to tackle the 22 books that this story began.

So, now that I have read it I can lend it out to one other person. This is this weeks giveaway. . . with a twist. I have this book on my Nook, which allows me to lend this story to someone for 2 weeks. It's not as permanent as my usual giveaways, but it saves you space and I get to keep the original. So if you would like to take advantage of this offer, please post a message with your Barnes and Noble account email and I will send it your way. It is another good addition to the world Terry Brooks spent so long creating.