The Black Unicorn (Magic Kingdom of Landover, #2)

The Black Unicorn (Magic Kingdom of Landover #2)

by
3.7 of 5 stars 3.70  ·  rating details  ·  9,390 ratings  ·  140 reviews
A year had passed since Ben Holiday bought the Magic Kingdon from the wizard, Meeks. But unbeknownst to him, he has been the victim of a trap by Meeks, who has succeeded in stealing the Paladin and appropriating his face. Suddenly none of Ben's friends know him, but all of his enemies do. He must win it all back again--only this time on his own!
Mass Market Paperback, 307 pages
Published September 1988 by Del Rey (first published October 1987)
more details... edit details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)
filter  |  sort: default (?)  |  rating details
Summer
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Sakura87
Sembra che per il nuovo sovrano di Landover le eccitanti avventure che si era auspicato -e che forse ora vede con occhio diverso- non siano ancora finite: una mattina, infatti, Ben, Questor Thews e Willow scoprono di aver fatto sogni molto strani. Ben ha sognato il suo amico Miles nei guai; a Questor il sogno ha rivelato il luogo in cui sono nascosti gli antichi libri di magia perduti da tempo, e che potrebbero ritrasformare il canino scrivano Abernathy in un uomo; il sogno di Willow, invece, no...more
Eleonora
E' ormai un anno che Ben è giunto a Landover e dopo varie sfide è finalmente riuscito ad ottenere il giuramento di fedeltà al trono dai vari popoli del regno. Ora, però, una nuova minaccia rischia di distruggere la quiete appena venutasi a creare: Meeks, ex mago di corte ai tempi del vecchio re, fratello di Questor Thews e venditore del regno di Landover, è intenzionato a reimpossessarsi del Medaglione dei Re che consente di mantenere il potere sul regno e i richiamare il Paladino, invincibile d...more
La Stamberga dei Lettori
Sembra per il nuovo sovrano di Landover le eccitanti avventure che si era auspicato -e che forse ora vede con occhio diverso- non siano ancora finite: una mattina, infatti, Ben, Questor Thews e Willow scoprono di aver fatto sogni molto strani. Ben ha sognato il suo amico Miles nei guai; a Questor il sogno ha rivelato il luogo in cui sarebbero nascosti gli antichi libri di magia perduti da tempo, e che potrebbero ritrasformare il canino scrivano Abernathy in un uomo; il sogno di Willow, invece, n...more
Books-treasureortrash
Book Review: 2 Treasure Boxes

I found the story to be interesting and I really liked how each of them faced and dealt with their own challenges.The story shows growth within all characters, although I thought that Ben had to make the greatest self-discovery in order to overcome his challenge. I enjoyed reading how each of them dealt with the dilemmas they faced as they completed their journeys. We also get to know all the characters a little better. The story was well written and leads us to chee...more
Aryn
Apr 01, 2012 Aryn rated it 3 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: Fantasy Fans Looking For Something Mindless
The King of Landover has had his identity stolen by an evil wizard! Everyone believes the wizard to be Ben Holiday, the King, and Ben Holiday appears to them as a stranger. He is cast out of his castle by his friends. Thus begins a journey searching for the woman, Willow, who in turn is on a journey looking for the Black Unicorn. This is a tale of magic, demons, dragons, unicorns, self-discovery and understanding, and love.

This was a fun read. When my ex's dad bought me the first book in the ser...more
Bram Vandenbussche
Jun 09, 2013 Bram Vandenbussche rated it 2 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of easy reading fantasy
I really was hoping that I would like this series. It started off so promising in the first book, but this just dissapoints.

It starts off really early in the game when one of the cheesiest plot devices is used to kickstart the story. Now, I'm willing to overlook this fact because the style of this series is focused on using all the available clichés in fantasy literature, where it not for the fact that the main character is a frickin' idiot.

The entire book I found myself yelling at him; "Don't g...more
Gemma Irene
Even better than the first one!

See? I TOLD you we hadn't seen the last of Nightshade! And I knew there would be more with Strabo and Meeks! I knew it!

It might be a bit premature to say this, but it's good to know that Ben Holiday is still on a character arc. Even after all the lessons he learned in his efforts to secure his throne in the original, he still has that much more to discover about Landover and especially himself. The fairies might have sent him Edgewood Dirk, the prism cat, to help...more
Kathy
Ben has been king for a year... the magic is restoring the land, the systems of government are starting to be effective...

but then he, and Willow, and the wizard have dreams... dreams that need action... so the wizard goes after the books of magic, Willow looks for the black unicorn, Ben's ex-law partner (in the other world) needs help...

and Ben ends up bringing back Meeks (the evil wizard who was selling & reselling the kingdom) into the kingdom; who is deceiving them all in their dreams......more
Jerry Hart
I like Terry Brooks, and enjoyed the first book in this series. It was cute and fun. This book, however, is akin to running in circles. Ben, the main character, is made to look like someone else by an evil wizard, who in turn, steals his identity. Good so far. Then Ben spends nearly 300 pages trying to convince his friends of who he really is. Now you lost me, Mr. Brooks.

Your characters can't possibly be THIS stupid. As a reader, it's frustrating seeing the story take so long to get to the point...more
Brooke Banks
This was much of the same like the first book. It was the old "you've chained yourself, you must set yourself free" theme. It was a tedious to have the main character so fucking dense for so much of the book. Other than that, it's the same old same old. So I'm just going to repeat what I said about the first book here:


This was a fun quick read for me. It's a bit obvious where it was going and what was going to happen. It has all the stereotypical fantasy tropes in there and it isn't the best use...more
Joy H.
RE: The Black Unicorn by Terry Brooks

I recently finished reading this book, the second in Brooks' Landover series. (I have also read the first in the series, Kingdom for Sale, Sold!) I enjoyed following up on the characters and story from the first book. It was fun to read, not as compelling as some other books I've read, but fun to read just the same. I took it a little at a time because at times the plot seemed to be a bit slow. So I'd close the book and go onto another book until I was ready...more
Kate Millin
This book continues the theme that you have more control over what happens to you than you think if you can only manage your mental approach and understanding. It also shows how difficult that can be to do as you need to understand how what you are thinking affects how you have reacted. All this and unicorns too, an excellent fantasy story on many levels
A year had passed since Ben Holiday bought the Magic Kingdom from the wizard, Meeks. But unbeknownst to him, he has been the victim of a trap by...more
Art Noose
Aug 15, 2010 Art Noose rated it 1 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: no one
Recommended to Art by: my own lapse of judgment
Shelves: couldn-t-finish
Because I live in a house with a science fiction / fantasy library in the living room, I challenged myself to read the following three books:

1. One Piers Anthony novel
2. One Star Trek novel
3. One Terry Brooks novel

I started with this book and about 25 pages into it, I wondered about this challenge. I wondered why I was wasting my time reading bad books when there are so many good books on my list I want to read.

And this is a bad book. Really poor writing. Predictable character types, cliche meta...more
Robin Powell
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Lauren
When I finished Magic Kingdom for Sale-Sold I could not stand to end the story there. I had fallen in love with the world and the characters I had come to know. I started this book that same night. This book allowed me to keep the adventure going, but it was not as good as the first. In the first Landover book Ben is a very clever man. He impressed me with his bravery and his intelligence. In this book, though, he doesn't do any of the work until the very end of the book. Other characters show u...more
Lee
It's been a year since Ben Holiday bought the magic kingdom of Landover. However, when he has a troubling dream, Ben realizes that he must make a return visit to his old world. Ben's dream turns out to be a trap, and he is tricked into bringing the evil wizard Meeks back to Landover.

Meeks quickly switches identities with Ben, and sends him off to wander Landover as a wretched nobody. Can Ben Holiday learn to overcome the magic that has stolen his identity, and rescue those he loves in this stran...more
drowningmermaid
Why write one fantasy book when you can write two?

All this book is, is a recap of book one-- a reintroduction to everyone you saw there with no forward development. Good thing it's been eighteen years since I read book one.

Secondly, OMG the big "mystery" revealed on page 300-- yeah. I figured that out closer to page 50. It's infuriating having to watch imbeciles. And Meeks is the least-frightening villain I've come across in a while.

Also, it focuses almost exclusively on the characters tagging...more
Amanda
The Black Unicorn is Terry Brooks’ second adventure into the Magic Kingdom of Landover and it only gets better! Magic Kingdom for Sale – SOLD! was a really good book, this one was a great book. I finished it in a day, I couldn’t put it down. We get to learn more about the history of Landover and its Wizards, which I personally found very interesting.

I’ve read reviews of this book, in which people said the story line is slow. I have to disagree, its one event after the next, it’s really fast pac...more
Chris
The second book in the Landover series starts out (after a brief prologue) with our cast of characters sitting around at breakfast talking about dreams. Don't worry, this is indeed a fantasy adventure novel and not some Freudian Interpretation of Dreams textbook. However, there is a lot of psychological exploration of character and motivation that happens in this book. In fact, that's one of the elements of Brooks's writing that I often enjoy…the internal conflict that many of the characters go...more
Jenny
Jul 02, 2007 Jenny rated it 2 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: Fantasy fans, fusho.
I picked this up and the two further sequels when I saw them at the used book store. I remember reading it when I was in eighth grade, and it brought back the memories. It has the usual fantasy funs, unicorns, wizards, good vs. evil, witches, bog wumps, and bunches of fairy creatures. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the first book. That's OK - I remember (mostly).

However, it's not as good now as I remember it being in eighth grade. The only reason I finished it was my own grim determination to do...more
Toni Wulfekuhl
A year had passed since Ben Holiday bought the Magic Kingdom from the wizard, Meeks. But unbeknownst to him, he has been the victim of a trap by Meeks, who has succeeded in stealing the Paladin and appropriating his face. Suddenly none of Ben's friends know him, but all of his enemies do. He must win it all back again--only this time on his own!


This one was dl'd wrong, mixed up tracks, had me reading the end first. Got the whole story in 10 min. So didn't listen to entire book.
Lisa
This second book in the Landover series deserves 3.5 stars, just as I rated the first. The beginning of the book was quite captivating, but as the story went on it got a bit repetitive and annoying. I found the mystery of the black unicorn intriguing, but I found the constant "dreams" to be irritating, as well as the mostly unhelpful Edgewood Dirk. I think I need to find a new series before I devote any more time to this one.
Daniele
This was a bad sequel: highly predictable plot which had none of the smarts and imaginative narration of the first book.
I won't say it wasn't a quick and easy read, but still felt like a cheap story for most of it. The ending was probably the worst part: it was almost right out of a Jessica Fletcher episode, with each of the characters explaining and untwisting the obvious plot.
Unless the sequels are any better, avoid.
Connie
This one had Ben go back to Chicago to see how his partner was doing. It was Meeks trying to get him back so he could come back with him. For a while Ben is not the King and he goes on a quest to find Willow and keep her out of danger and out of Meeks way. It appeared that Meeks might be dead, but will have to wait until the next book to find that out.
Sandy
Excellent as usual - even for the 2nd time. Brooks just has a way. I still think the fact that he started this series with a regular guy from Chicago (Ben) and wound him into a fantasy world is one of the better ideas. I was hooked from the beginning. My favorite aside from this book is Philip and Sot. I Chuckle every time there's a conversation with them.
Planchette
Got a bit bored, perhaps because the main character is a tad divorced from his surroundings, but I'll come back to it and give it a full read. Terry Brooks reputation demands that I do. I would have started with the first in the series, but it's always out-of-stock and I am all about instant gratification. That alone should tell me to try again.
Derrick
Meeks tries to take over Landover again and it is shown that the Books of Magic are actually captured unicorns, whose magic is siphoned and used. It is like Brooks has taken the whole WORLD of Shannara and tried to push it into one small fairy land. It was interesting, but rather flat.
Stacy
A good addition to the Magic Kingdom of Landover series. I don't know if you necessarily have to read the first book to be able to enjoy this book. There is some backtracking and explanation of things in this book but you kind of miss out on the bonds made in the first book. So while not entirely necessary to read the first book, I still reccomend it. Both books are fast reads and enjoyable if you like fantasy type books.
L (Sniffly Kitty)
I liked it, but it used so many cliches that I started to be unhappy with it. Makes me very sad.

Story goes main guy bumbles around with an enigmatic entity who can only explain things to him in couched terms while the main guy gets frustrated and has to learn about love.
« previous 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 99 100 next »
There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »
The Black Unicorn (Magic Kingdom of Landover, #2)
L'unicorno nero (Ciclo di Landover, #2)
The Black Unicorn (Magic Kingdom of Landover, #2)
The Black Unicorn (Magic Kingdom Of Landover 2)
The Black Unicorn (Audio CD)

9629
Terry Brooks was born in Illinois in 1944, where he spent a great deal of his childhood and early adulthood dreaming up stories in and around Sinnissippi Park, the very same park that would eventually become the setting for his bestselling Word & Void trilogy. He went to college and received his undergraduate degree from Hamilton College, where he majored in English Literature, and he received...more
More about Terry Brooks...
The Elfstones Of Shannara  (The Original Shannara Trilogy, #2) The Sword of Shannara (The Original Shannara Trilogy #1) The Talismans Of Shannara (Heritage of Shannara #4) The Wishsong of Shannara (The Original Shannara Trilogy #3) First King of Shannara (Shannara, #0)

Share This Book

Your website
“Who would you be but who you are?” 120 people liked it
“Deception is mostly a game we play with ourselves.” 9 people liked it
More quotes…