Shannara: what is it about?

[the_faery_queen]

i duno, i find it all rather dull. i read 7, the first trhree, then the scions stuff. the scions were a bit of a bore to me. ok i liked them at the time, and the sword/wishsong/elfstones and so on, at the time, but now i can't get into them again because my tastes have evovled. i just find them far too dry, the characters dont rally inspire me enough to care about what they're doing.

i will say the plot is pretty good, the idea of it all, but the writing style isn't for me. so i guess if you can handle the style you may as well give it a go. but i just find it all a bit dull now. *shrug*

[sassy1]

i love the shannara series - well the 6 and a half i've read so far hehe i'm halfway through The Scions of Shannara at the mo

when I first started reading the Shannara series I thought it was very much like The Lord of the Rings, I mean, take The Sword of Shannara (i'll try not to give too much away), it has Wizards (druids), elves, men, dwarves, a magic talisman, one big evil guy who is, apparently, undefeatable, one poor young man who has to go on the quest, he has no choice it is his inheritance... and thats just a few points. But when I stopped comparing the Shannara books with The Lord of the Rings, I realised they are actually really good books

[Parsimony]

I know a lot of people who came to the same conclusion.

[Orion]

I bought the Prequel to the sword of shannara series. Is that a good place to start or should i read starting with The Sword of Shannara?

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by Orion

I bought the Prequel to the sword of shannara series. Is that a good place to start or should i read starting with The Sword of Shannara?

I would personally start with Sword Of Shannara and the other 2 books which make up the first trilogy. Sword is still the best book in the series IMO.

[EmpressAyla]

Originally Posted by a|one

Quit about 2/3s through out of boredom.

hell yeh, i did exactly the same

[ghost8772]

Sorry guys and gals, but I would actually say Sword was the worst as far as I felt the books were. yeah its good for back story of characters, but brooks didn't really start writing until elfstones. yeah its worthwhile to read Sword, to get the characters, but I'm gonna SOOOOOOOO agree with earlier posts. Brooks grabbed the outline of LoTR, changed names, but left the characters the same (bordermen-rangers, heir to royalty going along to more prove himself worthy of inheritance than anything else) even kept the NUMBER of death riders the same. now if he happened to take a previous legend that tolkien did also and rework it about the same then we could spit venom at them both for taking intellectual ideas from somebody before. however too many similarities in my mind for Brooks to have had Sword as unique material. Elftsones and on through talismans, those were decent. the idea that this is all going on on Earth, but at a time where science has faded to be replaced by magic, and the cycle continues...... that is now unique enough. good to know that some others out there saw too many similarities as well. I plowed my way through sword, then enjoyed the rest of the first 7 books, but did not get into the prequels at all.

[DMFW]

I agree more or less completely with the previous post (and many others on this thread). The first book is SO derivative of LOTR it's untrue... Despite feeling strongly that the series threatened to be a complete rip off, for some reason which I can't work out now I did continue to the later books in the first trilogy and was pleased to find these somewhat better written and with a more original plot. I quite enjoyed Elfstones without expecting too (because my expectations had been lowered so much by the first book!). Despite that I still have strong reservations about this series and I've never been tempted to read any other Terry Brooks since.

[GOLLUM]

Hmm...interesting coments. I really liked Sword the most despite it being derivative. Then again I'm a fan of LOTR so maybe that is why I liked the book so much.

[Boaz]

At this point I should confess that I remember liking Panamon Creel and Keltset alot.

At the time, I thought the idea of Frodo going off with Han and Chewie was great... and I still do!

[doc123]

.....stop all your crying....here is some tissue....they are going to make Elfstones into a movie....why? because Terry Brooks has said himself that he read the Lord of the Rings just before he wrote The Sword of Shannara....(who isn't influenced by what they read and watch as movies?)stop the crying.....the movie studio is making Elfstones into a movie because it is more of a stand alone story....even Sword of Shannara is a different tale...but it is too similar to The Lord of the Rings(so the studio is going for the second book)....for whatever reason....and who cares....i enjoyed it more than 20 years ago....as i enjoyed The Lord of the Rings Books and the Hobbit....please tell me that everyone is not influenced by something....Terry Brooks already told his life story.....maybe before a rock is thrown...you should cover up that glass house....all authors are influenced....here is another tissue....here...take the whole box...i hate to see grown men cry...

[I, Brian]

There is influenced - and then there's out and out rewriting, which I believe Shannara is long held to be.

[doc123]

....that is heavy handed....i have read both....and do not believe that to be the case....Tolkein himself took from many things to produce his books...just like everyone does....the bottom line is if people enjoy it....then people enjoy it....a lot of fantasy is similar to tolkien....i can name many....but instead i enjoy them....enough said....

[Boaz]

In ROTK's appendices, Tolkien tells a quick tale of Boromir and Faramir holding the bridge at Osgiliath that is a copy of Horatio and the Pons Sublicius. He copied a myth of ancient Rome. The story was two thousand years old... no copyright laws.

If I wrote a story about a magic student named Perry Hatter and his best friends Don Beasley and Imin Danger, I'd be sued from here to kingdom come. Claiming the Miss Rowling only influenced me or that people enjoy it would not save me from the law.

Anyway, I just dropped in to say I saw the latest Brooks plagia... err, book at Barnes and Noble. It's titled The Silmari... oops, I mean The Genesis of Shanarra.

[Falsteed]

I must say reading through this thread, Boaz's comments were quite entertaining. The stories are more of less a rip-off (though maybe I would just say they are not so imaginatively original because my memory does not allow me to be so critical), but as to the actual writing, it is shallow, simple and very repetitive. Still, I read the series years ago when I was young and had not been exposed to much literature and did not read so often, and it completely engrossed me.

What is it about? Nothing you haven't read before, and while I loved the books, as far as literary works go, I cannot take them seriously. I wouldn't recommend these books to anyone over the age of 12.