Shannara Series Is it set in this wourld

[I, Brian]

Got to be said, Brook's has some of the most charismatic fans in the genre.

[Lacedaemonian]

I might actually read Brooks again.... I was not aware that there was any intrigue in his books. I always assumed that they were diluted hacks of LOTR. Perhaps I missed something.

[devilsgrin]

they are...But... they're still great books.

[Swady]

I don't think that you can say they are all diluted Hacks of LOTR's. At the start I can see where you are coming from but the later books I think that he has created his own path and don't see a correlation to LOTR's.
As for the Idea that they are set in this world, does it have to be this world? Can it not be a different world that had an advanced civilisation that fell into the way he describes it. That might account for the elves and magic. I never knoticed any direct links to earth within it.

[Phobos]

Terry Brooks has admitted that he was inspired by the LOTR and you can see the connections between them, however Brooks has created a completely seperate story and is bridging two of his most popular series, the work is completely original.


I always found it fairly obvious that it was set in our "future world" and this is explored in his new book Armageddon's Children.

[Parsimony]

I love the bridge between the Word and Void series and Shannara.

[owl]

Really enjoyed the first installment of children of the Armageddon, I knew that he would eventually create the bridge between shannara and knight of the word

[Barristan]

I think what gave it away to me was re-reading the Sword fo Shannara after having read the Word and Void series. At some point Allanon is talking to Shea about power, and he mentions the power of the Word. No mention of the void, but it jumped out at me.

I'm really pleased they are connected and that we will see Terry's vision of the transformation the world will go through. I loved Armageddons Children and look forward to the next book

[Tansy]

According to his forward in the version I have, it is set in this world in the future after some apocalypse has wiped out most of mankind. Man retreated back to a primitive state and lost most of their scientific knowledge, in the future science seems to be replaced with magic.

[dekket]

Am looking forward to reading The Gypsy Morph book three of the Genesis of Shannara.
Hopefully we will all see the final conflict, in which the very shape of the land is changed (from that of our world) into the Four Lands (of shannara).

[Grimward]

Originally Posted by dekket

Am looking forward to reading The Gypsy Morph book three of the Genesis of Shannara.
Hopefully we will all see the final conflict, in which the very shape of the land is changed (from that of our world) into the Four Lands (of shannara).

Me too, Dek. I also thought Armageddon's Children was great. Barristan, I'm late reading this thread, but your catch on Allanon's (the druid character from the story, not the Chrons member, with apologies to the latter!) reference to the Word is great. I skimmed the sections I thought it might be in, but couldn't find it.

Regarding our world, I haven't read any of the referenced Brooks' interviews, but IMHO the story in Sword definitely starts as a future hundreds (if not thousands) of years from our "now". (Tons of references in Sword alone, from Allanon's opening narrative to the King of the Silver River's flashlight to the rusting steel girders where the beast that attacked the valemen lived, etc.). If you pick up the connection from The Word and the Void series, Brooks is joining the timelines from the two series in Armageddon's Children just a relatively few decades into our fictional future, ostensibly (among many other plot connections, I'm sure) to finally tell that tale of the Elves "...that must wait for a later time...".

OK, what have I missed?

[dreir]

I also thought from the very beginning that it was obvious Shannara was set in our world. What really really irks me, however, is the fact that I didn't so much as suspect that the Word and the Void series was meant to ratify that link until AC came out. I thought it was a totally unrelated story. It's a disgrace, I know. Shame on me

- Dreir -

[The Ace]

Our world. He's now started to link the dire, "Knights of the World," with the second-rate, "Shannara."

Pity he can't write for toffee.

[Armageddon It]

I thought there was a reference in the first book "Sword of Shannara" that indicated that this use to be our world. Wasn't there a street sign that they came across or something? Although I never connected the Shannara world with the Word world, I always thought it was based in our very, very, distant future.

[Grimward]

Originally Posted by The Ace

Our world. He's now started to link the dire, "Knights of the World," with the second-rate, "Shannara."

Pity he can't write for toffee.

Tsk, Ace. Surely he at least rates the salt-water variety? I like much of his stuff, and would actually suggest that The Word and The Void series is better than Shannara in a number of respects.