[TheEnglishman]

Back at Christmas I was given the first book of the Shannara series, which I'd never heard of before then. Since then I've read through the other books in the original trilogy and I'm now reading the Heritage of Shannara series.
I was just curious if anyone else had read or even heard of these books before. I've found them to be very interesting and worth a look if you're a fan of the fantasy genre.

[FlamingDuck]

My friend read those for a little, and I made so much fun of him, it's not even funny. Woo, good times. Anyway, I've heard of them, but from the little portions I read, they don't seem to be my cup of tea.

[Folcon]

I haven't read the Shannara Seires, but I have read other books by Terry Brooks, they were preatty good.

[TheEnglishman]

Well if you enjoy fantasy, you'll probably enjoy this. At the very least you should buy The Sword of Shannara.

[Folcon]

That's the first one, right?

[TheEnglishman]

That was the first to be written, but since then there have been prequels which are set chronologically before The Sword of Shannara.

[Folcon]

Well, I'll look for it next time I go to the library.

[TheEnglishman]

If I can get at least one person interested in them, I'm sure the topic will have been worthwhile.

[Wiflewood]

Ugh. I bought "The Sword of Shannara" a while back when looking for something interesting to read, but it was the biggest Tolkein rip off ever.

Quote from wiki:

Quote

The plot of the 'Sword of Shannara' has drawn criticism for being overly derivative of the The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien[1]. Tolkien's series, which predates the first Shannara novel by roughly thirty years, also revolves around an unlikely hero from a small, quiet community who is drawn into a quest by a tall, magic-bearing man in order to destroy a distant Dark Lord. Precious magical artifacts are entrusted to the young hero who must flee his homeland, in the company of his oldest friend, when terrifying minions of the Dark Lord seek him out and begin pursuing him. Eventually, a council decides the young hero will have to penetrate the center of the Dark Lord's realm in order to stop his armies, aided by a multi-racial group of companions. In addition, some names sound similar, such as Elessedil, which sounds somewhat like a combination of the Tolkien names Elessar and Elendil.

[TheEnglishman]

Umm... I guess it's true that there are a few similarities. :unsure:
Still it doesn't matter. As long as I enjoy that is all that matters to me.

[Folcon]

Me111, on May 22 2007, 11:33 AM, said:

Umm... I guess it's true that there are a few similarities. :unsure:
Still it doesn't matter. As long as I enjoy that is all that matters to me.

I plan to go to the library tomorrow, I'll look for it. I'll post when I finish it.

[FlamingDuck]

Wiflewood, on May 22 2007, 11:21 AM, said:

Ugh. I bought "The Sword of Shannara" a while back when looking for something interesting to read, but it was the biggest Tolkein rip off ever.

Sounds like Eragon. My god, that man took every fantasy book ever and smushed them together.

[TheEnglishman]

I've started reading through the third book of the Heritage of Shannara series, but I just can't get into it as much as the rest. Maybe I've finally stumbled across the weak book in the series.
@Wifle: When I read the book, I noticed the similarities as well but I kept reading anyway.

[Elliott]

I've begun reading The Sword of Shannara, up to chapter XI at the moment and it's fantastic so far. Terry Brooks has really created a fantastic universe and I'm keen to read the rest and piece together the entire story (which has already been heavily hinted).

[TheEnglishman]

It is a great series (seems like ages since I read it now). The last one I read was Morgawr in the 'Voyage of the Jerle Shannara' trilogy. I've gone over other series since then, but I know there are more after that. I'll pick them up one day.

[Elliott]

I'm the kind of guy where if I read one book in a series, or watch one movie in a long line of movies, I won't be satisfied until I've read or watched the rest, so I can see the Shannara series is going to keep me busy for a while.

[TheEnglishman]

I'm like that as well, but once you've read three trilogies from the same series you may feel like broadening your horizons.

[Drizzy Drake]

I read Sword Of Shannara a while ago, and just never ended up reading the rest.

But abotu the Tolkien thing, ya it does rip LOTR off, but what book doesn't nowadays. Tolkien wrote such a great, and diverse Fantasy book, it is hard to NOT rip off it.

[TheEnglishman]

I never let that bother me. If I like it, why should a little 'accidental' plagarism stop me?

[Drizzy Drake]

Never said it was bad, because SoS was a GREAT book. Just saying.

[TheEnglishman]

It's entertaining and sets the series up well. I preferred the second trilogy of the series, rather than the original though.

[Arkarian]

Yes, I remember reading these years ago (as in 9-10). I remember liking them when I read them as I did so before I'd read Lord of the Rings. I read it after them but before the films where announced. They're alright, if a bit long winded, and in retrospect it occurs to me that Mr. Brooks tries to emulate the adventure style of writing i.e. he spends a lot of time describing the protagonists thoughts and feelings and the surrounding environments the protagonist finds themselves in. After the first couple of books he doesn't change his vocabulary very much and ends up repeating himself a lot, it doesn't help that he also refuses to change his basic formulae for the characters he uses. I also noted what appeared to me as a personal grudge he seemed to have against female characters, just so his male ones had something to angst over. All this hidnsight is due to a greater knowledge of books and comparaticely better ones I've read since to compare it against. At the time of reading them I did think they were quite good and I reckon they should be read if only for the sake of comparison.

[Elliott]

In Sword of Shannara I noticed he uses the word 'awesome' way too much, and a lot of times needlessly, now it makes me cringe every time he uses it. It's a sign of a bad writer, though the story itself is still great.

[TheEnglishman]

^Thought that was a new user then. :P
I've noticed stuff like that with other series too. In the Edge Chronicles the phrase 'His heart skipped a beat,' is really overused.