Shannara

[brujah]

Like many above has said, "Sword of Shanara" was the first book that I read that got me into fantasy books. Must of been somewhere between 1991 and 1993. Read every Shanara book written up until maybe 1999. Only read them as a teenager, so my view of them may have changed if I tried to reread or just picked up today. But for a teenager it was great. My favorite series from a young man's perspective was R A Salvatore. Homeland, Soujourn, and Exile. Best 3 books IMO until I got older. My fav are WoT and CS Friedman's Coldfire trilogy. Terry Brooks books are pretty good, they seem to take alot from WoT. I stopped liking them after about book 5 or so.

[Quazie89]

The first Terry Brooks book that I read was Magic Kindom-SOLD!, so I think the Landover series has to be my favorite, but I do like the Shannara books, too, even though they weren't the first fantasy books I read. For me I think that might've been either Harry Potter or Redwall, if you don't count all of the Disney Little Golden books I used to read before that when I was very little.

[peregrine al thor]

I have to agree with several of the other posters here. The Sword of Shannara was my introduction to fantasy as well. I read it at 13 or so, in the very early 80's. I had been given The Hobbit the previous year, but for whatever reason, could not get into it. Curiously, I had read all the Narnia books but didn't really classify them as fantasy until years later; possibly because of the Christian overtones (at least in the 1st book). My family attended church regularly until I was into my late teens and the Narnia books probably came my way from that direction. The Sword of Shannara really opened the floodgates for me and fantasy has been my favorite genre to read to this day. (I'm in my mid forties now.) I read the Hobbit and LOTR very soon after the first couple Shannara books and Tolkien became the pinnacle of fantasy authors to me until the WoT. I recognized the "heavy borrowing" (to put it nicely) in the Sword of Shannara, but was able to overlook or forgive it because it was "my 1st", if you will. I have had a theory for quite a long time that fans of fantasy seem to be influenced heavily in rating their favorite authors by the order they've read books in, and this thread seems to bear that out, to an extent at least. Perhaps it is simply nostalgia. Those who read LOTR before attempting Shannara seem to view Shannara with derision as a Tolkien ripoff and as I said, I can understand that. Another possible example of this seems to be WoT and Goodkind's Sword of Truth (?) series. I haven't read any Goodkind but many WoT fans seem to have downright disgust for him and his series, claiming blatant ripping of RJ. I think most "defenders" of Goodkind probably read his series before reading WoT.

 

As to Shannara, I also found The Elfstones of Shannara to be a fantastic book, possibly the best book of Terry Brooks' that I've read. I read Magic Kingdom long ago, and thought the concept very intriguing, but never went back for the rest of them. (They were brand new then and there was so much else to read that was ready and waiting!) I haven't read the Running With the Demon series either; I've read every Shannara book/series through the Ilse Witch/Jerle Shannara set. The 1st three books; the Sword, the Elfstones and the Wishsong are by far the strongest, in my opinion. Each series after that seemed to lose just a little bit to me. I wonder if growing into adulthood helped alter my opinion or if it really is just that the subsequent books did get a little weaker? I have not re-read the early Shannara books in a very long time. I am somewhat interested in seeing how Brooks ties the "modern day" series (the Word and the Void, is it?) to the original Shannara thread and so may someday give them all a try.

[LedZepMan]

Druid of shannara is my absolute favorite. The heritage and voyage sets are amazing. Love brooks.

[BobbyHulse]

I have to agree with several of the other posters here. The Sword of Shannara was my introduction to fantasy as well. I read it at 13 or so, in the very early 80's. I had been given The Hobbit the previous year, but for whatever reason, could not get into it. Curiously, I had read all the Narnia books but didn't really classify them as fantasy until years later; possibly because of the Christian overtones (at least in the 1st book). My family attended church regularly until I was into my late teens and the Narnia books probably came my way from that direction. The Sword of Shannara really opened the floodgates for me and fantasy has been my favorite genre to read to this day. (I'm in my mid forties now.) I read the Hobbit and LOTR very soon after the first couple Shannara books and Tolkien became the pinnacle of fantasy authors to me until the WoT. I recognized the "heavy borrowing" (to put it nicely) in the Sword of Shannara, but was able to overlook or forgive it because it was "my 1st", if you will. I have had a theory for quite a long time that fans of fantasy seem to be influenced heavily in rating their favorite authors by the order they've read books in, and this thread seems to bear that out, to an extent at least. Perhaps it is simply nostalgia. Those who read LOTR before attempting Shannara seem to view Shannara with derision as a Tolkien ripoff and as I said, I can understand that. Another possible example of this seems to be WoT and Goodkind's Sword of Truth (?) series. I haven't read any Goodkind but many WoT fans seem to have downright disgust for him and his series, claiming blatant ripping of RJ. I think most "defenders" of Goodkind probably read his series before reading WoT.

 

As to Shannara, I also found The Elfstones of Shannara to be a fantastic book, possibly the best book of Terry Brooks' that I've read. I read Magic Kingdom long ago, and thought the concept very intriguing, but never went back for the rest of them. (They were brand new then and there was so much else to read that was ready and waiting!) I haven't read the Running With the Demon series either; I've read every Shannara book/series through the Ilse Witch/Jerle Shannara set. The 1st three books; the Sword, the Elfstones and the Wishsong are by far the strongest, in my opinion. Each series after that seemed to lose just a little bit to me. I wonder if growing into adulthood helped alter my opinion or if it really is just that the subsequent books did get a little weaker? I have not re-read the early Shannara books in a very long time. I am somewhat interested in seeing how Brooks ties the "modern day" series (the Word and the Void, is it?) to the original Shannara thread and so may someday give them all a try.

 

I tried to read the Word and Void series but it's so completely different I haven't finished it. I did read the newest Shannara book that came out last week. It takes place after the High Druid series and is pretty good. It's starting a whole new trilogy. Wards Of The Faire I believe it's called, you should check that out.

[peregrine al thor]

@ Alcarcalimo: Well it seems Brooks has written quite a few since the Voyage series, which is the last of his that I read. Are those you mentioned before or after Genesis of Shannara? That was the last one I had heard mention of that ties the Word and the Void series to the original Shannara books, I believe.

[BobbyHulse]

@ peregrine: Yeah, there is a trilogy after The Voyage called The High Druid of Shannara. It's about Grianne Ohmsford (the fromer Ilse Witch). The newest book he just released takes place about 100 years or so after that trilogy. Chronologically, that would be the "newest" series of events in the Shannara universe. The Genesis series happens after the Word and Void if im not mistaken. I just havent gotten to any of those yet because I haven't finished the word and void (and probably wont for a while)

[peregrine al thor]

@Alcarcalimo: Well I guess my memory is slipping as I've suspected for some time, lol. After checking up on all the Shannara books (and there are a ton now!) it seems that I have read through the High Druid trilogy. I'm certain I found them entertaining and attention holding but not overly impressive or I would still have them on my shelves. I probably got them from the library or bought them used and traded them back in. I do recall pretty clearly the end of the trilogy in regards to what happens with Grianne Ohmsford. As I said in my original post, I don't know if my aging has altered the way I rate books and authors, or that I just find Terry Brooks to be good and not great these days, but that is my perspective of his more recent works. I would not rule out returning for the books I haven't read as I am somewhat interested in a post-apocalyptic modern day world becoming the "genesis" of the Shannara world.

[StMilli]

The Heritage of Shannara books were my gateway into Fantasy after LOTR, and I loved them. Recently went back to try and re-read them how poorly written they are compared some other Fantasy I've read. I would definitely recommend them to a younger reader, but probably not a more mature reader.

 

Well I've read both (all 3 LOTR books) and I can certainly see the similarities. I just wouldn't call it a complete rip-off. But that's just my humble opinion.

 

You wanna read a complete rip-off of LoTR? Read some of this guys first books.

 

http://en.wikipedia....ennis_McKiernan

 

Reading this thread I was thinking about these books. Brooks had nothing on this guy as far as ripping off LOTR; the main character was a halfling having to go destroy something the bad guy wanted.