The Sword of Shannara

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

The Sword of Shannara was a very popular book back in the 70s right after the huge success of The Lord of the Rings when everyone wanted to read more fantasy. I wasn't old enough to read it back then, so I came to it much later. I read part of the first book and, knowing how popular it had been, and feeling like it was a classic, I was prepared to enjoy it. About half way through I gave it to my ten year old son.

The weird thing is, it's so like The Lord of the Rings, at the same time that it's not. I don't mind a few common fantasy elements (especially in works written before they were clich??), but Brooks' plot and characters come almost straight out of Tolkien. This may have been acceptable if the writing had come straight out of Tolkien, too, but Brooks' style is clunky, wordy, and awkward. Adjectives and adverbs are used without restraint. I mean there are constant repetitive superfluous unnecessary redundant profligate excessive numbers of adjectives. And did I mention the weirdly-placed adverbs which are used unsparingly, unrestrainedly, extravagantly, and immoderately? And annoyingly? . . . When I couldn't care less whether Shea and Flick (they're the hobbits– I mean the heroes) live or die, then the characterization is weak. Actually, I was kind of hoping that they would die. If they died, the book would have to end, right?

Conclusion: These are fine for kids (at least this one is, I can't say if all of the later Shannara books are – probably not). But, do you really want to teach them to write like that? If not, give them C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling, Susan Cooper, and Lloyd Alexander. To be fair: This series is wildly popular. Perhaps the writing gets better (it has been 30 years, after all). I have heard that only the first book is too much like Tolkien. But I'll never know for sure because I can't make it through the first one.

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Too many inconsistencies. Every couple of paragraphs I would cringe at the spilled nonsense, that wasn't even disguised as good writing.

Int the first meeting with Allanon (Gandalf), the druid (wizard) basically assaults the main character (some character) Flick for no apparent reason:“See, I could kill you, but I won't. Learned the lesson? Never talk to strangers. Now, take me to your brother, he has a destiny to fulfill, you are just a sidekick. I won't go into details about it though, just gonna say he is the chosen one, and if he doesn't do anything about it, the world will end. What does that mean you ask? What should he do? Who am I? Why should he trust me? Well, that is the feeling I want to pass: confusion! By the time he has the opportunity to ask me all these questions I will be long gone, hehehehe.”So, after that very convincing argument, with impeding doom lurking around, Flick and his brother Shea do exactly what you would expect of them: absolutely nothing about it. What did Allanon expected with that kind of attitude? Well, at least he did leave behind the Elven Stones to help out the brothers. And everyone KNOWS what that means. What, you don't? Well, if the author keeps mentioning the name in the story over and over, with reactions of amazement from the characters, it will soon sink in... just a few more hundred pages.Anyway, after a few weeks, an ugly creature appears. It can smell Shea's blood (I think they were warned about this by Allanon). They feel they must leave to prevent harm to come to their village. They have two alternative paths to follow: a safe route that the enemy will expect them to take, or the dangerous route, which might kill them. They take the dangerous route, but somehow (blood smelling anyone?) the ugly creature still follows them.Shea want to enlist the help of an old friend of them, which was the prince of a neighboring country or something. But Flick does not like the guy, because he is a meany, so he opposes the idea. Way to go Sam, I mean, Flick! Because I'll be dammed if I will ask for the help of a powerful ally to save the world if I don't like him, even though we have no one else to turn to.By the time they arrived at that country, I stopped reading. As it turns out his brother is the main character? Both were presented very poorly. This is a major sin in stories. The main character should appear first and be made very clear about it.