Shannara!

Seeker

Judging by the title of this thread , I expect you thought I liked the Shannara series by Terry Brooks. In fact it is the opposite. Reading the first 2(Sword of Shannara) was one of the most boring experiences of my life. I could not finish the 3rd. They were so formulaic and unimaginative. I dont think I will ever read a terry Brooks novel again.

Does anybody else feel the same way?

Shannara!

Illkillya

Yes they were completely formulaic and unoriginal/unimaginative... but that doesn't matter to me, and I enjoyed the first ~7 of them. I read one last year though, I think it was called 'The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara' or something, and it was absolutely dire. I would have been happy if he had followed the original formula. I wouldn't recommend Terry Brooks' other stuff either, he's not a good writer but did well with the Shannara books because they're basic, run-of-the-mill fantasy stories with all the elements that appeal to the average fantasy reader who isn't looking for anything too profound.

Nevyn

I read the sword when I was 13 and enjoyed and and then the stones and then the druid all in a short span of years.

I still have a fondness for them but they dont' comapre to what I read as an adult and I don't like anything else he as written.

ixoy

Read them ages ago and they were grand then but I imagine I'd find them somewhat lacking now - I've got some of those Jerle Shannara books on my shelf, as of yet unread.

He is credited though with creating the modern age of fantasy novels - to the best of my knowledge, Shannara was the first fantasy novel to sell well after a long drought following 'Lord of the Rings'. After Brooks, fantasy became more mainstream (to an extent).

mcgovern

They are terrible books, got 3 or 4 of them from a neighbour and could barely finish them, no way I'd pay for one of his books.

Slow Motion

Read them as a kid and enjoyed them, Read "Running with the Deamon" and the other two a few years ago and thought they were all right !

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

loved the shannara ones when i was younger, really liked them actually. Memories of reading them keep coming to me as I'm writing this.. awful stuff really, but for a kid to getinto fantasy I thought they were awesome.

never liked the jerle shannara stuff.. i tried, still haven't managed to get through a full one of the new ones..

Mitch Connor

Seeker wrote:

Judging by the title of this thread , I expect you thought I liked the Shannara series by Terry Brooks. In fact it is the opposite. Reading the first 2(Sword of Shannara) was one of the most boring experiences of my life. I could not finish the 3rd. They were so formulaic and unimaginative. I dont think I will ever read a terry Brooks novel again.

Does anybody else feel the same way?

Shannara!

Agree completely. When i bougt it, i had just finished reading the LotR trilogy, and smoe David Gemmill books. I made the mistake of buying the Sword of Shanara trilogy as one big book, and i read it all (cause i had paid for it) I knew after the first 100 pages that it was going to be a stinker.

Each of the books was like the part of LotR before they get to the Elven City, the bit that sets the charactors up; except Shanara never got going. Also, the endings were all the same.... grrrrrrrrr.

I god damn hate those books, and Terry Brooks too.

iguana

I read the Sword when I was 16. It really dragged for about the first 2/3's so I'm not sure why I continued reading it, I kept stopping and starting for about 2 months. But once Shea got seperated from the rest of the group I couldn't put it down and read the rest in a day.

Greyfox

Don't know what planet you's are on...

It's strange reading these posts considering the Sword and Elfstones deservidly get rave reviews just about everywhere.

I've read about 60 books in the Fantasy genere including LOR, Legend series, Wheel of time, Diskworld and my favourite is either this or the HPotter series

Allanon is a far better character than Gandalf, The Reaper makes Elfstones very hard to put down and when you read that later books set hundreths of years later its amazing how his world changes over time

mcgovern

Congratulations, you are the first person I've ever heard say something good about them.
The books are writing by numbers, nothing new or original in any of them.

mcgovern

For those of you who did like it, its being made into a film:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/32897