The Elfstones of Shannara

My 7th grade English teacher, Mr. DePaul, was the person who introduced me to the wonderful world of The Hobbit, and from there I found The Lord of the Rings. He is the one who single-handedly set me on a course to quench my never-ending thirst for fantasy and adventure. I still haven't stopped.
The following year, I discovered The Sword of Shannara, and I was absolutely blown away. Not only was I new to the world of Middle-Earth, but I also had the pleasure of traversing through yet another realm of fantasy with the Shannara series. For a 13-year-old boy, this was what I thought would be the pinnacle of fantasy fascination. Obviously, it wasn't, as I had to discover further adventures within the Shannara's books, among other great show more classic fantasy worlds of the time. Growing up in the 80's was incredibly gratifying for me in many ways and has forever set the stage for what I was to become as a fantasy reader.
Many people piss on Terry Brooks for his (very) blatant Tolkien influences. I cannot look at it that way. For a boy of 12 and 13 years old, I was forever looking for anything that was even remotely familiar with LOTR, and The Sword of Shannara was my answer. I ate it all up! At the time, I never even looked at fantasy works through the eyes of plagiarism or influential robbery, as many look at Mr. Brooks' early works. I looked at his work with eyes of wonder and delight that somebody was writing for me! Just like Mr. Tolkien has. I loved it.
I read all the books in the original Shannara's series, as well as the Heritage series through the 80's, and I was still hungering for more. I discovered the Dragonlance universe and Forgotten Realms as well, eating them all up feverishly.
As I re-read these classic books from my childhood, I now see the differences, especially here with this book. With The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks boldly wore his influences on his sleeve. In my opinion, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It just shows what drives an author, and I think that is a beautiful thing. With The Elfstones of Shannara, Terry Brooks really finds his own voice and begins to "walk on his own" as a writer. It is very plain to see that with this book. We still see some of the same characters from the first book, but they seem a little different, more of his own creation, molded more to actually fit the Shannara realm, instead of merely a reflection through a Middle-Earth mirror. There are still some similarities, but one must expect that from such a profound influence as Tolkien. But in the end, The Elfstones of Shannara really starts to stand on its own legs. It is still at times a little clunky, but oh-so-satisfying. The ending is a little strange, but whatever, it's a Shannara book, fantasy is supposed to be strange and wonderous.
Please, try to look past the fact that Terry Brooks was trying at first to recreate a Tolkien classic, give this a chance, and open up to a new world of fantasy that is Shannara. show less

This book came as a significant surprise to me. Welcome to the world of Shannara.

The second book in Brooks' epic Shannara universe by publication, he abandoned the Tolkien imitation of his first book to really find his own vision as an author. While there is groundwork laid in the first book- the Druids, the Ohmsfords, the Leahs- it becomes its own distinct world here. Gnomes that aren't all selfish and evil introduced via the Storlock healing community. The origin of the Elves and the tie of magic to Faerie explained.

Before the Old World, with its technology and superweapons (our world), there was the time of Faerie. The King of the Silver River had his origins in this time, as did the "real" inspirations for much of human mythology. show more These creatures lived in magic and used it as naturally as breathing- and they went to war, those who reveled in evil and destruction against those who did not.

In the city of the Elves, there is a special tree, the Ellcrys. And she is dying. And with her dying it is revealed that she was the answer to the war in Faerie- for the Elves were one of the Faery races, and used their magic to seal the "Demon" races away in the Forbidding- the Forbidding that is maintained by the Ellcrys. She must be reborn- one of her Chosen must take her seed to the Earthfire to bathe it, so the Forbidding can be made anew.

But the Demons, the strongest, are already breaking free. Most of the Chosen are slaughtered. Allanon, last of the Druids, is needed to hold the line with the now all-but-human Elves, whose nature embraced change and evolution. So he turns to Wil Ohmsford, grandson of Shea, and inheritor by him of the blue Elfstones, the seeking stones that protect the bearer, to guard the last Chosen on her journey.

Wil may look like an Elf, as did his grandfather- but Wil is but 1/8th Elf. The Elfstones don't always work for him- and he can feel something inside him changing as they do. And he finds himself falling for the young Elfmaid, and desperate to protect her. And in the Westlands of the Elves, it is war- steel against tooth, claw, magic, and the savagery of ages imprisoned. show less

I re-read this book recently, having enjoyed it in the past when it was first published. Now, though, it feels derivative and slow. All the battle scenes just became a boring blur to me. The demons were just this evil faceless mass that was winning because of numbers, and all the fights were a variation on this theme. I liked the idea of a magical tree being responsible for protecting the land.

The characters could have been better. Wil is just stupid at times. And he's been studying healing and is called 'Healer' but we never see him actually healing anyone, except in one instance that backfires. It would have been interesting to see more of that reverence for life in his character. Amberle is the token innocent child like woman, and show more Eretria is the token sexual woman. These stereotypes bugged me. But at least Elfstones had two more female characters than Sword.

But, I had a lot of nostalgia for this series, back when there wasn't much in the way of original fantasy. So three stars. show less

Another stinky book club pick. At this point I'm just going for the socialization. Anyway...

The worst thing about this book is not that it's a Tolkien rip-off; it's that it's a tedious, badly-written Tolkien rip-off. It reads as if a young writer read a few fantasy novels, maybe played a little D&D, and then proceeded to write what he thought a fantasy novel should sound like. In other words, the style is very affected and pretentious. He also repeats himself a lot. At least Stephen King will wait a few pages before reminding you of something you already read; Terry will keep going over it until he is sure that you got it the first time. Maybe the publisher asked for a longer book and Terry didn't understand that he was supposed to add show more more story, so he just went through and reiterated everything.

Not only does the plot feel strangely familiar, but Terry's version is terribly contrived. There's no sense of danger after a while because whenever the protagonists get into a fix they are saved by one deus ex machina after another. If it's not the book's third-rate Gandalf, it's a never-before-mentioned earth spirit that relocates them to safety, or it's the Elfstones whose power is to do whatever is needed to save the protagonists in any situation.

The characters are completely uninteresting. When one slightly interesting character shows up who might make things a bit sexier, she is left behind. (Those fools!) I think she might turn up again later, probably at just the right moment to miraculously save our protagonists, but I didn't get that far. show less

Fifty years have passed since the great war against the Warlock Lord. Now a new danger is threatening the elves. The enchanted tree that has protected the race of elves for generations is dying. With the waning of her power, demons are able once more to infiltrate the world. War is brewing, and it is up to the grandson of Shea Ohmsford to find a cure for the dying tree and save the world from darkness.

Dear God, is Terry Brooks paid by the word?? This man cannot communicate a concise idea in less than seven sentences. Let me give you a taste of the prose: "Wil stared in utter astonishment. He had not succeeded. He had failed. Despite all the effort of others, he had come up short. Truly he had tried his best, but it had not been enough. show more There was nothing he could do now. There was simply no hope left."

This is how I wrote term papers when I hadn't done enough research to fill the page requirement. It's a simple technique. Just repeat each sentence a couple times with different words. The book reads like Brooks had enough ideas to fill a quarter of his publisher's page requirement. The book just drags and the reader can't help but skim when every other sentence is not necessary. Brooks also really likes to repeat information he's already given us. He never met a dead horse that didn't need a beating. Ugh.

Maybe he hoped we'd be too frustrated with his prose to notice how boring the plot is. It's almost the exact same story as the last book. All the characters are bland as toast. Tons of people die in this book and I cared about none of them. People just walked on, were introduced at length, and then fed to the demons.

Wil goes from one stupid idea to the next, blundering through the plot like a hung-over bear. Amberle is essentially a suitcase that Wil has to tote along with him through the woods. She rarely speaks and when she does it's rarely significant. At one point she actually sprains her ankle so Wil literally ends up CARRYING her everywhere.

It's all just so bad. So tedious. So flat. So fake. I truly don't understand the acclaim these books receive. show less

I was not overwhelmed by the Sword of Shannara, but wanted to give the original trilogy a solid try. The first fifth of Elfstones was...clunky. Chunky. I am glad I pushed on. Once we got past the initial introduction of the quest, the book was fairly fast-paced. Still awkward in places, but a fun/quick read.

First-ever Shannara series read. I jumped into the Elfstones book after watching the tv show. I would have given the book a better rating had author Terry Brooks not used so much word-salad and pages-long descriptions of settings and battles to enhance the number of pages, but in effect slowing down the pace of the story. Easily could have trimmed down the number of pages to a more respectable 450 (instead of 564) and still been a worthy read. Because the plot itself is very solid, and I enjoyed the adventure. Envisioning the actors who played the characters in the tv show really enhanced my love of the story. But alas, as already mentioned, drawn-out descriptions took its toll. I found myself at times skimming, even skipping over parts show more of paragraphs that were just too wordy.

In summation, a good but not great read. Not sure I'll step into another Shannara novel for some time. I need to unwind. show less