The Sword of Shannara

The Prince of Tolkien imitators (after McKiernan's Iron Tower) the original Sword of Shannara, written rapidly by a law student in the 1970s.

The Shannara series eventually branches off into its own universe, dear reader, and Brooks actually becomes a decent to strong writer, although with an over-reliance on the present tense/voice, but this was the beginning, when he was a novice.

Butbutbut...

Some of the unique ideas and takes on old magical/fantasy tropes that characterize his Shannara universe begin here, with the first entry.

The Four Lands are the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust and winter, recalled as the Great Wars that lasted only minutes, and the long slow climb back to civilization. Mankind has splintered into mutant subraces show more from the combination of fallout and refuge- the claustrophobic Dwarfs whose ancestors once hid underground, the powerful, scaled Trolls who lived in the blasted wastelands, the yellowed and varied Gnomes who survived in the forests, and the far southern tribes of Men who remained recognizably men- and the story of the Elves comes later.

Guided by the council of Druids, wise men who inherited scraps of knowledge from their forebears, the lands have crawled into a medieval era- but in their rush to restore what was lost, some Druids turned to magic instead of technology, and with the loss of widespread use of technology, magic had a void it could now fill.

(Can you get more 1970s than that?)

One fell, and rose as a Dark Lord, the Warlock Lord; defeated twice before, he has now returned to the Four Lands, united the Trolls and Gnomes, and there is but one Druid who remains to oppose him and one artifact he fears- the Sword of Jerle Shannara, who once banished the Warlock Lord and can only be wielded by his descendants.

Of whom only one was not assassinated by the agents of the Warlock Lord, a half-Elven orphan living quietly in Shady Vale, a village of no import.

I would strongly recommend the serious fantasy fan read it for the impact and importance of the series on the development of fantasy, and as a gateway to the rest of the series, which becomes much more mature and interesting starting with the next entry, but honestly, this entry in the series today would probably be sent straight to young adult. The Sword itself is a clever idea I won't spoil, and a few characters are highly memorable, such as Padishar Creel- but it is telling that Brooks is at his best when he stopped trying to write "expected" fantasy and wrote to his own voice. Balinor is memorable, but I couldn't recall either Elven brother to save my life. The wild Leah and obstinate Flick are interesting characters, but Shea himself- a Frodo stand-in - falls somewhat flat. show less

The Sword of Shannara was also the first of the high fantasy best-sellers, and since I’m in the middle of a (partial) reread of the Wheel of Time series, I thought it might be worth seeing what this novel was like. I shouldn’t have bothered. It’s fucking dreadful. A “Valeman” on his way home one night is scared by some giant flappy thing in the sky, and then waylaid by a scary man over seven foot tall with a goatee. Except the scary man is well-known to the Valemen (they live in a vale, see), although he is very mysterious. Cue info-dump. The Valeman’s adopted brother is half-elvish, and is actually the only surviving relative of an ancient elvish king. Because of this, he’s the only person who can wield the Sword of show more Shannara, an ancient, er, sword, and defeat the Warlock Lord, an evil sorcerer who is about to invade the Four Lands and kill everyone. Or maybe just enslave them. It’s not clear. There’s the good guys – one of which is a dwarf, and another is Boromir in all but name – and they have to make their way to Druid’s Keep to retrieve the sword before the evil gnome army. But the gnomes get there first, and Shea (the naming is absolutely terrible in this book), the half-elf half-not-a-hobbit-honestly, is separated from the others and ends up travelling into absolutely-not-Mordor chasing after the titular sword. Meanwhile, the others are involved in defending Tyrsis – which is definitely not Minas Tirith – against a huge army of gnomes and rock trolls… This was the first of the big-selling Tolkien rip-offs, and I can’t honestly see what its appeal is. Did people just want another LotR with the serial numbers filed off? And were they so desperate for it, they’d accept this sub-literate crap? Even now, fantasy fans still recommend this book – and then they do that thing, which is absolutely fucking stupid, of explaining that the first few books are not very good but “it gets a lot better around book four or five”. Seriously, fuck off. I’m not going to read half a dozen shit 700-page novels to reach one which is “better”, especially since as a fan of the series, the person recommending it clearly has no idea what a good book actually is. Books like this should no longer be in print. They do the genre a disservice, they do its readers a disservice. show less

What began as a sentimental re-read, ended up a history lesson on genre publishing. I've long decried the phenomenon of Tolkien knock-offs overwhelming the fantasy genre, even as I acknowledged my part in making it. I was either never clear or had clearly forgotten that The Sword Of Shannara was the opening salvo in that war. I shan't be reading further in the series: it wasn't in the end that sentimental a revisit. I'm pleased to have clarified the genre history, though, even as the knock-offs today mimic other authors rather than Tolkien: Caroline Maas, Sharon Gilbert, J.K. Rowling.

Two things I learned this reading that struck me as wholly unfamiliar:
- the world is a post-nuclear apocalypse version of our own (though the information show more shared in this novel isn't explicit and would support other interpretations)
- the Del Rey imprint was launched with this novel, its success fueling so much of the fantasy genre I initially embraced and now find boring

Shippey attributes the book's success to the post-Tolkien advent of the fantasy genre: "What The Sword Of Shannara seems to show is that many readers had developed the taste ... for heroic fantasy so strongly that if they could not get the real thing they would take any substitute, no matter how diluted." Mea culpa, or anyway so my teen self. show less

This book wears its influence on its sleeve. If you're looking for something Tolkien-esque, there are certainly direct analogues to Frodo, Gandalf, Sauron, Gollum, the one ring, the Nazgul, and the evil hordes of The Lord of the Rings; but the prose and the worldbuilding aren't nearly up to the same standard. There's not much original material (at least, little that receives any narrative focus), with one exception: Brooks' depiction of fantasy race is somewhat more complex than Tolkien's (admittedly a low bar). While the good race/evil race dichotomy is preserved, there are exceptions to the rule for both of the "evil" races, include one character who is an important part of the plot and treated as generally heroic. Not exactly show more groundbreaking or even progressive stuff, but certainly an improvement.
One of the odd things about this book is that the obstacles the characters face are almost always solved in uninteresting ways: the characters notice something they didn't before, or are rescued by someone else, or make an unremarkable plan to distract the enemy. The obstacles themselves usually come from the characters failing to notice something, or being deceived by their enemies. There is no character arc or thematically cohesive plot--just a series of fights, puzzles, and traps that eventually leads to getting the artifact and defeating the dark lord. In other words, it reads exactly like someone transcribed their Dungeons & Dragons campaign and turned it into a book. Originating as a role-playing game would certainly explain why the plot is so episodic, and the characters are so flat and archetypal--what's interesting to players of a game is completely different from what's interesting to readers of a book. I would say that modern Tolkien-esque fantasy tabletop games, if not directly influencing (or being influenced by) the Shannara books, at the very least come from a similar emotional place: the desire to live in Tolkien's world and experience an epic, world-changing quest of one's own. In satisfying that kind of desire, originality and cohesiveness are less important than a sense of nostalgia and identification with the characters. I understand why some people might like it; but ultimately, I just don't think a book is the best medium for this kind of story. show less

When I was but an impressionable teen, my crush gave me this book for my birthday. He had teeth like little baby pearls and could quote from The Princess Bride, so I was pretty far gone on him. This book was so bad that it effectively cured me of that crush. Despite being a plot-point-for-plot-point, character-for-character rip-off of the Lord of the Rings, it's pretty boring. In fact, the only surprise in this novel is that despite such blatant plagiarism, none of the beauty of Tolkein's descriptions or rich history of his peoples translates over. I don't know how Brooks managed to strip Tolkein's tales of everything wonderful and beautiful, but he did it somehow.

Shae and his brother Flick are just simple boys from a remote village. Their life is relatively uneventful until a strange wanderer comes to town and drops a bombshell on them. Soon they are embarking on a massive journey to recover a powerful artifact that holds the key to defeating the Warlock Lord.

This book is just bad. Leaving aside the rampant borrowing from Tolkien, which is too obvious to escape anyone's notice, the writing is just ham-fisted. Each sentence creaks under a weight of unnecessary adjectives and adverbs - some of them used over and over almost like punctuation.

Brooks seems almost phobic of characterization. For the first half of the book all the characters move about woodenly like cardboard cutouts. Brooks tends to show more refer to the characters as a group, rather than individuals. Even though it's a diverse cast with several races involved, they all have identical reactions to events.

Finally, Brooks insists upon the tedious info-dump style of narration. Rather than creating a sense of place gradually, he'll just expound at length, filling page after page with useless information that tends to distance the reader. Time after time, he opts to tell rather than show, giving the novel a summary feel, as if a friend is recounting the action of the plot.

From what I understand, Brooks' later books are more polished. This one smacks of a novice author and is in desperate need of a good editor. show less

I first read this book in 1988 when I was 13. I picked it up at Heathrow whilst waiting for a flight to Sydney. I bought it because it was thick and would occupy me during the flight and layovers. Little did I know it would cement my love of the fantasy genre for life. A wonderful book, masterly written, the worl comes alive. Perhaps I am fortunate that when I read a book, it pays like a movie in my head, full technicolour, surround sound wide screen. This book was made for my imagination. I adore it.