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Terry brooks shannara

Started by klute, 19 June, 2010, 05:16:44 PM

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klute

Is it worth investing in terry brooks shannara series? my father inlaw has bought me the first four in teh series.

loveforstitch - Does he fall in love? I like a little romance in all my movies.

Rekaert - Yes, he demonstrates it with bullets, punches and sentencing.

He's Mega City 1's own Don Juan.

Jim_Campbell

It depends on whether you think blatant Tolkien plagiarism is bad thing, or a selling point! I think I managed a book and a half in my teens. I had no idea there were that many!

Cheers

Jim
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klute

Ive done a little looking up on wikipedia i wasnt aware of his books or the amount he had in his back catalogue.

Im a tolkien fan as well as michael moorcock so a little unsure how to approach the books
loveforstitch - Does he fall in love? I like a little romance in all my movies.

Rekaert - Yes, he demonstrates it with bullets, punches and sentencing.

He's Mega City 1's own Don Juan.

Emperor

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 19 June, 2010, 05:33:04 PM
It depends on whether you think blatant Tolkien plagiarism is bad thing, or a selling point! I think I managed a book and a half in my teens. I had no idea there were that many!

I think I managed 2 and a bit before jacking it in.
if I went 'round saying I was an Emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!

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Mardroid

I have read all the Shannara books.

I thought I had made a mistake with the first book  'The Sword of Shannara' as it follows the plot of Lord of the Rings very closely. The true power of the sword itself and how it was used was an interesting idea though.

I had bought a 3 part volume collecting the first three stories though so I went on reading to get my money's worth like. The next two actually took their own route (well okay, they still involved youngsters going out on quests... as most of them do come to think of it...but they had a lot of their own ideas) and were pretty cracking I thought.

As for the other series that follow, a mixed bunch. Largely entertaining although the basic format of youngsters-on-quests got a bit old. It's an interesting world though, actually set in the future and combining a bit of sci-fi with the fantasy elements and magic.

M.I.

As a child I read 'The Sword of Shannara' and I did not like it. Perhaps the other books in this series is much better, as Mardroid says.

Kerrin

I think I managed the first two of them in my early teens. The only thing that sticks in my mind is that there was an Elf general called Kerrin. Not something I've ever considered re-reading.

Paul faplad Finch

I've read 8 or 9 of these and fully intend to read more. Yeah, the early stories wear their Tolkien influences pretty blatantly on their sleeves but that does fade. 

The aspect that I particularly like about them is that the storylines are set generations, sometimes even centuries apart with the politics, technology etc. being radically different each time out. It gives the impression of a world evolving in a very natural way. Even to the extent of making certain powerful races extinct in later stories.

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Van Dom

I loved these books as a teen. But I hadnt read Lord of the Rings at the time so I didnt have any feelings of Deja Vu. The best one was Wishsong of Shannara. I think there was a girl called Quickening in that one...she was cool...and it was an awesome story. But I only read the original trilogy, was quite surprised to see how many of them there are now!
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I, Cosh

I think I lasted a chapter and a half of the first one when I was about twelve.
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Robin Low

The original three Shannara novels were probably the first ones I read after reading The Lord of the Rings when I was 13. I remember them fondly. Lord knows what I'd make of them now.

I read the fourth book, The Scions of Shannara, some time in my 20s. I don't remember disliking it, but I certainly don't remember being interested in it. I didn't bother geting the next book, which probably says it all.

I'd suggest the original trilogy is probably fine as a bit of derivative light entertainment.

Regards

Robin

ThryllSeekyr

Read the first one back in my highschool days. Thought it was okay but never got further than that in the series. Of I read the enitre Lord of the Rings years later and thought one of them is heavily inspired of the other.

So, wasn't ths being considered for a film as well?





soggy

Well to be fair if you eliminated all the fantasy books that took something from LOTR the fantasy section in most bookstores would be very small

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: soggy on 20 June, 2010, 03:31:06 PM
Well to be fair if you eliminated all the fantasy books that took something from LOTR the fantasy section in most bookstores would be very small

Hence why I used the words "blatant" and "plagiarism" ...! Seriously, in the first book all Brooks has done is change the names.

Cheers!

Jim
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

James Stacey

Not only is the first book a blatant rip of LotR, it's also very badly written. I don't rate Brooks as a writer at all, and although I have read a few of his books in the past I can't be arsed to anymore. There are more than enough good writers out their.