[Duarh]

Note: below is my purely subjective opinion http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif no flames pls

Have read only subj. of the Shannara series, but had a distinct feeling it was written by an amateur. Not that I didn't really enjoy it, but. . .well, it was Tolkienism as most fans would write it. I think it could've been improved a million ways, and the plot was, well, simple.

Your opinion?

Duarh

[FitzChivalry]

The Sword of Shannar is indeed a rerun of the old Tolkienese formulas with some little twists (future earth) that don't change the plot much. I found it pretty boring.
Keep in mind though that it was written in a different time though, and there was not much fantasy around, so in that context, better bad fantasy than no fantasy at all...

[Alucard]

I wasn't thrilled. I didn't really enjoy tolkien, and shannarra feeling very similar, didn't turn me on either. The plot was pretty straight forward(too much in my opinion), and the characters were pretty flat. I wouldn't say that it's a "bad" book necessarily. It's just that it has nothing very new and the story was a rather bland, keeping it from being a "good" book.

[Shehzad]

Actually, I enjoyed it first time around, but then this was the second series I read (after LoTR). Reading them back to back made the similarities stand out even more. However, I read Weis & Hickman's Dragonlance Chronicles after this so I pretty much never thought about it again. Also I got bored by the 4th book of the series.

[Rob B]

Ok.

Sword was a quick simple read. It was from what I can gather a VERY INTENTIONAL mirroring or retelling of Lord of the Rings, to bring the day's (in this case late 1970s readers) into the fantasy genre. It worked--It was a HUGE besteseller and it helped to lauch DelRey books as one of the #1 Fantasy publishers in the US.

I personally didn't hate it all that much, it was a quick fun read. I'd rather read Shanarra than SOT.

However, another series from Del Rey published about the same time is far superior, about a guy with one hand and a White Gold Ring in some strange LAND.

[Lady Fox]

Sword of Shanarra was a great book to me the first time I read it, but I was about 11 at the time. Now it doesn't have as much appeal, but I think that's because there is so much more well developed and complex fantasy out there. The genre has grown and changed drastically since this book was first released.
Hey FF, I seem to remember something about that fellow you mentioned who wore the funny white ring. I agree with you, that series has stood the test of time much better than some of its counterparts.

[Cadfael]

FitzFlagg... the guy had one and a half hands... not just the one...

I agree that at the time Shannara was published, this was the general concept of fantasy... copy Tolkien as much as possible without getting accused of plaugerism(sp?)... Brook's failed on this account... but at the time I did enjoy the books.

Cut'n'Paste... he was good at that http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif===DennizM=== http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif
getting his own back http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

[FitzChivalry]

Heh, FF, better than SoT? that's not a very high standard, i would be more interested what you found worse than SoT.

[Rob B]

FC: I need some time to think about that one.


DennizM--just...er...um checking to see if YOU were paying attention, yeah sure.

[Shehzad]

Brooks and Goodkind - hmm... not much to choose between the two, but I'd say they're equally bad. Throw in Eddings and let the three have a scrap I say. The Survivor doesn't win a million dollars, but at least he gets to claim that he's not the worst.


FC, do you think that the Lyn Tobryn Chronicle you're currently reading belongs down there as well?