I'm not exactly planning to pick up his Shannara series right away, but I was hoping to get some opinions on it and his other books. Which is his best series? Are any of his books really worth checking out?
I'm mostly into more complex fantasy like E.R. Eddison, Tolkien and Martin, and the S&S stuff like Leiber, Moorcock and Howard.
Any recommendations would be great. Thanks!
Ok I haven't read the Shannara books, but being the meddlesome person that I am I am going to post anyway.
After a few years of browsing through this forum and looking up reviews of almost every fantasy book out there, I believe the general consensus is that the first book, The Sword of Shannara, is a blatant Lord of the Rings rip-off. Expecially since you are already familiar with the books of Eddison, Tolkien and Martin, which are high quality, I strongly doubt if you would like it.
But, you know, I haven't read the book so feel free to ignore me and lets hear from those who have.
I've gotten ~100 pages into the Sword of Shannara.
Eh. It's very descriptive. As in very descriptive.
If you liked Tolkien and don't mind reading Tolkien influenced fantasy, then you'll probably like it. I've only read the first three books, and I can't recall anything about the third one.
On the plus side, Sword is a complete story--you can read it and not read any of the other books. It's also relatively short, by today's standards.
Brooks started off being pretty terrible, but improved later on, especially in his Void and the Word series. His Magic Kingdom series is unreadably bad. The first seven or so Shannara books are also pretty bad, but the later books (which I never got to) have much better reviews and receptions, so they may be worth a look.
My first Brooks book was The High King of Shannara and I really liked it, but everything after that was disappointing.
I've always really enjoyed Brooks. His Shannara and Word/Void books are great imo. I agree with Wert on the Magic Kingdom series. I think I made it half way through the 2nd book and had to stop. Overall though the Shannara and Word/Void books are fun, fast-pased adventures that I think you'd really enjoy.
While I dig Tolkien influenced fantasy, I don't like rip offs. I much prefer author's with an original style. The response aren't so positive so far, haha. Maybe I'll just skip his works, I'm just looking to read the cream of the crop.
Thanks for the recommendations!
I would not consider Brooks the 'cream of the crop' but I still enjoy his Shannara books. They are usually entertaining enough and quick reads to read between more complex series.
As has been mentioned, The Sword of Shannara IS a blatant rip off of LotR. One thing I did like though, is his depiction of dwarves. He takes the opposite view to established tradition.
I actually enjoyed his Magic Kingdom For Sale (Sold) series but it was along time ago and they are probably aimed at the younger reader.
Well I ended up getting the first two Shannara books for free, so I may at some point end up picking them up and reading them.
I think you should. They are far from innovative and original but it´s a good enough read and you´ll probably finish one in two nights if you´re a somewhat fast reader.Originally Posted by CodanOfCanada
I only read the first Shannara book, but it was such a blatan LOTR rip-off that I just couldn't continue (even though I heard the next book was much better).
The characters are literally the same characters from LOTR, with different names, and the book even includes many of the exact same settings and scenes!
For example, think Gandalf facing the Balrog and falling off the bridge... except Gandalf and the Balrog have different names.
i hated these books. i pretty much hate any fantasy that feels too derivative of LOTR, it bores me. and these seemed about as big a rip off as possible.
I just found the first one flagrantly ripped off LOTR. Imo the rest are much better and much more distinctive. Especially the Word/Void books and the Genesis of Shannara trilogy(which link the Word/Void books to the Shannara books)
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