Posted: October 3, 2022

The Sword of Shannara

Terry Brooks

So is this a ripoff of LOTR and not worth your time? I've read the book and I have to say that it is definitely worth a read. I love "The Lord of the Rings", in fact it's the best fantasy story I've ever read to date, but "The Sword of Shannara" is a different adventure that I also enjoyed reading. In fact, I had a fun time seeing Terry Brook's version of LOTR in the parts that are patterned after LOTR. I think Brooks handles dwarves a lot better, Hendel is superior to Gimli in terms of battle prowess and general value to the company, for example. I also find the down-to-earth versions of elves by Brooks a refreshing take on the race - the elves are not so high and mighty here. The Elftones are fascinating power objects, I enjoyed it every time they came into use in the story.

One of the reasons I like this book is Terry Brook's prose style, which, though not lyrical, flows wonderfully through the pages. During the times when Brooks describes the internal life if his characters he is able to achieve a level of depth that enriches the story.

This book is patterned after Lord of the Rings. Admittedly, if Terry Brooks had not written more Shannara books I would not have such a high opinon of The Sword of Shannara. But Terry Brooks has written many more books set in the world of Shannara and so this book has additional value as a reference for those other books.