The Sword of Shannara Review

Author

Terry Brooks

Pages

726

Description

Living in peaceful Shady Vale, Shea Ohmsford knew little of the troubles that plagued the rest of the world. Then the giant, forbidding Allanon revaled that the supposedly dead Warlock Lord was plotting to destory the world. The sole weapon against this Power of Darkness was the Sword of Shannara, which could only be used by a true heir of Shannara--Shea being the last of the bloodline, upon whom all hope rested. Soon a Skull Bearer, dread minion of Evil, flew into the Vale, seeking to destroy Shea. To save the Vale, Shea fled, drawing the Skull Bearer after him....

Review

By todays standards The Sword Of Shannara is the definition of formulaic high fantasy. Originally published in 1977, it took Tolkien's work and made a marketable formula out of it that to this day has helped sell millions if not billions of high fantasy books.

The story and characters are pretty good but Terry Brooks continued a mistake Tolkien started, namely, to few female characters. There's only one female character in The Sword Of Shannara and her only purpose is to be saved by another character.

In closing, the book is good but there are many, many fantasy books which are better. If you haven't read The Sword Of Shannara I would only recommend it if you have enough time to waste reading this when you could be reading something better or if you want to see where today's high fantasy has its roots.

Score

6/10

© Copyright 2002 Adam Wendt. Last update: 5/27/2002; 1:45:06 PM.