Grimdark Fantasy discussion

I've taken flak from a few of my friends over the years (Steve, Jason....I'm looking in your direction) about my love for the Shannara series. I decided to read the middle books of the series that I had not read before (waiting for series to be finished, etc...), and in doing so, I thought it best to just start over from the beginning again and read the ENTIRE Shannara series/world books.

So here is my open discussion on "The Sword of Shannara", (hereafter referred to as "SoS")after rereading it ~25 years after my first read (in high school).

As I've mentioned in other threads, THIS is the book that truly turned me into a lover of the fantasy genre. Even in my first read, I noticed some heavy similarities with LOTR, but I was new enough to the fantasy genre (and young enough at ~17), that it didn't bother me much.

On rereading, I'm finding that yes, it borrowed VERY HEAVILY on Lord of the Rings. I've always taken the stance that there were not enough Fantasy literature out there at the time and Terry Brooks probably just thought he was using "the Fantasy formula". He's talked about this a few times, and admits to LOTR being a HEAVY influence on the work.

I still hold to the theory that there wasn't enough Fantasy literature to have much diversity, and it was a simple rookie author's mistake to lean so heavily on another work.

Similarities:
SoS ~= LOTR
Warlock Lord ~= Sauron
Skull Bearers ~= Ring Wraiths
Bailnor ~= Borimor
Allanon ~= Gandalf + Aragon
Culhaven (dwarf city) ~= Rivendell
Tsyrsis ~= Gondor


Anyway, my point is that I fully admit heavy LOTR influence and it does take away from the story a bit. It was a rookie author's mistake, but it was well intentioned and I don't think for a second Terry Brooks was intentionally "stealing" story from LOTR.

Another criticism that might come up is that "SoS" (if I were reading it for the first time today, after all my fantasy literature experience) is that it seems to use EVERY fantasy stereotype ever. Virtually all people or creatures are purely evil or purely good, there is very little inbetween. All evil characters/creatures are black and usually red eyed. Every natural structure (mountain, lake, etc...) is either the most beautiful or most ridiculously treacherous one you could ever conceive of.

It was a bit annoying, but again I'll refer to the fact that there was not fantasy literature when it was written, so they probably weren't quite stereotypes yet. It may seem that way if you read it now, but it probably didn't come across that way if you read it when it came out.

That being said, the prose was a little hard to read too. It was overly flowery in description. It was never dark it was "an impenetrable dark". It was never lovely, it was "the most lovely thing he'd ever seen".

However, as I've often also said, if you get past SoS, Terry Brooks definitely finds his own voice, story, prose, etc..... Now that I've finished the reread of SoS, I'm rereading the second book "The Elfstones of Shannara" and I'm happy to report that my memory was correct in that statement about Terry Brooks finding his own voice after the first book. Just by the very second book, the prose has improved dramatically. The story is definitely unique and well designed. The story is downright wonderful, in fact.

There is no doubt that Terry Brooks is one of my favorite authors of all-time. He may not have the perfect poetic prose like, say, Mark Lawrence, but nearly every book is a solid 4, IMO.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Terry Books, he's DEFINITELY "high fantasy", not grimdark, but if you like fantasy, force yourself through THE SWORD OF SHANNARA because it gets much better after that.


My first time reading SoS, it was definitely a 5/5 for me. Had I read this with no history of it prior now with all my fantasy reading experience, I'd probably have given it a 2/5.

Interesting. I have found there are some stories that just do not hold up. A friend of mine recently re-read (listened to an audio book actually) the first Dragonlance book and was dismayed by how it was different from him memory.

Chompa wrote: "Interesting. I have found there are some stories that just do not hold up. A friend of mine recently re-read (listened to an audio book actually) the first Dragonlance book and was dismayed by how ..."
It was definitely different and definitely NOT as good as my memory. However, it is a lead in to a wonderful and large fantasy world/series, so for that it is worth the read.

Nicely written and well thought out Chris.

If you like a book then thats all what matters.