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Reviewed by: Kim
Rating: 8/10
Genre: Fantasy
726 pages/1977
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The Sword of Shannara
by
Terry Brooks
This is another one of those stories which is basically the retelling of The Lord of the Rings with slightly different characters and in more modern language. Shea Ohmsford is a unassuming young man who has never traveled more than a few miles from his home in Shady Vale, a peaceful little village where nothing ever happens and everyone is happy. Then a dark and mysterious stranger arrives at his doorstep and informs him that a great evil power is going to take over the world and only Shea can stop it and only with the help of the Sword of Shannara. Meanwhile, evil creatures are seeking him out so he needs to run away! His best friend goes with him and soon he has accumulated a group of friends from various backgrounds to help him even though the actual deed of saving the world is something only he can do. Sound familiar?
I found the first hundred pages of this book to be pretty boring. We all knew exactly what was going to happen before it happened and things fell into place much too easily to save the characters from their early troubles. Although this problem persisted throughout the book, it became less and less noticeable as the story moved along.
From page 100 to very nearly page 700, I wasn't disappointed with this book. The writing was interesting, although not too complex, and it kept my attention the whole way. The characters were almost all well developed and they were all characters that I could care about. When the story was focused on one character I wanted to know what was happening to the other characters.
However, I felt the ending was anticlimactic. The author seemed to have trouble wrapping up threads. Several storylines seemed to just peter out without explaining what happened or else just ended somewhat lamely. This included the main storyline. It felt to me like the author got bored or reached a deadline and just ended the book where it was.
One of the twists I found to be interesting about this book was that although it was set in a typical fantasy setting, the author managed to turn it into science fiction by explaining how this story is actually taking place on earth 2000 years in the future after most technology has been destroyed and forgotten. I would've like to have more information about all of this, but perhaps it will come in his other books.
Over all I enjoyed reading this book. It is the first book in the Shannara series and I plan on reading more of them.
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