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The Sword of Shannara Trilogy (and related books)

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Hadley Hadley from Mississippi Since: Jan, 2001
Hadley
#1: Dec 31st 2013 at 8:31:17 AM

Is anyone here a fan of this series? I've read the first two and while its true the first one had several elements similar to Lord of the Rings, they were still fun, enjoyable books. I recently got First King of Shannara (the prequel), but havent read Wishsong of Shannara yet. Should i read Wishsong first or can First King be enjoyed without knowledge of that one? Also, what are the opinions on the other books outside the trilogy?

Funden u wot m8 from the maintenance tunnels Since: Oct, 2011 Relationship Status: It's complicated
u wot m8
#2: Dec 31st 2013 at 12:27:31 PM

I enjoyed the later books a bit more than the earlier ones, but my favorite was the Voyage of the Jerle Shannara series.

Because airships.

Oh, and his Word and Void series is pretty cool and leads directly into the Genesis series (though W/V is better, imo).

Halberdier17 We Are With You Zack Snyder from Western Pennsylvania Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Dating Catwoman
We Are With You Zack Snyder
#3: Jan 1st 2014 at 9:26:34 AM

The creator's of Smallville are working on a TV series based on this series.

The Pilot will be directed by Jon Favreau.

www.ksitetv.com/shannara/smallville-creators-to-adapt-a-fantasy-novel-series-for-mtv/27019

edited 5th Jan '14 12:15:06 PM by Halberdier17

Batman Ninja more like Batman's Bizarre Adventure
Ogodei Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers from The front lines Since: Jan, 2011
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
#4: Jan 4th 2014 at 7:29:39 PM

I'm currently reading "Dark Legacy," or at least the first book, which I got for Christmas. I'll have to find the others. They're in paperback, so they should be cheap enough for a poor grad student like me :/

"Sword" is a rather blatant Lord Of The Rings ripoff, of course, with stifingly stereotyped characters (except for Flick Ohmsford) and a trite plot, but the worldbuilding does get off to a decent start. "Elfstones" and "Wishsong" give the series more of its own voice and have better characters, but it didn't really cement itself until the "Scions" sub-series. "Voyage" is probably the best, even though the plot is low on the geo-politics that works for the series as a sideshow, it has the largest concentration of memorable characters and the right balance of sex appeal (the earlier works were hardly No Hugging, No Kissing, at least after Sword which very much was, but still light on that aspect of a person's motives and persona), but the post-Voyage books, High Druid, Genesis, and now from what i've read of Dark Legacy, feature a fair bit of sex or sexuality. Hell, Dark Legacy starts off with a firsthand account of an ancient forbidden romance with, yes, sex.

He also seems to have something of a fixation on mountain men (or women, he is quite gender-neutral in that respect, but hunters and trappers always feature prominently, which has fast become too predictable)

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