Amph Shannara series by Terry Brooks

Anyone read this series? I like the books. Sure Sword is too much like LOTR but the rest of the series is good.

Also Elfstones of Shannara is being made into a movie!
http://www.deadline.com/2013/12/mtv...reau-directing-al-gough-miles-millar-writing/

 

Ah yes, the first shot in the endless series of Tolkien fanfics that has come to characterize contemporary fantasy fiction.

 

The Hadeshorn at least was a unique idea.
Heritage of Shannara is probably my favorite set of books in the series.

 

Isn't this the guy who's obsessed with rape in every single one of his books? No thank you.

 

I haven't read either author, but I think you might be confusing him with Terry Goodkind.

 

No, I think that's Stephen Donaldson.

 

It was one of the Terry's, but I was pretty sure it was Brooks.

 

If you're thinking of the guy who wrote the character with leprosy that rapes a teenage girl, that's Donaldson.

 

Nope. Not Brooks.

 

After some Googling, I've discovered that this Goodkind fellow seems obsessed with rape. So, there's the Terry you're looking for.

A lot of these fantasy writers are creepy people, in general.

 

Brooks' stuff is fun fantasy for the most part, not the best writing you'll come across but mostly entertaining. Didn't the last series, Lost Legacy, to be as good as I was hoping - suffered from being a bit too dark, though Brooks' writing isn't as cuddly as it is accused of being.

 

Alright guess I just confused them. A friend of mine told me there's one book where a mad wizard eats a baby in the most horrific way possible.

 

Yeah, at first, I thought you had to be referring to Donaldson, but you were correct in thinking it was one of the Terry's.

I wouldn't be turned off automatically by reading a scene with rape or baby-eating in it. So much depends on the tone and the execution of what's being shown (and I assume these actions are being shown, instead of being referred to or hinted at). Still, from what I understand after a Google search, the Goodkind guy seems kind of obsessed with rape everywhere.

His wikipedia picture:



If I saw that guy walking down the street, I'd run in the other direction as far and fast as my swimmer legs could take me before giving out.

 

Yeah, Goodkind is rapey to the max and obsessed with BDSM. Why and how they made his books into a PG/PG 13 rated network TV show is a mystery.

 

I liked Dark Legacy even if it was a repeat of Elfstones even if the Tree plot line was expanded. I just wish we had seen what the other elfstones did.

 

Let's be honest, no way does Tael Riverine beat Dagda Mor or even the Reaper in the villain stakes.

 

Agreed. I also like the demon (Can't remember his name) from the Word and Void trilogy and his appearances in Genesis of Shannara trilogy.

 

Now that was one creepy character for sure.

 

I agree with everything Bob Salvatore said on this subject: Elfstones of Shannara was one of the best fantasy novels I've read and I can't wait to see Garret Jax in Wishsong.

 

Jax was a great character.

 

Yeah. I liked that he wrote names in a book of the people he killed

 

I read Sword and Elfstones when they first came out, and reread them about 3 years ago. Sword did not age well, but Elfstones is still very good. It's like Brooks took a course in creative writing between the two.

 

I think a lot of first novels are a pastiche of the author's biggest influence. As DarthLowBudget put it, Sword is basically Tolkien fanfiction. It's ham-fisted, but also likeable. The only other bit of Brooks I've read is his novelization of The Phantom Menace, which I enjoyed more than the movie, actually.

 

Well, yeah, The Sword of Shannara is basically a shorter Lord of the Rings (probably why I enjoyed it and not LOTR), but still stands on its own. However, Elfstones is a master-class in fantasy and Wishsong closes out that trilogy about as well as can be expected after writing something as good as Elfstones.

 

I read Elfstones when I was eighteen and studying abroad. Well, tried to, to be honest. I found it bland and derivative. I couldn't believe that "bestseller" tag that the cover proudly showed. When the best thing you I say about a novel is "hey, it reads like a D&D game"... it's just not worth my time.

I might give the MTV series (not movie) a chance, though,