The Sword of Shannara: In the Shadow of the Warlock Lord: In the Shadow of the Warlock Lord

Shea Ohmsford is a young man content with life in his little village of Shady Vale. Until Allanon, a Druid, comes along and tells Shea of his ancestors. Shea is an elf, a royal Shannaran. The Four Lands are endangered by the Warlock Lord, a Druid that has refused to partake in the Druid's Sleep. Shea Ohmsford is the only direct descendent of the Shannara house left, therefore the only one left able to defeat the Warlock Lord. The Sword of Shannara is the one true weapon that can overwhelm the Warlock Lord. But where is it? Shea, Flick (Shea's Brother), Allanon, and others journey on a perilous escapade, from which is likely to be fatal to them all. The question haunting everyone's thoughts is will they survive!?!?!? The novel The Sword of Shannara is a suspenseful fantasy, one that kept me hanging on the edge of my seat. When I took up The Sword of Shannara, it was nearly impossible to lie down. Once I was engaged, I had to keep reading, on, and on, until the book was over. Then, after that, I was a lion, craving more of Shannara, and more, and more, until I was a ravenous beast waiting for the book currently being printed by Terry Brooks to be published. The Shannara sagas are vastly addicting, captivating more and more innocent inhabitants and turning them into voracious readers, greedy for more, doing anything and everything to discover further knowledge of the chronicles of Shannara.

With all due respect, Tolkien is no inventor of fantasy genre. And the entire concept of some commoner from remote village finding himself in the midst of strange events that shatter his lifestyle and set him on the road to becoming a hero is a LOT older than LoTR. Tolkien himself borrowed a great deal from old folk lore. Go read Beowulf, or Kalevala, or various old fairy tales. Most fantasy works have certain parallels, especially if one specifically goes looking for them. There if often a common-guy become hero, some good friends to keep him company, a powerful artifact or two, a menacing villain with a host of horrible agents, out to take over the world, a wise stranger who appears and warns the hero just before the bad guys show up - so they don't catch the hero with pants down. A capable fighter or two, to take care of physical dangers until hero learns to swing a sword. The journey is likely to involve a lot of unpleasant places where no sane person would go willingly - gloomy caves, haunted ruins, mountains, wastelands, fetid swamps and so on. If getting to the lair of absolute evil involved a pleasant stroll through a grassy meadow, the story would not be as interesting. And the fact that Tolkien put his characters through all these settings does not mean they are now off limits to everyone else. I have read and greatly enjoyed pretty much all of Tolkien's works, and Brooks work is about as much a rip-off as works by Jordan, Eddings, Feist, Stackpole, and many others. As much as Chevrolet or Chrysler are rips-off of Ford. (Hey they also have four wheels, a trunk, a hood, an engine that runs on gas, side mirrors, bumpers, etc!!! Ford fans should be all OUTRAGED!) What sets the Shannara series apart is the heavy focus on the internal struggle. In Lord of the Rings, the fellowship has a precise idea of what they are up against, and what has to be done. The obstacles are more of an external kind. In Brooks books, the greatest battle each character faces, is with their own internal demons. Frodo knows that if he reaches Mount Doom and throws the Ring into the fire, Sauron's power will be broken. There is no question about the power of the Ring, no doubt about the validity of the quest should it succeed. Shea Ohmsford, on the other hand, goes into Skull Kingdom with a sword that looks nothing out of the ordinary, not having a faintest idea how should it be used to defeat Warlock Lord - in fact, having only Allanon's word that it will. This uncertainty, this doubt is a far greater adversary than any other on his way. My advice: go ahead and read the book as it is. Don't try to compare it. There are enough lawyers in this world already, no need try being one yourself.

To me this book was an almost unbelievable rip off of the Lord of the Rings series... reading about Terry Brooks he even says that he was influenced by Tolkien in his younger days. That being said, if you can tough it out through this book, ALL of the other Shannara books and series are well worth reading. There are some direct parallels and some original ideas, it wasn't quite all a copy of Lord of the Rings... The writing is good, though maybe a bit unoriginal. This was my least favorite Shannara series book just because it seemed to be such a ripoff of Tolkien. I still enjoyed the book and would recommend it, just be warned that it is similar to LOTR. It does set the stage for the other books in this series and the other Shannara series books, and is worth reading just for that. None of those are anything like Lord of the Rings and Terry Brooks' creativity shines through in those. I also went on to read the Magic Kingdom of Landover series which are also good.

If strong character parallels to Lord of the Rings are likely to upset you, I would beg you to accept or compartmentalize that before not reading this piece at all. This is a hell of a story. In its content, Brooks follows in detail what his characters do, think, and feel rather than the more epic style of narrating their role in events. The isolation and darkness achieved by this approach makes The Sword a powerful, emotional success that's hard to pull off in a work of fantasy.

I first read this book when I was in fourth grade. I enjoyed it very much then; and, despite the fact that the author borrowed the story from Lord of the Rings, I still enjoy it.The similarities between Shannara and LOTR are obvious: Allanon/Gandalf, Shea/Frodo, Flick/Sam, Balinor/Aragorn, Hendel/Gimli, Warlock Lord/Sauron, Palance/Theoden, Stenmin/Wormtongue & Saruman, Tyrsis/Minas Tirith & Helm's Deep, Storlock/Lothlorien, Culhaven/Rivendell, Skull Bearers/Nazgul, the Shady Vale/the Shire, the Hall of Kings/the Mines of Moria, and many others.The story begins in the Shady Vale, where men have dwelt in peace and prosperity for generations. When a mysterious stranger suddenly arrives, that peace is shattered for Shea and his brother Flick. For Shea discovers that he is the last of a line of kings and only he has the power to wield the ancient weapon that can destroy a great evil seeking to conquer the land.Despite the carbon copy plot, this novel is very well written. The story does not lag, and there is no profanity. Character development is excellent, and characters unforgetable. Battles are easy to follow and not too bloody. I recommend this book for adults and children alike. The length of the book may be intimidating (726 pages), but it is worth the time to read it.