The Sword of Shannara: The Druids' Keep: The Druids' Keep

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.

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.

So, that makes me a whopping 37 years old. I remember, clear as it was yesterday, begging my mother to buy this for me. Now, back in those days, $.$$ for a book for a 12 year old kid was a lot of money, and my mom made a deal with me - she'd buy it for me, and pay half, but I'd have to give her half my allowance each week to pay it off - a whopping 25 cents (so it took about 4 months to pay it off). Whether she was doubtful that I'd really read the book (length, subject matter, a 12 year old girl's attention span) or simply wanted to teach me that I'd value more the things I really wanted if I actually earned the money to pay for them, I'll never know. I do know that this was my absolutely favorite book in the whole wide world for years. I read it over and over, until it fell apart. In fact I was so upset, I wrote a letter to Random House explaining how I paid for the book and that I was devestated that it was so shoddily made that they actually sent me a new copy (I think the handwritten letter on pink stationary got to them). I read that one to pieces too. Eventually, my interest in the story waned - to me, the sequels never lived up to the story in the original, and I grew out of the whole sword and sorcery genre by my early twenties (although 15 years ago, when I found a clean copy on a remainder table for $.$$, I didn't hesitate to buy it - that second copy was missing pages). The book has been sitting in my bookcase, untouched for years - but since I just saw LOTR - The Two Towers this afternoon, and since SoS is really a pastiche of Tolkien's saga, I thought I'd see how it stands the test of time. Twenty pages in, and I'm as hooked as that 12 year old girl - don't know if its the whole nostalgia thing working. The original artwork by Tim and Gregory Hildebrandt (which was missing from the sequels) was a very powerful part of the experience (I still doodle the towers of Paranor in board [or should I say bored] meetings). This book made a very strong impression on me and after 25 years, it still holds up, as a well crafted story. I may even revisit the sequels and read the rest of the Shannara books - I think there are 10 or 12 of them now? Or maybe not - and let this be a special moment in time - to be that 12 year old girl who wanted to grow up and become Allanon.