The Sword of Shannara Trilogy

The book is old and yellow. It’s “acceptable” condition, not “good”. It had a price sticker of $2 on the cover. The price on this website is $18.02. Very disappointed with this order.

Had me captivated, I had to continue and I bought the next series!

I read this book for the first time in 1981 in bed with pneumonia in a small town north of London. I had read LOTR in Jr. High school and found it a good story that was hard to follow but cool. I think that that was the last time I tried to read a book for fun, (and being a lot older now I can read it for fun, but that's not the point) Even though the Ring series was considered cool back then, I'll bet most people who claimed to read it and enjoy it at least that I knew were exagerating. 10 years later, too sick to do anything else a friend lent me his copy of Sword of Shanara. It is not just chance that this book was instantly a best seller, and made fantasy a marketable genre and made "big books" the norm. This wonderful readable story filled with a readers quest to the metaphor, something that has been oft imitated but seldom duplicated. Since reading this story all those years ago, I try to read a book a week. That's how it starts, with a great story. So if you want to get someone to love books, start here!

When I first read the Sword of Shannara about 20 years ago, I was 13 years old and already a lover of fantasy. I had struggled through The Lord of the Rings but was not quite old enough to fully appreciate that saga. The Sword of Shannara was different story (heh). It was much easier to get into and enjoy than Tolkeins world, but that by no means is an indication of simplistic writting and plot. No, this was a heartfelt, intricate tale of sorcery, struggle and redemtion that kept me glued to it's pages until I finally turned the last one. This book transported me to a masterfully created world full of peril where heros I could related to fought against the forces of evil even when the odd were heavily againt them. It was a world of magic and mystery and my youthful imagination ate it up! Fantastic stuff for a young teen looking for a little escape from the pressures of school, friends and family. I went on to read more of Terry Brook's Shannara books, but the first will always be my favorite. The Elfstones and Wishsong were very good, but Mr. Brooks seemed to fall in a creative rut after those. I'm glad Elfstones and Wishsong are part of this tome, they are the core "Shannara" experience. The books to follow were enjoyable, Brooks could always create that sense of danger and suspence and the characters are fun to get to know, but in the end they seem to follow the same formula as the orginals. I have revisited this book a few times since that first reading and enjoyed it as much as that first time, though in different ways. I could go into detail about the characters and subplots and writting style and so on, but I think you would be much better served to pick up a copy and read it for yourself, and discover the wonder for yourself. This book made a huge impact on my life, and I hope it will on yours.

I have to say, I LOVE the hardback omni-edition. The weight of it satisfies something in my heart. I don't always replace my paperbacks with hardback books, but this one is a definite buy. The Shannara books hold a really special place in my heart. I used to teach ninth grade English. 25% of my grading system was based on each student's outside reading, and the writing they did about that outside reading. And you all know that the average 14 year old boy is going to categorically REFUSE to pick up a book, and so are a lot of the teenage girls. The Sword of Shannara was my "failsafe" deal. I would hand the most recalcitrant kid in my classes this enormously fat little book, brand new, purchased by me, and agree that if they would just read THIS ONE BOOK, that I was personally giving to them, that would be good enough for the WHOLE YEAR. Other kids would beg for the same deal. I would agree, but they had to buy their own books.Terry Brooks never failed me once. Every single kid I ever handed that book to (including my own siblings as teenagers!) not only read it, they kept reading Shannara books until they ran OUT of Shannara books. By then, they were hooked. I run into them from time to time, those former students, and the conversation invariably turns to 'what are you reading right now?' And the answer has never been nothing. It's ranged from the latest best sellers to Dante Aligheri's Commedia, from Mark Twain to Harlan Ellison, from TWOT to Star Trek. But there was always an answer.So what if Shannara's not LOTR? NOTHING IS! Hell, the TWOT isn't LOTR, and it's about 13 times longer at this point. I really don't believe it's possible to write fantasy, and not rewrite, at some level, LOTR. The point is, Terry Brooks wrote a fabulous book. A book that for 20 years (until HP1 was published) was unmatched in my experience for getting kids to read, and to keep reading. It's BRILLIANT.Because he wrote about fun, engaging characters, that talk in normal English (unlike Frodo, Aragorn and Gandalf, who admittedly take a little wading through at 14, hm?) High adventure. Loyal friends, and dangerous enemies. Ultimate sacrifice. All of it. I love it. And while LOTR is always ONE of the 3-4 I always have on my nightstand, at least once every couple of years, Shannara joins it there. As it deserves to.(And if the writing style seems a little immature, I suggest you go back and read "Carrie." It's not exactly "The Wastelands." All writers grow. Get a grip, there.)

Comparing Brooks to Tolkien, is like comparing Spielberg to Shakespeare. Of course there's going to be similarities when comparing a modern fantasy writer with a man who helped found an entire genre. I was not a fan of fantasy writing until reading Brooks' Sword of Shannara years ago. I can appreciate all that Tolkien has done for the genre, but at times I found his style meandering and wallowed in description. I instead found Brooks' Shannara series engaging, quick paced and his world just as realized. This is one of the best pieces of not just fantasy, but fiction of the last 25 years.

The Sword of Shannara came out in 1977, but I waited a whole year before a friend of mine challenged me to read what was (at the time) the largest book I had ever opened. I wasn't much of a reader at the time, but what little I did was mostly science fiction, and I didn't really have any kind of interest in fantasy whatsoever. However, it was a challenge I took, and one I am truly glad I accepted. This was the book that seriously hooked me on a lifetime of reading. It was JUST what I was looking for, but I didn't realize it until I started to read it. I will always love books, and Terry Brooks novels in particular, but if it weren't for his original novel, I'm not entirely sure I'd be a reader today.In the Sword of Shannara, we learn of Shea Ohmsford & his brother Flick in quiet Shady Vale in the Four Lands...an area virtually sheltered from the rest of the Country, and one where manifestations of dark magic rarely (if ever) come to light. But one day the peace that Shea & Flick have known all their lives is suddenly shattered when Allanon, last of the magical Druids stops to talk specifically to Shea about his bloodline and how he is the last of the Shannara line who can wield the fabled Sword of Shannara against the Warlock Lord. One of the reasons I LOVE this novel was the beginning where Allanon relates a great deal of history of the Four Lands and the creation of the Sword to destroy the former Druid, Brona. The story is quite detailed all without losing the urgency for the need of Shea to act quickly. Reluctantly Shea takes off on the adventure of a thousand lifetimes to help rid the world of the Warlock Lord on his quest to subjugate all within the Four Lands.The Elfstones is personally my favorite of all the fantastic Shannara novels. If you read the original Sword you know that the Elfstones were given to Shea Ohmsford, and subsequently passed on down until Wil Ohmsford now has them. Again Allanon makes an unscheduled surprising visit to convince young Wil that his help is absolutely VITAL to help in banishing the hordes of demons who are about to pour into the Four Lands. What many just don't realize is that the sacred tree, The Ellcry's was created thousands of years before by Elvin Magic to banish the demons behind a magical wall called the Forbidding. The Ellcrys is finally beginning to die out, and chooses one of its caretakers to go on a quest to restore it back to life...all with the help of Allanon and Wil Ohmsford and the Elfstones. This quest is simply fantastic. Allanon makes his most visible appearance in the Elfstones helping to lead an army of Elves against the onslaught of demons breaking free of the failing wall of the Forbidding into the Four Lands. The battle scenes are incredible and tremendously entertaining. Simply one of the greatest Fantasy stories in print in this, or any other generation.The Wishsong is mighty close to the Elfstones, but falls short by a tiny margin. Again a decendant of the