Scan barcode
A review by billymac1962
The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks
2.0
I'm afraid I have to throw in the towel on this one.
This review was supposed to begin with a fun story about how I had run into a geeky night school classmate in the grocery store over 30 years ago and, noticing I had a bag of books I had just bought, went on and on and on about the Shannara series. And how, over 30 years later, I decided to finally try Sword of Shannara.
I had read all the knocks about Brooks' novel being similar in some ways to Lord of the Rings, but that didn't sway me. Heck, you could blame any fantasy writer for borrowing on some of those themes. It's like blaming every mystery writer for ripping off Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
What did encourage me to read Brooks was that although Sword of Shannara had some faults, the rest of his trilogy is reportedly far superior.
So I thought I'd barge through this one since I really needed a change and wanted to get some fun escapism into a rich fantasy world.
For the first couple of hundred pages or so, I was really liking this and I was finding the slams on Brooks to be unfair. There was enough of his own ideas and to be honest, my reading experience was easier compared to LOTR all those years ago.
It was into the 400s that my momentum stalled. It was getting terribly monotonous with the travelling (something I had also had to force myself through in LOTR), and I found the writing was becoming dull. There were brief exchanges of dialogue which were reliefs but dull narrative would take over again.
Finally, looking at page 468 with the prospect of almost 300 pages yet to go, I have decided that I have had enough. My excitement and interest has worn out and I'm just tired.
I will look for a synopsis online of what happened.
I did have low expectations, so no major disappointment. When I get the old school fantasy urge again I may pick up the next book.
This review was supposed to begin with a fun story about how I had run into a geeky night school classmate in the grocery store over 30 years ago and, noticing I had a bag of books I had just bought, went on and on and on about the Shannara series. And how, over 30 years later, I decided to finally try Sword of Shannara.
I had read all the knocks about Brooks' novel being similar in some ways to Lord of the Rings, but that didn't sway me. Heck, you could blame any fantasy writer for borrowing on some of those themes. It's like blaming every mystery writer for ripping off Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
What did encourage me to read Brooks was that although Sword of Shannara had some faults, the rest of his trilogy is reportedly far superior.
So I thought I'd barge through this one since I really needed a change and wanted to get some fun escapism into a rich fantasy world.
For the first couple of hundred pages or so, I was really liking this and I was finding the slams on Brooks to be unfair. There was enough of his own ideas and to be honest, my reading experience was easier compared to LOTR all those years ago.
It was into the 400s that my momentum stalled. It was getting terribly monotonous with the travelling (something I had also had to force myself through in LOTR), and I found the writing was becoming dull. There were brief exchanges of dialogue which were reliefs but dull narrative would take over again.
Finally, looking at page 468 with the prospect of almost 300 pages yet to go, I have decided that I have had enough. My excitement and interest has worn out and I'm just tired.
I will look for a synopsis online of what happened.
I did have low expectations, so no major disappointment. When I get the old school fantasy urge again I may pick up the next book.