I have read most the reviews of this book and have had enough. I believe all of you people who have given this a bad review need a wake-up call. The Sword of Shannara has much in common with LOTR, believe me I can see it. But what fantasy series doesn't owe it's concepts to Tolkien and LOTR. If you know some tell me. If it is about a quest against evil it is a book borrowing Tolkien's concepts. Some of you may not know this (or may not care and blindly review this book before knowing the whole story) but Terry Brooks didn't set out to write fantasy. It was just what the end product came to be. He wanted to write a story about a family (the Ohmsfords) and their trials. So he merged Tolkien's concepts with his own family story concepts and came back with The Sword of Shannara. The whole series is about this family. Yes, it is set in a world peopled with Tolkienesque races but doesn't anyone care to look at the bigger picture. As many of the "real" fans may know The Four Lands is our world. It is our world after a great holocaust, a great apocalypse (read Word & Void for a big clue and The Druid of Shannara has many refrences to our world). That's right, in essence the Shannara books are post apocalyptic tales. But maybe all of you have missed that, hmm. You want a big clue, when you read Antrax (The Voyage of Jerle Shannara, Book Two), there is the biggest clue of technology. Even in this book there is a part when Shea and his group fight a creature and they are surrounded by metal structures. If this was a dark ages type setting there would be no metal structures. They wouldn't have the techonology to build with metal. But maybe you overlooked that. All this will become even more apparent next year when the first in a new trilogy begins to fill the gaps between Word & Void and Shannara. Was LOTR a post apocalyptic story (I don't think so). Another thing, Tolkien was not original. His races and all of his concepts were borrowed from different cultures. Elf is a German legend. Dwarves are Viking lore. And LOTR wasn't even the story he wanted to write. He started writing The Silmarillion first. LOTR was a story he wrote so that England would have their own legends, their own lore. And the books went unnoticed for decades until some hippie in the sixties picked up the book. Tolkien is the grandfather of modern fantasy but he is not God. Now, on to the subject of parallels. Some have compared Shea and Flick to Frodo and Sam. Wrong. For one thing Shea isn't even a Ohmsford and he is a halfling (part elf). Flick is human even though his stature may say otherwise. Allanon is nothing like Gandalf. If he gets killed he isn't coming back. Also he isn't as all powerful as Gandalf. Magic actually has consequences in this world. And he isn't old looking, he is quite young looking given his age. Menion is as little like Aragorn as apples are to oranges. For one thing he isn't that brave. Hendel is like Gimli, you guys get that one. But what Dwarf isn't, they are all the same. The Skull Bearers are not really like anything in my opinion. They fly and there are a lot of them. The Warlock Lord is very different then Sauron because he is not just a presense, he is very, very real. One reviewer made some comment as to say that he needs the sword to become whole again. Obviously you didn't read the book that well. He wants the sword so he can destroy it, knowing it is the only thing that can destroy him. In LOTR the One Ring gives Sauron his power and he wants it so he can be whole. Completely different, or maybe you missed that. Lastly, Terry Brooks' writing is not sloppy and a lot better than some authors. He isn't long winded and gets to the point. If I want essays I'll read Shakepeare or I'll read Dickens. No, I want a story. Not a preachy soapbox (Sword of Truth series) and not a long dragged out series that never ends (The Wheel of Time series). Each new book is a new adventure and not the same as everything before. So there I have said my peace and am done with it. You people can go on reading this book as a Tolkien rip off or read as its own book and on its own merit.
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