Fantasy Book Club Series discussion

Apologies if disrupting etiquette of the group's discussions.

Reading Shannara for first time, and I'm aware of the widespread criticism for its similarity to LOTR. Lots of hate on GR about this (like venomous, mouth-frothing vitriol). At 100 pages in, it has a typical origin quest and a traditional structure, but I'm cool with the narrative so far. A magic sword/object and an enigmatic magic-wielder are widespread fantasy tropes, the brothers have a different situation and chemistry than Frodo and Sam, Leah bears no resemblance to Elrond or Beorn, so...what gives with the hate?

When I can basically predict exactly what will happen next in Shannara because I've already read LOTR, that's when I start to get annoyed. You'll see.

BUT I still liked the storytelling in spite of its near-plagiarism? So I do have plans to read the next 2 in the series

Shannara was the series that attracted me to fantasy as a genre, and I have to say, I loved it exactly *because* of its similarities to LOTR. At the time of its publication, I'm not sure how many other writers were producing epic fantasy of that type, although by the time I read it in the 90s, I think other writers had probably done more interesting things with the same tropes.

I do think the two sequels are a big improvement, though. Sword reads very much like a debut, but Brooks' style, and the depth of his world-building, seems to have developed immensely by the time he wrote The Elfstones of Shannara. It feels as though he was more confident at that point and more able to stick to his own ideas, rather than reaching to Tolkien for inspiration.

I haven't seen the vitriolic reviews of Sword, but I'm thinking I maybe don't want to. Shannara holds too much of a special place in my heart, even if it does feel a bit dated now!

It was my first fantasy read and I still love it.

While I did see a lot of similarities with LotR, I didn't really care. It did have enough differences and the book as a whole was fun.

The next two books get really different :)

The Sword of Shannara was one of the first epic fantasy books I read, so I honestly wasn't aware of most of its similarities to LOTR. I think that worked to my advantage, because I enjoyed the book as a whole. The later books (outside the original trilogy) have been spotty for me, but I think its a good recommendation for new fans of the genre.

There are definitely a lot of parallels to LOTR and even perhaps obvious stereotypes for fantasy characters and conflicts in general, but I think that happens a lot of fantasy novels. At first I didn't mind, then it got to the point where I was starting to agree with the bad GR reviews, and now I'm at a point where it's starting to get original--I hope it stays that way.

I read this many years ago (many, many) and really liked it. The similarity to LotR did not bother me. I thought Tokien's "voice" was more consistent and it took a bit for Brooks to develop his own voice and allow himself to waver from the totally traditional path.

I will confess that I have not reread the books for a long time but I plan to do so and continue the series through all the newer additions Brooks has written. Just not in time for this series read.

The criticism is understood but at the time this was written it was a bestseller. I've always thought that Brooks started well with this book and then improved with a number of his books. I do think Terry Brooks has had his ups and downs with later books/series that just never resonated with me while others did. It's still a thumbs up with me in spite of the LOTR similarities.