Rating: 
Summary: THE BEST EVER!
Review: This is the best book I have ever read! It is filled with magic, sorcery, distant lands and most of all excitment!.The book centers on getting a magic sword that has been hidden in an ancient druid's keep for hundreds of years. The main charcters must face many hardships and tradgedies before the quest is over. They must deal with getting separated the dark lord's minions and many other problems. In the final confrontation the boy born to destroy the dark lord must face him alone armed with a sword that he knows nothing about, a sword called, The Sword of Truth.The secret of the sword is not allowing anyone to hide secrets from themselves that have been locked away. Once the sword touches you, you realize who you really are. This is exactly what happens to the dark lord who has a terrible secret hidden away from himself. I won't tell you anymore just that it is a superb book and that it finshes the quest so you don't have to go buy the next book and after that another book. Terry Brooks,however, is such a good writer you'll buy every book he writes . If you are not yet hooked on fantasy books, read this one and you'll be reading every one you can! Although no one writes as well as Terry Brooks. SIX CHEERS FOR THE BEST TERRY BROOKS
Rating: 
Summary: Unless you are a fantasy genre zombie or newly literate...
Review: ..you are not going to like this book. Most of the people who read and like this book are people who usually don't read books, people who only read fantasy type books, or teenagers [or people who read it when they were teenagers]. I have been disperately searching for some high quality fantasy books ever since I read J.R.R Tolkien. I have tired several highly recommended names including terry brooks but the fantasy genre is much like the romance and mystery novel genre. A vast waste land of garbage dime novels and stock authors. Even amoung the better writers not one has taken traditional fantasy [wizards, elves, dragons, etc] as serious as tolkien and like wise no one has written a novel that even compares. If you like reading tales of imaginative lands, intricate charactors, interesting plots, and good writing abandon Shanara [and most of the fantasy genre.] The sword of shanara: The charactors come off as being incredibly 1 demensional and comic-booky. Brooks will describe them in the narative as noble, wise, implusive, etc but they will show no signs of this in their actions in the story. The plot besides the obvious critizism of being a pale blueprint of tolkiens is ridiculous. The storyline is a series of hit and miss attempts at adventures. The episodes are rarely interesting and lack interesting settings and charactor interactions. Its less interesting then a randomly generated Role playing game. You rarely care what is happening or want happens next. You will find yourself only reading to get through it. Over all, like many fantasy books, it seems that very little thought or care is put into storyline, charactors development, or description. Its seems to be enough for brooks that he is writing the book, mentioning the charactors, their weapons, clothing, and the exisitance of non-human creatures as charactors. Brooks as well as many other well known fantasy authors seem to believe that the same skills required to produce away interest work of fiction is not nessesarily for the fantasy genre. They believe we are all unimagginative 15 year olds.
Rating:
Summary: Low Quality Tolkien rip-off
Review: This book could almost be labeled as plagiarism, its plot is a complete rip-off of the Lord of the Rings. However, it completely lacks the majesty, creativity and beauty of the Rings series. That being said, if you have read and re-read Tolkien and are desperate, it can at least serve as a 'clean' filler reading.
Rating:
Summary: The start of the best fantasy series I ever read
Review: The sword of shannara is the first book in a 3 (expanded to 7) book series. The entire series is extraordinary. As I read each book, it just kept getting better and better. With that said, this first book was a difficult one to get through. The main characters do a great deal of travelling from place to place in order to accomplish their primary task (find the sword of shannara). The sword has magical qualities (undefined at the time of the search) that are essential for the crisis at hand. Terry Brooks spends a great deal of time describing each location. He has an elaborate attention to detail. However, while i did not appreciate this at first, I got used to his writing style and in future books, I wanted him to go on forever. This book is a "MUST", as are all of the books in this series. You will be greatly rewarded (in the enjoyment you will get) for the time you spend reading it. As I said before, each subsequent book gets better and better. You will stay awake at night, trying to read for as long as you can.
Rating:
Summary: AWESOME!
Review: I believe that this book has a very original story and is very interesting. The characters are very real and there are many details that help the imagination come alive. I wish that the author would do a follow up book to this book, telling what happens in the lives of the characters from this book: Balinor, Menion, Flick, Shea, Durin, Dayel, and Shirl. This is a great read and anyone, even someone who doesn't like fantasy, could get hooked!
Rating: 
Summary: The 'Original' Tolkien Ripoff
Review: Don't knock it - he proved with this book that there was a market for heroic fantasy, even if it was a cut or three below Tolkien. Honestly, it's just LOTR warmed over and served with catsup, but at least he got off his tail and wrote it. Every time you read some big-mama doorstopper of a fantasy book, you owe this guy a big shout-out for creating the 'fantasy' department. And it's not bad, just not original. He got better, if not more original, as he went along, and there's a lot of good stuff here. But as a Wizard myself, I rate his Warlock Lord as a 4th-degree Wimpoid, and I use Skull Bearers as my pool boys because they're too dumb to make good emissaries.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent reading
Review: Overall, I found the book to be very fast-paced and enjoyable. After having read a host of books by other authors, I must admit that I did find the plot to be slightly simplistic. Given when this book was written and the fact that this book was one of the first novels to emerge in the Fantasy genre, I guess it should be expected. If you are looking for an epic fantasy novel, you might be well served to look to the fantasy mastery of Tolkien, Eddings, Feist or the like. But, if you are looking for an excellent standalone adventure that doesn't get bogged down in the details, then this novel is an outstanding choice that should please any reader.
Rating: 
Summary: The book isn't THAT bad ...
Review: but it comes pretty close. Although the book is interesting, I am utterly DISGUSTED at how much it resembles "Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien. I am truly a huge fan of the works of Tolkien, and this book is beyond mere comparison. Change a couple names, delete a situation or two, and you HAVE a copy of "Lord of the Rings" in front of you, almost. If you want to read a book like this, read "Lord of the Rings." It is much better, although very much like "Sword of Shannara" (but LoTR was written first.)
Rating:
Summary: Best Trilogy and series ever to be read
Review: Terry Brooks was the first fantasy author I ever read. I have to say out of all the others that I have read, he comes back as being the best. His Sahnnara books are great. The characters come to life in your mind and it's almost like your watching a movie. The fact that his books are fairly long even adds to the story because then it gives you the feeling like the story will never end. Which in most cases when your reading this series you don't want the story to stop. In closing I have to say that if you ever get a chance to read a Shannara novel.... DO IT! You won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Another Soul Enters the Land of Terry Brooks
Review: This is the first book of Terry Brooks that I have read. I really enjoyed it and found the plot addicting. The battle of Good and Evil, or should I say the battle that each person has within themselves makes this book hit home. I did not turn on my TV set for a week (if nothing else..that makes it worthwile)! I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to go on a mythical journey with charecters that will bring a smile to your face and have you on the edge of your seat while you anxiously ready your finger to flip to the next page! I look forward to reading the rest of the series and other books that Terry writes.
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