The Sword of Shannara

Rating:
Summary: An excelent read
Review: The start is slow moving but after the adventure starts it's hard to put the book down! It is most definitly just as goodif not better) than any book Tolkin has written.

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Summary: Reading-this book redefines it.
Review: I never have read a book in my entire life. Books are for nerds...So I thought. I finally gave into my best friend who kept on bugging me about reading. I would always tell him that reading was for nerds. I was not a nerd! He told me just to try it once just to humor him and then he would get off my back about it. We went to the library and he pulled out a book that he said he had read the entire trilogy 3 or 4 times. I have some weird friends I know. Anyway, I said ok. I just finished the book last night and I stayed up until 4 a.m. this morning reading the end of it, because my brain would not let my eyes or hands let go of it. I was in bookcontrollededness. If you don't just go and pick it up at a library and read the back of it at least, you will kick yourself when your dead because you will have all knowledge and you will know what the book could have been to you and now it is too late...HAHAHAHA

Rating:
Summary: The most actoin pact book that I have read in a long time.
Review: This book has good discription and lots of suspence. It is one of the best fantisy books I have read. I could not put it down. You would have to have a while to read because it is long but it is very good.

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Summary: whats with the Brooks bashing
Review: Ok, for all those that think Brooks is a rip off of tolkien dont know what they are talking about. Sure they are both fantasy's, and both adventure-quests, and both have am unwilling hero. Alannon and Gandalf are nothing alike. There are so many things that Brooks came up with that Tolkien didn't. Both are excellent authors. I am the most widely read reader of fantasy i know, ive read Brooks, Eddings, Fiest, Goodkind, Jordan, McCaffery, and many many others. i was surprised that one anti-brooks reviewer supported Goodkind while ripping on Brooks. I thought that Goodkind borrowed from both Brooks and Jordan. but does this mean that his books aren't any good? of course not, inspiration comes from reading the best in the field.

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Summary: One of the best fantasy authors today
Review: This book is excellent! a smoother read then Tolkien's books. This book is one of my favorite books. It draws you into the story, and the storyline is believable, but not predictable. I recomend this book to everyone. I also suggest The rest of the Shannara books, and also books by Raymond E. Fiest

Rating:
Summary: To be a kid again...
Review: Well, as Rich ([e-mail]) points out:

"I read both this and the Lord of the Rings series when I was 12, and I enjoyed this one book better than the LoTR series!"

This is 100% true, and a good indication of how this book is. If you are 12, you will probably like this book. If you are not, well, it's a toss-up. You'll enjoy this if you haven't read much decent fantasy - if you thought the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance books were good, you'll love this. If, however, you've read quite a bit of good fantasy, you'll likely find that this is more of the same, and not done very well at that.

Unless, of course, you are 12.

Rating:
Summary: If you open the cover, be prepared to read for hours!
Review: This book is a masterpiece of science-fiction! Once you open it, you won't be able to put it down. You'll be completely absorbed in the plot and happenings leading to the conclusion. You will grow to know the characters and understand their struggle. You'll find an wise, old mystic named Allanon leading a young boy, Shea, on a fantastic journey ending with a confrontation with evil itself.

Rating:
Summary: A good escape
Review: Oh, stop whining about the whole Tolkein thing. I read both this and the Lord of the Rings series when I was 12, and I enjoyed this one book better than the LoTR series!

Rating:
Summary: What can I say? I enjoyed this book.
Review: It's a great story, and it kept me entertained the whole seven hundred-something pages. I don't understand why some of the other "critics" said it was extremely boring, and even though I haven't read Tolkien a lot (just The Silmarillion), or any of the other writers they mention, I'd like to see them try to make a book like Sword of Shannara.

Rating:
Summary: 500 pages too long
Review: Yes, Terry Brooks tends to write been-there-done-that fantasy novels that are completely devoid of original ideas...that's fine. Sure, despite the pleas of the Brooks worshippers, The Sword of Shannara really *is* a transparent copy of The Lord of the Rings - don't try and deny it kids, it's far too obvious for any rational and intelligent person to ignore. Still, the Shannara books, especially the first one, could be entertaining...but they are not. Why? They are far, far too long, and not nearly interesting enough to remain readable over the span of 700 pages+. If these books were nice little 200 page works of, they would be far more tolerable than the encyclopedia sized works of copy-cat garbage that they are.