The Sword of Shannara

The Shannara Series, Book 1

By: Terry Brooks

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 26 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

The Sword of Shannara is the first volume of the classic series that has become one of the most popular fantasy tales of all time.

Long ago, the wars of the ancient Evil ruined the world. In peaceful Shady Vale, half-elfin Shea Ohmsford knows little of such troubles. But the supposedly dead Warlock Lord is plotting to destroy everything in his wake. The sole weapon against this Power of Darkness is the Sword of Shannara, which can be used only by a true heir of Shannara. On Shea, last of the bloodline, rests the hope of all the races.

Thus begins the enthralling Shannara epic, a spellbinding tale of adventure, magic, and myth.

©1977 Terry Brooks (P)2003 Books on Tape, Inc.

Flasback

I read this sometime in my past, likely in the 1980s where I gobbled up Terry Brooks books. Listening to it again, now 40 years later Was a joy. it’s interesting how our memory works, what we forget, what we remember.

Pretty good

**POSSIBLE SPOILERS****
Pretty good story referred to me by a co-worker.
I like a lot of the characters and how what magic there is is steeped in mystery. I definitely enjoyed the whole story but for how the main 2 characters just continued having 'lucky' breaks all the whole time as well as alot of problems having been VERY obvious to me before they became problems and were revealed as of they were big dramatic 'eureka' moments. Problems they faced that could have been avoided ENTIRELY. But honestly the only reason I docked a single star was because of all the parts in the story that screeeeam of lord of the rings. there was definitely a TON of inspiration in this story from LOTR. Which isn't a bad thing per say, just hard not to see that it's the same formula from beginning to end more or less.
Definitely worth the listen.

Get Ready to Escape from Reality.

Narrator killed it!!
I have 1 question, why did it take so long for
me to dive into this? Oh the wasted years!

Classic Work of fantasy

In this 1st shannara book You can Definitely see Fingerprints However Terry brooks Paints over them Well enough That you don't care Hi however I did not enjoy This narrator as well as I thought I would

Good adventure

Read this as a kids back in the 80’s. Still a good story and was read well.

Bad Narration of a Good Book

My biggest annoyance was the constant overly dramatic/snotty inflections that Scott Brick would put into each sentance, each word. I couldn't deal with it and often found myself ignoring the story altogether. I can't tell how many times I was forced to rewind and listen again because suddenly something of actual interest was happening, but I didn't know how we got there. I loved the series and have been reading the books faithfully starting from when I was a young girl. I also am a major fan of LOTR, and I didn't notice how similar the stories were when I was younger. It is interesting how many parallels there are between the books, but it was meant to be the first of a long series of stories. The characters change and the narratives evolve and you grow attached to the story line. I am sad to see that many of the unabridged versions are read by Brick because I really want to listen to them, but I'm not sure I can stomach any more of his nauseating accents and unnecessary inflections. The narrative is enough to let me know that something important is happening, I don't need him raising his voice and acting like a bad rendition of shakespearian play to tell me this. I'm sorry to be ragging on him this much, but it was bad! I wish that they had used multiple voices, like the Phillip Pullman series (excellent excellent excellent!) to narrate. It gives it so much more depth. Luckily for this novel, all of the main characters are men, so at least he has that going for him. Bottom line here is that you really have to be a former fan of the Shannara series to deal with the Scott Brick audio book format. I would suggest newcomers read the book rather than listening.

An overpriced old favorite

Like many others I read the Sword of Shannara and the subsequent books in the series many years ago and was happy to see it available in audio format. I have no problems with the similarities of this story to other works of fantasy because there are enough differences in the overall world created by Terry Brooks for this work to stand on it's own merit.

For certain this is typical fantasy fare, the struggle of a heretofore ordinary individual thrust into fighting against the threat of an eternal evil. Scott Brick is an excellent narrator and I am fine with his representation of the characters. I never expected him to present them to me they way I created them in my head so many years ago and his efforts on this series are typical of his work. What I am not fine with is the fact that this book is nothing extraordinary yet it costs twice as many credits as many far superior works of fantasy.

I actualy enjoyed the next 2 books in the series more than this one because after this book Terry Brooks takes things in a more unique direction and those stories are more original. The Elfstones of Shannara for 1 credit is a much better offering than this book for two.

My advice - pick up two better fantasy books for your 2 credits instead of just this one. I am glad that picking up this book allowed me to spend more time with Shea and Allanon; however, if I did not have the bias of my fond memory of reading this book from long ago then I would not feel like those were 2 credits well spent.

Excellent listen!

Although some think this is a blatant plagiarism of Tolkien, it is an excellent series. I believe that Brooks did read the LOTR series, and wanted to tell an interesting story that more people could follow. It is similar to LOTR, but an interesting and slightly different story in itself. Definitely worth a listen to, if at least to get the history, so you can listen to the rest of the Shannara series. The reader is great with each of the voices, and I stayed excited throughout the book!

A fun adventure.

O.K, so Brooks isn't Tolkien, but I thought it was worth buying again after 22 years. Its a fun fantasy adventure and I plan on buying more of Brooks work.

very engaging story well presented.

using 1 1/2 speed shortens the time required quite a bit yet doesn't detract from the story