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.

Wonderful!

This is a classic. I'm so pleased its been released at last in unabridged format: When Flick Ohmsford and his brother Shea are visited by the mysterious druid Allanon, their lives change for the worse, as they are hunted across the country by the minions of the evil arch druid and his skull-bearing horde of undead.

While many of the elements in this first book in particular, remind me a bit of Tolkein's classic work, the books have plenty of fun characters. I also really liked the narrator's voice. He did an excellent job! A++++

fellowship of the sword

while listening, i couldn't stop thinking of lord of the rings. the first half of the book looks like fellowship of the ring, and the second half like the two towers and the return of the king... all in all... a good book, but doesn't seem a new story

Not really suited for audio format

What did you like best about The Sword of Shannara? What did you like least?

I enjoyed the scope of the world, and the ambiguity of how magic works the most in this book. What kept me from enjoying the story fully was how glacial and repetitive the writing became.

Would you ever listen to anything by Terry Brooks again?

I doubt that I will listen to more written by Terry Brooks. The Scott Brick deserves so much credit for turning something cumbersome and slow into a tolerable read.

What does Scott Brick bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Brick's ability to convey the range of emotion needed to connect with some of the characters was vital to making this read through possible.

Any additional comments?

I believe that this is Terry Brooks' first published novel, and unfortunately it shows. The plot moves at a snail's pace, and also suffered from unnecessary repetitions of both character situation and character exposition. By the end of the novel, I was at a point where I could no longer take the seemingly endless repetitions, and skipped forward in the performance. I resumed play mid-conclusion and I didn't care enough about how the fight between protagonist and antagonist began to rewind the audio for fear of more of the dreaded repetition. Brick's performance was incredibly solid throughout the story, and it was the only thing that kept me invested in the book past the second chapter. When I read this book for the first time 20 years ago, I remember it as an epic fantasy that pulled me along like a fallen leaf on a stream. Unfortunately, time has changed my taste in fiction and writing style.

very boring

author had so many deus ex machina that there's no way the story could have been saved without them. so much exposition that wasn't necessary we could have been told through one of the characters. the authors reading was so monotone I would frequently lose interest in the story and have to rewind it

Not very original

I have to say that I am really surprised.
Being such a well known series/author I expected the story to have original characters and storyline. unfortunately this is just a rip off of Lord of the Ring.

Meh...

This books is filled with adverbs and over-writing. It lacks nuance in action and emotion. Everything is written to the superfluous even if it a simple thing.
There is no real story. It focuses on going from one battle to the next in one cliche setting to another.

it isn't​horrible thanks to the performance.

I will not be continuing the series. I don't care about the characters or the world. It was never developed.

Painful

One of the few books that could benefit from being a bridge or at least having a good editor most of my concerns have already been mentioned - but I have to add my support to the complaints about the endless pondering, reminiscences, and extended description that add nothing to the story not to mention every noun having at least one adjective - All this led to a story that moved at a snails pace And given that the story was predictable, no surprises here it feels kind of like a term paper where the author didn’t have that much to say but had to meet a word count requirement so added a lot of filler material

ok for ten year olds

complete rip of the hobbit and very predictable. i guess i was disappointed. free would be a good price.

Decent fantasy story, but it drones on and on

Keeping in mind the book was written in the 70s, and that many things I've read since this initial publication has taken its liberties from this and other similar books, I give it a pass.
The storytelling is very bogged down with too much description and not enough substance. I can't remember how many times I rolled my eyes saying to myself, "get on with our already!"
I compare it to someone who has a great idea for a story, but when they finish writing it, they are short about 10,000 words. Instead of writing more material, they go back and fill out paragraph after paragraph with extra words and sentences to describe again everything we already know because it was already explained three times before. But just incase you missed it, let me tell you again.

A Hasty Click

When I first saw the rating people were giving this book I was confused and a little upset (and down right angry that some reviews were accussing a good author of plagurizm). As a teenager this was my favorite book to read. Based on what I remebered from my readings I immediately clicked 5 stars as my rating.
Then I downloaded and listened to the book.The narrattor is awful,
he has no range for characters,making them all sound alike, and his voice is very bland. Also as the book went along I started to notice some of the similarities to Lord of the Rings that I never would have picked out reading the book. Another thing that really started to annoy me was how wordy every little action had to be, and alot of it was nonsense. It was really annoying when the author would have a character thinking something that he couldn't possibly know and then having the narrator accent it in an manner that makes you want to throttle him.
I don't think the book would be a bad listen if there was a narrattor like Roy De'trice from A song of Ice and Fire books,but until that happens I wouldn't suggest this listen to anyone.