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.

a never ending parade of cliches. welll narated

To be fair I am writing this after 2 hours listenning and undecided wether or not to continue.
if you are a regular reader of fantasy then this story appears to be a collection of cliches. the author has a habit of using overly florid descriptions and the story routinely uses the 'amazing, miraculous, unexpected and unexplained escape' tool to extract the hapless heroes from the jaws of death or capture. I keep thinking 'oh crap the authors not going to.......' but he does.
The saving grace is that Scott Brick is narating, this guy can turn a shopping list into an enthralling yarn.
If you are new to this form of fantasy dive in and enjoy.
iI hope it improves as I try to get some value from buying it.

Just get on with the story

The story moves soooo slow. The author has to give every detail of the thoughts of every character. Suppose this..... Suppose that....

As a reader I can figure out what characters are thinking. Not everything needs explaining over and over and over.

Not listening to the next books.

The narrator is great.

A good book

This would be 3.5 stars if that were available. Its a great adventure with plenty of interesting characters. It has a thought provoking back story, that leads into a gripping tale. At times it felt a little too much like a condensed lord of the rings. That feeling had me looking forward to a continuation of the tale, but the next story in this trilogy is 2 generations later.

Entertaining - not so subtly shaped by Tolkien

Narrator did great with the material. While I do enjoy them - these Terry Brooks stories (and they're all very similar) have always seemed too blatant a copy of Tolkien's stuff with just enough changed to not get in trouble, but not enough changed to feel truly original.

Sword of Shannara - Unabridged

This audio book was well read with the proper level of emotion to add to the suspense of the story. Great job! I will be a long, repeat customer.

full of fantasy

the narrator was very good. it is kind of long. fore the most part I liked it

Fantastic! What an adventure!

I must say that the reading and performance by Scott Brick was spot on. It made the book even better. Anyone who has read or listen to Tolkien will enjoy this book. It is well written in glorious detail by Terry Brooks. If you like fantasy books, then it's a must read.

Love the Series!

I've always loved this series, I am not much into audio books, I prefer to read the books myself. There is nothing like holding a physical book, the sounds of the pages turning, the feel of the pages and the smell of the book....nothing better. I've read all but the last three books in the entire series, I've gotten all I can so far from Audible and plan to purchase all the hard bound books of this series. I have some but will start purchasing the ones I don't have soon.

It Could Have Been Good

I didnt finish this book due to the narration. Very disappointed. I returned it. Sad.

amazingly captivating

the reader did an awesome job bringing this book to life. this book was amazing.