Terry Brooks

[Werthead]

Somebody take away his typewriter before he gets to great-grandchildren of Shannara.

I think about 300-400 years have passed in the books, so he's way past that point now.

[Suttree]

As Lin Carter once said:

"the single most cold-blooded, complete rip-off of another book that I have ever read". Elaborating on his disapproval of the book, Carter wrote that "Terry Brooks wasn't trying to imitate Tolkien's prose, just steal his story line and complete cast of characters, and [brooks] did it with such clumsiness and so heavy-handedly, that he virtually rubbed your nose in it."

[flinn]

I started reading the Shannara series when I was around 14 and I enjoyed it much more than I did LoTR.

That may be blasphemy but as a young reader I had a hard time bonding with the hobbits. While it was blatantly obvious what a rip-off of LoTR it was, I was more attached to the Shannara characters.

[Darth Richard]

Think of it like this, people say Eragon is a rip off of LOTR and STar Wars. What does that make Shannara?

I'll pop in on this one. The difference is Brooks has acknowledged it's a LotR rip off, and has never, to me knowledge, compared himself to Beowulf or Tolkien. Also I;ve met him in real life, and he's a nice guy, as opposed to some snotty kid who has no idea how much he sucks.

[Elessar]

I used to be a huge Brooks fan in middle school (early 90's) but his books got shorter and shorter to the point where a trilogy wouldn't even fill one of Martin's books. I've met him several times and he's a decent chap but he lets that douche-bag Shawn Speakman do far too much speaking on his behalf. Speakman is a no talent joke. I've read all of Brooks' stuff however as The Four Lands still reminds me of my childhood but nothing touches Elfstones, Wishsong and First King. Also he should've left the Word/Void trilogy on it's own but decided to give in to fans and connect them to Shannara. I will not be surprised if he ends up tying Landover to Shannara eventually, at which point it will be certain that he's just writing to ay the bills (highly suspect that's the case now anyway).

[Centrist Simon Steele]

I loved the Sword of Shanara in 7th grade, and it got me hooked on epic fantasy. I hadn't read Tolkien yet though. I thought the characters were so cool. Balinor the prince of a kingdom who ran off to fight in a merry band of adventurers, Hendel the gruff but reliable dwarf, Durin and Dale the elvin twins who were also bow and arrow sharpshooters, Menion Leah, another prince of a smaller kingdom who was a rogue, scamp, and downright loveable, Allanon the sorcerer (druid) who comes to the small vale of halflings to warn Shea he is the only one who can defeat the great evil brewing in the north. Haha, good stuff. Oh, and of course the mighty duo of the Han Solo like rogue--Panamon Creel and his hairy wookie (troll) sidekick Kelset.

Elfstones of course wasn't a ripoff like Sword, and it has some really cool stuff including three demon villains--Dagda Mor, the Reaper, and the Changeling who all were pretty badass.

I tried reading some Brooks lately (his voyage of the Jerle Shannara stuff) but found it unispired and a ripoff of himself. But as a kid it brought me much joy and many late nights.

The second book in that trilogy--Antrax reminded me of the villain from Superman III, the half underground, half overground robotic monstrosity that killed and maimed the heroic party of the four lands, converting some of them into cyborgs. Crazy shit, taking that weird scifi left turn forcing swords and sorcery to clash with a robotic nemesis. It sounds fun, but really isn't.

Also each book has the same characters just renamed, so if you like those original archetypes I mentioned above, well they keep showing up again and again in the forms of their great grandchildren.

Who would have thought the one handed Panamon Creel would have a great grandson someday who also had one hand (and also replaced his stump with a deadly "pike" as a weapon)? Brilliant!

[Darth Richard]

Eh. Sword can't be a Star Wars rip off, it was published at the same time.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

Eh. Sword can't be a Star Wars rip off, it was published at the same time.

Sure but Panamon Creel and Kelset were still similar to Han and Chewy. I don't mean it as a dig against Brooks, just a fond memory I suppose.

[Shryke]

I'm reading the wiki on these to remind myself of the plot and holy shit:

Disguised by Allanon, Flick infiltrated the enemy camp and rescued the captive Elven King, Eventine Elessedil;

Jesus Christ Terry, are you trying to get sued?

[Blede]

Well, as others have said, The Sword of Shannara is a blatant LoTR ripoff, the father of all LoTR ripoffs actually. It gets better with Elfstones and Wishsong, though Wishsong looks dangerously like a D&D adventure, like all "fellowship stories" tend to do (not that I don't like them, as I currently am a DM in one). The subsequent series (Heritage of Shannara, Voyage of the Jerle Shannara, High Druid of Shannara) are worse, though still not outright bad I think.

I liked the Word and Void trilogy, they were my first (and only as of now) urban fantasy books I ever read. The Genesis series is somewhat interesting. I really liked the Legends of Shannara series, its tiny bit of political intrigue was a refreshing change (and it got me into ASoIaF, I will forever be grateful for that).

The best of Brooks is the Landover series though, in my opinion. It's very light-hearted, but still serious when it needs it. You should really read it.

[Spaßvogel]

Read the first trilogy. They're fine. 80% of the genre ripped off Tolkein until until the 90s. You're not going to avoid LOTR derivatives if you explore the whole genre canon.

[Myshkin]

Read the first trilogy. They're fine. 80% of the genre ripped off Tolkein until until the 90s. You're not going to avoid LOTR derivatives if you explore the whole genre canon.

The difference is that Sword of Shannara is not simply derivative of LotR, it is a scene-for-scene copy.

[Werthead]

Read the first trilogy. They're fine. 80% of the genre ripped off Tolkein until until the 90s. You're not going to avoid LOTR derivatives if you explore the whole genre canon.

I'm not sure that's entirely true. Memory, Sorrow and Thorn has some similarities but there's also a lot of revisionist criticism of LotR as well in it. Donaldson went in a totally different direction. Feist had a very different world and storyline (and similar elements, like the elves and dwarves, were pretty much dropped as the series continued). Even Eddings was pretty different (though still very cliched). Jordan went in a different direction after his first novel. Weis & Hickman and Salvatore had different focuses and storylines. Cook and Gemmell were also very different to Tolkien.

Aside from Brooks, the only author who really comes off as outrageously ripping Tolkien is Dennis L. McKiernan. Beyond them I'm not sure there's very many out there. The perception is different to the reality.

The Sword of Shannara is pretty poor and even the author has, if not disowned, certainly criticised it heavily. I think criticism of Brooks can be made on more grounds than just, "His first book ripped off LotR,".

[Elessar]

Who would have thought the one handed Panamon Creel would have a great grandson someday who also had one hand (and also replaced his stump with a deadly "pike" as a weapon)? Brilliant!

If you're talking about Padishar Creel you're mistaken. He had both hands. When he was trying to get Par to guess who he was though, he mimed the one hand-pike-stump thing though. God, I remember way to much about this stuff. Used to be hooked on Shannara though, long ago.

[MisterOJ]

The difference is that Sword of Shannara is not simply derivative of LotR, it is a scene-for-scene copy.

Is it? I haven't read it in over 20 years, and I read it a few years before LotR, but I don't recall thinking that. There's a lot of similarities, but I don't think it was a copy. Are you sure you're not confusing it with McKiernan? His Iron Tower really was more like a copy of LotR.

[The Marquis de Leech]

Is it? I haven't read it in over 20 years, and I read it a few years before LotR, but I don't recall thinking that. There's a lot of similarities, but I don't think it was a copy. Are you sure you're not confusing it with McKiernan? His Iron Tower really was more like a copy of LotR.

There are carbon copies of Gandalf, Frodo, Sam, Gollum, Wormtongue, Tom Bombadil, and the Nazgul, and pretty suspicious copies of Sauron, Shelob, and Aragorn. There are copies of the Shire, Moria, Minas Tirith, and Mordor. The Fellowship gets split up, with one lot fighting the 'war', and the other lot focussing on the Dark Lord. And that's even before taking into account some of the names.

[MisterOJ]

There are carbon copies of Gandalf, Frodo, Sam, Gollum, Wormtongue, Tom Bombadil, and the Nazgul, and pretty suspicious copies of Sauron, Shelob, and Aragorn. There are copies of the Shire, Moria, Minas Tirith, and Mordor. The Fellowship gets split up, with one lot fighting the 'war', and the other lot focussing on the Dark Lord. And that's even before taking into account some of the names.

Yeah, I know there are those similarities, but I was talking about actual scenes that seemed the same. I can recall several scenes from the Iron Tower trilogy that seemed to be pulled straight from LotR, but the similarities in Sword of Shannara are more along the lines of having similar characters and plot devices.

Both stories are heavily derivative of LotR, but Iron Tower is much more a carbon copy, IMO, than Shannara.

[Suttree]

I think criticism of Brooks can be made on more grounds than just, "His first book ripped off LotR,".

This.

[Jussi]

I have read both The Sword of Shannara and The Iron Tower trilogy. In my opinion TSoS is much more carbon copy than TIT. McKiernan doesn't follow LotR plot as closely as Brooks, and the characters are less similiar. Gandalf, Gollum and Tom Bombadil are missing completely, and the "Battle of Minas Tirith" happens in the first book of the trilogy (with a different outcome).

On the other hand, the world of Mithgar is very close to Middle-earth. There are "Hobbits" who live in "Shire", and the history of the world is similiar to Tolkien. McKiernan also copied the Moria sequence in detail. Terry Brooks' world of Shannara is a post nuclear war Earth.

BTW, McKiernan's unofficial LotR sequel The Silver Call is an interesting read. It could have been official:

In actuality, the first thing I wrote was a sequel to LOTR. Doubleday went into a two-year negotiation with JRRT's estate, but that fell through.

[MisterOJ]

I have read both The Sword of Shannara and The Iron Tower trilogy. In my opinion TSoS is much more carbon copy than TIT. McKiernan doesn't follow LotR plot as closely as Brooks, and the characters are less similiar. Gandalf, Gollum and Tom Bombadil are missing completely, and the "Battle of Minas Tirith" happens in the first book of the trilogy (with a different outcome).

On the other hand, the world of Mithgar is very close to Middle-earth. There are "Hobbits" who live in "Shire", and the history of the world is similiar to Tolkien. McKiernan also copied the Moria sequence in detail. Terry Brooks' world of Shannara is a post nuclear war Earth.

BTW, McKiernan's unofficial LotR sequel The Silver Call is an interesting read. It could have been official:

That's interesting. My recollection of both stories is probably incorrect. I read both stories over 20 years ago - and both before I ever read LotR. So, when I did read Tolkien, I found myself comparing in reverse.

I just remember thinking both Shannara and Iron Tower were really similar, but my impression was Iron Tower was much more of a "LotR ripoff" than Shannara.

This sorta makes me want to go back and re-read both, just for comparison's sake. But, that's probably never going to happen. There's too many good books out there I haven't read for the first time yet.