Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #394880 in Books
• Published on: 1991-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 734 pages

Review
A marvellous fantasy trip' Frank Herbert 'If Harry Potter has given you a thirst for fantasy and you have not discovered the magic of Terry Brooks, you are in for a treat' ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS 'Confirms Terry's place at the head of the fantasy world' Philip Pullman

A sword-and-sorcery narrative a la Tolkien, being introduced with some fanfare in simultan??eous hard-cover and trade paperback editions. As in The Lord of the Rings, a small band of comrades - Man, Elf, Dwarf - must undertake a desperate journey into a kingdom of dread under the guidance of a mighty seer, while their threatened homeland confront the approaching darkness. But the unavoidable comparison is after all only an embarrassment. Warlocks and ancient talismans and a smattering of invented names notwithstanding, Brooks has simply not created any sort of world for Iris Flick and Shes and Menion Leah to figure in. As for the writing, it is less a use of language than a kind of verbal peanut butter smeared indiscrirninately across 726 pages. The brothers Hildebrandt, whose treacly illustrations disfigure the latest Tolkien Calendar, provide the perfect visual correlative to a world in which people are always glancing into each other's "slim faces" and no one seems to be bothered by being in "the apex of [a] circle." None of this can be expected to dismay the s-and-s audience; first printing (Ballantine) of 50,000. (Kirkus Reviews)

Synopsis
An epic fantasy novel in which Shea Ohmsford, the sole descendant of Jerle Shannara, must embark upon an elemental quest to find the Sword of Shannara, the only weapon powerful enough to keep the creatures of darkness at bay. From the author of THE ELF QUEEN OF SHANNARA, A KNIGHT OF THE WORD and RUNNING WITH THE DEMON.

About the Author
Terry Brooks was a practising attorney for many years, but now writes full-time. His first novel, THE SWORD OF SHANNARA, remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 5 months, and this was followed by 13 consecutive bestselling novels.

Customer Reviews

Very formulaic, very predictable
Considering how highly rated this book seems to be I was hugely disappointed with it. It seems some authors think all they need to do is write a story about a village boy who is destined for great powers, but doesn't know it yet, send him on a dangerous quest, throw in an elf here and a wizard there, and it qualifies as 'fantasy'! The book is riddled with Tolkien rip-off cliches, you can predict most of what's going to happen, and the confrontation with the 'dark lord' is one of the biggest anti-climaxes I've read in a book. As there's been an endless procession of Shannara books there's obviously a market for stuff like this, but I'd say this is really aimed at people who like Harry Potter or are happy with any kind of story as long as it has elves, trolls and magic swords in it. If you want something deeper and more engrossing then definitely look elsewhere and, please, let's stop the "as good as Tolkien" reviews.

Warning, this is really only 1/3 of a book
The Sword of Shannara trilogy is three books:

1. The Sword of Shannara
2. The Elfstones of Shannara
3. The Wishstone of Shannara

The Warlock Lord is basically 1/3 of the first book, Sword of Shannara. So, if you buy this book instead of Sword of Shannara (search ISBN number 1841495484), the first book is splintered into Warlock Lord, Druid's Keep and Secret of the Sword, meaning you have to buy another two books to make up just the first book (expensive!). No wonder so many reviews of this book are negative, it's not even a complete book.

enjoyable...but very derivative
This book is essentially a re-hash of Lord of the Rings, with all the key characters and many of the main plotlines (including the over-arching plot), essenatially mirroring Tolkien's originals. Having said that it is well written, with a few original twists (although these are sometimes very predictable), and generally enjoyable. OK, but nothing to write home about.