A review by stmartin
The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks

4.0

I checked this book out in my childhood and never actually read it but had heard good things about it. I was prompted to read it after Netflix did a Chronicles of Shannara show that I watched. I went back to this book, first in the series, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's quite long, and the level of English is fairly advanced. I can see why I couldn't read it when I was younger. But as I read it it occurred to me that so much of it influenced Gary Gygax's Dungeons and Dragons which came out at about the same time (1977), particularly with the choice of adjectives and descriptions of the races. That said, it would make a terrible D&D campaign or video game; the main character suffers from self-doubt, the "plan" doesn't go as planned and the ending, while beautiful, wouldn't make for good role playing.

I'm looking forward to continuing this series.