REVIEW: The Sword of Shannara (Terry Brooks)

Book: The Sword of Shannara

Author: Terry Brooks.

My rating: 3/5.

Premise: Living in peaceful Shady Vale, Shea Ohmsford knew little of the troubles that plagued the rest of the world. Then the giant, forbidding Allanon revealed that the supposedly dead Warlock Lord was plotting to destroy the world. The sole weapon against this Power of Darkness was the Sword of Shannara, which could only be used by a true heir of Shannara-Shea being the last of the bloodline, upon whom all hope rested. Soon a Skull Bearer, dread minion of Evil, flew into the Vale, seeking to destroy Shea. To save the Vale, Shea fled, drawing the Skull Bearer after him.

I picked up this book after having seen the TV series, and found out that this is a prequel to the book the show is based on. A lot of people criticise this book as being a rip off of Lord of the Rings. I admit, at first I did imagine Shea as a hobbit. Luckily, I'm not au fait with LOTR (I've only seen the films, the books are on my TBR pile!) so I could distance the two books and enjoy this one. I did enjoy it - an adventure, magic, different creatures, heroes. What's not to like! One thing that bugged me a little was the lack of female characters (there's only one who actually gets named!), so I'm hoping the next book will balance this out a bit more. If you like Lord of the Rings, might be worth a try, although you may get annoyed. Overall, I enjoyed it and I can't wait to read the next book!