My all time favorite fantasy series. Usually have trouble finding anyone to discuss it. Not a normal fantasy series as it takes place over a thousand years always introducing new characters. Any readers out there?

I really enjoyed it but only read the first two. I moved on to Stephen R. Donaldson, Piers Anthony, and some other authors.

The original was one of my first doses of reality as a young reader, as the story seemed near to resolution, then I said "Waitaminnit, I still have like 300 pages to go."

I tried once, years ago. Got about halfway through and found it to be lazy, hackneyed, Tolkien-lite boredom. Didn't do it for me

I've read the first trilogy and following quadrology. Much like Hokeyboy I thought of the first trilogy as somewhat a LOTR ripoff but still enjoyed it for the differences. In all fairness it's been over two decades since I read the trilogy and it's possible my opinion would change. I enjoyed the quadrology more - enough to purchase several more books in the series although I've yet to read them. I prefer his Landover series to the Shannara series.

I assume you're talking about the first book? It was definitely Tolkien, er, "inspired," but I found it entertaining anyway.

I have read the majority of the books. Including his Knight of the Word series which are tied into his Shannara stories.

I very much enjoy his writing. I had the pleasure of meeting him at a book signing about 20 years ago in Tampa. He seemed to be a nice guy.

As for those saying that he is Tolkien-lite and not original, well I read Brooks stories before I was introduced to the Tolkien stories. And while there are similarities in the stories, the same could be said about the Star Wars stories being similarly themed to Tolkien.

What I am trying to say is, I enjoyed both storied for what they were, I didn't compare them and try to analyze them I just enjoyed the stories. Brooks is a very good author and since I hear that they may be making a movie out of his Lost Kingdom For Sale/Sold stories, I am really looking forward to that.

Gamegents,

Anything specific you want to discuss about the books or just a general "shoot the Sh*t" session?

Star Wars's ripoffs go far beyond Tolkien

You seem to be missing the point. There is a quote somewhere that basically says there are only something like 10 original stories in the world and all of the other stories are variations of those 10 basic stories.

To say that Brooks ripped off Tolkien is an injustice. Because Tolkien ripped of someone else and that someone ripped off someone else. There are no more original stories. And there doesn't have to be. The fun and enjoyment is in reading the same old stories with new twists to them.

Sit down and read the stories for enjoyment. If you come across a story that is similar to another or others that you have read, then by all means compare then and decide which you liked the best but don't put one down for "ripping off" the other. Any story you can name is a rip off of another.

I really enjoyed the first three but stopped after that. Its annoying to me when an author just keeps returning to the same well. Same thing for Raymond Feist.

As far as "copying" Tolkien, the gold medal for that goes to Dennis McKiernan

http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Tide-Iron...QNS3FCM01XD6X6

One of the issues I had with my own writing was I strove to be wholly original and if something felt familiar, I felt I was only ripping off another person and went another direction. Reading The Annotated version of The Hobbit helped me get over that, as I could see where Tolkien would pull stuff from all kinds of sources--some intentional, some inadvertent. I'm not saying I'm a great writer or anything as I am clearly not, but at least I was able to publish a couple of things. The talent is in taking an idea like say the barrel ride, which had been done elsewhere, and applying it to your world and characters.

So true.
At least McKiernan says he intentionally set out to write a sequel to LOTR. What does Brooks' say about this subject?

EPIC bullshit!

Okay Hokeyboy. I challenge you. Give me three original stories. You pick them. Any three. Give me time to read them/watch them. I will then give you 5 examples from each of them where a theme/plot/storyline has been used before in another story.

If I or someone else, cannot give you those 5 examples then I will concede that you are right. That someone has been able to come up with an ORIGINAL story that has never been told before.

If I do come up with 5 examples for each, you eat your words and admit to that which is true. There are no original stories left in the world.

I read the original trilogy and The Scions of Shannara. I enjoyed them but got caught-up in Jordan's WoT and other series - unfortunately one of those was Goodkind's Sword Of Truth series which I kept torturing myself with, those started off being pretty decent but then it seemed every book saw Richard becoming separated with Kahlan in some fashion and I just gave up after Chainfire.

Unrelated to basically nothing, but Terry Goodkind went to my high school (many, many years before me). But that was kind of cool to learn even though I have not read any of his books yet. Nick Nolte did as well, but was kicked out.

The only thing I read by him was Magic Kingdom for Sale...Sold (same guy, right?), which I thought was really mediocre, so I haven't read anything else he wrote.

Isn't the Shannara series up to something like thirty books?

Too intimidating for me. Might read the first one out of curiosity, but I don't see myself diving into the series.

It is the same guy. That series unlike most of his other books is not connected at all with the Shannara series.

I read a lot of the Shannara books (10+ I think), got tired of it and moved on.

If you like Tolkien inspired books I recommend Guy Gavriel Kay, especially his earlier works like The Fionavar Tapestry.

Is the TV series any good? (Wrong forum!)

It has little to do with the series but it is kind of enjoyable. its more teenage Elf (and half elf) angst and who gets to sleep with whom.

The TV series was uneven but I thought it was overall a decent watch. A lot of people complained about differences from the book but I haven't read the books either in a long time or at all.

If you're a tween girl you'll really like the TV show. Really.

Never check the book thread even though I do read a lot of fantasy/sci-fi. Primarily, I read Shadowrun novels, Robert Asprin (Myth & Thieves Guild), R.A. Salvatore (Forgotten Realms) and Terry Brooks. I have actually read the Shannara series all the way up to and thru Jerl Shannara which was the third sequence of Shannara books I believe. I have the books for High Druid but never got around to them. I have read most of the Landover books as well. With that said, it has been a while (over 5 years), but I did read the first two books Sword of Shannara and Elfstones of Shannara within the last year and still enjoyed them quite a bit.

The series isn't too bad, I got to see the first two episodes streaming through the MTV app. Is it a departure, heck ya....but it's not bad television. It's in the same line as Hercules, Xena, Legend of the Seeker and I enjoyed all of those immensely. I am getting the Blu-ray set (which was released today), and it should be here in about a week.