The Shannara Chronicles

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a_skeleton_03

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Tarrant_sl said:
This is where I stopped as well. With watching the preview, I mean I saw a reference to the elf stones, but I don't ever remember real world stuff from now, being in the books. (ruins and stuff from what we have now) is that something from the newer books? (Voyage and beyond) I haven't read First Druid, Sword and the 3 or 4 book series after that in like 15 years so maybe I'm just forgetting.
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It was vague back then making you think it might be current world.
 
Tarrant

Tarrant

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Ah, now that I think about it, my mom bought me First King back when I was 14, (ugh 20 years ago, really? fuck) so I probably wasn't the most observant or just don't remember. I should go back and reread them.
 
Gavinmad

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Tarrant_sl said:
This is where I stopped as well. With watching the preview, I mean I saw a reference to the elf stones, but I don't ever remember real world stuff from now, being in the books. (ruins and stuff from what we have now) is that something from the newer books? (Voyage and beyond) I haven't read First Druid, Sword and the 3 or 4 book series after that in like 15 years so maybe I'm just forgetting.
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Gavinmad_sl said:
It's post apocalyptic, it's just so far post apocalyptic that it's a fairly normal fantasy world in most respects. You see the ancient technology shit more overtly starting with the Voyage trilogy, but it's there in the originals.

Cogline uses ancient knowledge of science that's so powerful it's a match for the magic of the mord wraiths and later the shadowen. His explosive powder was strong enough to shatter the scythe of Death, who was immensely powerful even if he wasn't truly one of the four horsemen.

Bremen uses that same ancient knowledge of science, combined with his magic, to create the Sword of Shannara. The sword is not just a magical hunk of steel, it's an absolute masterpiece of blacksmithing with no equal.

The creepers from Heritage of Shannara are a twisted mix of ancient technology and shadowen magic. The technology of the creepers is explored further in The Elves of Cintra, which is part of a trilogy that bridges some of the gap between The Word and the Void and The beginning of Shannara.

And as Rezz mentioned, when traveling through the Wolfsktaag mountains, both Flick and Shea were fatally poisoned by some strange creature when they took a wrong turn and got too close to the ruins of one of the pre-apocalypse cities, although they were saved by the Storlocks.
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On top of that, the big bad Antrax (book 2 of the Voyage trilogy) is an artificial intelligence. There's speculation that the facility Antrax is in is actually Oronyx Experimental Robotics Systems from The Elves of Cintra.

Also I just remembered the other reason I hated the Voyage trilogy. Walker dies destroying Antrax. Becomes the first new druid since Bremen taught Allanon back in First King, Brooks kills him off 2 books later. I mean granted, those two books were 8 years apart because he wrote Word & Void and a few Landover books in between, but seriously, couldn't he at least have made it to the end of the next trilogy?
 
iannis

iannis

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Elf stones was actually the best, if you go back and re-read them. I agree though that as a kid Elf Stones was the worst.

Sword was an almost direct rip of Tolkien and Wish Song was a maudlin journey of emo tweens. So both of those are going to appeal to the age group. Elf Stones was where he actually tried.

The Scions of Shannarra... I liked Walker Boh but that was about it. You can REALLY tell that he had no idea about any of it though. Like scale or just trivial shit. He'd put no thought into it whatsoever. It really was a tabletop game he was DMing / running with friends.

Edit: The setting of Shannara is neat, and the structure of his writing is almost perfect for that 12-15 age group. And he keeps it sanitized as well for that age group. And he does manage to write a good chapter here and there. It's not like he's a hack. It's just that, overall, not really that great. Ya know? Feist is better for most of what Shanarra does, but he does manage to set an ambiance with Shanarra that is rare to find.
 
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Draegan_sl

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I think I read Scions first for whatever reason as a 15 year old and then up through book 7? Then read Sword/Wish/Elfstones. I never read any of the other books.
 
Gavinmad

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Iannis_sl said:
Elf stones was actually the best, if you go back and re-read them. I agree though that as a kid Elf Stones was the worst.

Sword was an almost direct rip of Tolkien and Wish Song was a maudlin journey of emo tweens. So both of those are going to appeal to the age group. Elf Stones was where he actually tried.

The Scions of Shannarra... I liked Walker Boh but that was about it. You can REALLY tell that he had no idea about any of it though. Like scale or just trivial shit. He'd put no thought into it whatsoever. It really was a tabletop game he was DMing / running with friends.

Edit: The setting of Shannara is neat, and the structure of his writing is almost perfect for that 12-15 age group. And he keeps it sanitized as well for that age group. And he does manage to write a good chapter here and there. It's not like he's a hack. It's just that, overall, not really that great. Ya know? Feist is better for most of what Shanarra does, but he does manage to set an ambiance with Shanarra that is rare to find.
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The voyage trilogy was quite a bit darker, which is the only one I've read past the first trilogy and Heritage. I have to imagine most of the other series are aimed at a higher age group seeing as how most of them deal with an approaching or ongoing apocalypse.
 
Drakain

Drakain

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If you have the bound trilogy of the first three books, there are intros by Brooks before each book. The for intro before Elfstones he says how he had to rewrite almost the whole book. Elfstones then became the foundation for the entire series. As I said earlier the prequel books are quite good and link our world to the four lands. I will have to read the voyage books someday.
 
Gavinmad

Gavinmad

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They work just fine if you read them in the order he wrote them. If you want to read them in chronological order it would be

Word & Void trilogy

Genesis of Shannara trilogy

Legends of Shannara (2 books)

First King of Shannara

Original Shannara trilogy

Heritage of Shannara (4 books)

Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy

High Druid of Shannara trilogy

Dark Legacy of Shannara trilogy


I'm actually surprised at how few of the books I've read. Maybe I'll give them another go in chrono order.
 
Rezz

Rezz

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After thinking about the Shannara series and other fantasy settings I've read, it's actually fairly grimdark at times. It lacks constant murder/swearing/sex like Game of Thrones, but some of the novels are just straight up dark/depressing shit with death happening all the time. The Elf Queen of Shannara, for example, is one of the most over the top when it comes to just having a dark, evil ass setting. Island that the elves move to that they start using ancient magic to alter the local wildlife, turns sour and demons and shit start coming out of the woodwork, and their modified creations become constant threats to them. They sit behind their walls and just wait while time runs out. Not to mention that there's a couple of big reveals about the origin of the Shadowen, and many of the main/supporting characters die in pretty grisly fashion. Like, it doesn't even end on a good note, it's just one long downer for Wren hah.

That was, on further rememberance, a pretty rough book for an 11 year old.

edit: HAH, haven't read the book in over 20 years, just remembered that the island was called Morrowindl and has a giant volcano at the center of the island. Good work, Bethesda!
 
Malkav

Malkav

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Yeah some of the characters repeatedly get fucked in the ass in the serie.

Won't even talk about Ryer Ord Star.
 
Gavinmad

Gavinmad

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Rezz_sl said:
After thinking about the Shannara series and other fantasy settings I've read, it's actually fairly grimdark at times. It lacks constant murder/swearing/sex like Game of Thrones, but some of the novels are just straight up dark/depressing shit with death happening all the time. The Elf Queen of Shannara, for example, is one of the most over the top when it comes to just having a dark, evil ass setting. Island that the elves move to that they start using ancient magic to alter the local wildlife, turns sour and demons and shit start coming out of the woodwork, and their modified creations become constant threats to them. They sit behind their walls and just wait while time runs out. Not to mention that there's a couple of big reveals about the origin of the Shadowen, and many of the main/supporting characters die in pretty grisly fashion. Like, it doesn't even end on a good note, it's just one long downer for Wren hah.

That was, on further rememberance, a pretty rough book for an 11 year old.

edit: HAH, haven't read the book in over 20 years, just remembered that the island was called Morrowindl and has a giant volcano at the center of the island. Good work, Bethesda!
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The series doesn't even begin to get dark until the Voyage of the Jerle Shannara. I haven't touched one of his books ever since he decided to have a character get raped to death by shapeshifting whatsits.
 
E

Elissidel_sl

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Damn. Yeah, looking back I always remember his books having their share of dark parts, but I must have forgotten the death rape.
 
Rezz

Rezz

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Haven't read Voyage! So probably gets worse. I need to set some time aside and just plow through the rest of his work, as I've read through Heritage/First King of Shannara, and the entire Landover series. Also the entire Word and the Void series, but until I read the connecting novels they are just sort of tangents at the moment. Just really sat down and thought about the series for a bit and went "goddamn" regarding the amount of just purely downer/dark storylines that are pretty prevalent in the various stories. Landover is immune, but Heritage (and Wishsong) are just... the 90s Nine Inch Nails version of Lord of the Rings. Even when they win, they lose to a degree. Every victory is Pyrrhic.
 
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