** instead of a ring the quest item is a sword This novel, and I use the term loosely and with much reservation, is a 767 page Memorex recording of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, except: It sucked so bad it could pull bricks through a garden hose. It sucked wookie balls, infected corpses and randy polar bears. Well, I may have mentioned this already but it bears repeating ad nauseam…This book sucked.

No, this was dumbfounded, frustrated bitterness swelling into white heat for which the only salve is the venting of my smoking, bile-filled vitriol in the form of this juvenile tantrum scathing rebuke of Brooks’ abominable, turd-like abortion of appalling plot-stealing gall.…Therefore listen to Baby Rage above and take cover…*inhales deeply and launches*…Ī shitty, lifeless point for point rip off of Lord of the Rings. And not your garden-variety, ham-fisted hackiness kind of suck. It became the first work of fiction ever to appear on the New York Times trade paperback bestseller list, where it remained for over five months. He then wrote The Sword of Shannara, the seven year grand result retaining sanity while studying at Washington & Lee University and practicing law. That moment changed Terry's life forever, because in Tolkien's great work he found all the elements needed to fully explore his writing combined in one genre. He went to college and received his undergraduate degree from Hamilton College, where he majored in English Literature, and he received his graduate degree from the School of Law at Washington & Lee University.Ī writer since high school, he wrote many stories within the genres of science fiction, western, fiction, and non-fiction, until one semester early in his college years he was given The Lord of the Rings to read. Terry Brooks was born in Illinois in 1944, where he spent a great deal of his childhood and early adulthood dreaming up stories in and around Sinnissippi Park, the very same park that would eventually become the setting for his bestselling Word & Void trilogy.

The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks