Hi there everyone!
Welcome to my second fabulous Friday... though if you may have noticed, this is a Furious Friday.
This is for a few different reasons, but I will get to that shortly. 
Now, today I will be talking about the Sword of Shannara series, by Terry Brooks... a series which was recently given life by MTV. Let me preface this by saying... I watched the pilot for the series, and the production value actually looks pretty incredible. I will perhaps expand upon my feelings for that at a later date, but for now, I need to rant about this damn book.
OK, firstly, there is 26 books in this series. The first chronological book in the series is called the Sword of Shannara, and that is what I will be talking about today. In terms of the actual Shannara chronicle, this book come about at the halfway mark, maybe a little earlier. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, thousands of years after our modern era. Don't let that statement fool you, this book is high fantasy, elves, dwarves, gnomes and all. The justification for that is a stretch, but somewhat believable.
Hang on, I need to make one more preface to this post. I have not finished this book yet. I fully intent to, but I need to clear my mind of some of this... vitriol first. Ok, that warning finished, I will continue.
Two things really irritate me about this book. Irritate me so much I am struggling to enjoy this book.
The first thing that really irritates me is the way Mr. Brooks writes in this first endeavor. I hate his narrative style... he jumps characters to abruptly, changes perspective with little to no indication of change. It sometimes takes several sentences to realize... crap, we are talking about that guy now. I think I am going to come up with a name with this narrative... I am going to call it a Virus Narrative. This "Virus Narrative" goes as follows. He will be following a singular character, following what they are doing, sometimes talking about what they are thinking... then when that character interacts with another, all of a sudden the narrative switched to the second character. It is pretty frustrating.
Second thing that frustrates me to no end is that the story concept for this book thus far, about two-thirds of the way through the book... is that it is nearly an idea for idea copy of Tolkien's Fellowship of the Ring. Just a few character comparisons for you.
Chosen One - Shea/Frodo
Best friend who stays because loyalties? - Flick/Sam
Magic user that guides party and randomly leaves - Allanon/Gandolf
Really douche bad guy everyone thought was dead - Warlock Lord/Sauron
The scary black beings that are evil and searching for chosen one - The Skull Bearers/Ring Wraiths
If that was it, fine. But no, the story concepts are the same. Wizard meets chosen one, tells him of his danger. Naive chosen one and buddy have to leave home because scary baddies are closing in. Hard travels till they reach a nearby town that has someone that can help them. Eventually reaching the safety of a realm of a different race... where the wizard meets up with them again, and holds a council of races to decide that... a small group of people can complete the task together after a journey.
Are you kidding me? Literally, concept for concept copy of Lord of the Rings.
Now, I do have hope for where this story is going. I am really hoping it will shortly divert in the ideas, because as it stands I am truly struggling to read this.
Now, I want to make it a habit of including some good things that I have found in the book.
The one good thing I care to talk about at this point... is the created world of the book, the setting. I am engaged in the background story, the world.
And with that... I think I will end this rant.
Have more to add? Have some good things to put in? Feel free to comment below.
Have a great weekend everyone!
-Rob-
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