Jen Miller and her brother, Philip Ilten, grew up with their parents reading lots of science fiction and fantasy to them as bedtime stories. With this feature, they resume this family tradition of reading fantasy together with Terry Brooks' The Sword of Shannara. They invite you to get a copy of your own and read along, too!
Dear Phil--
Hooray! We’re reading The Sword of Shannara together! I’m going to be honest--I’m more excited about the idea of reading a book with you than the actual book that we’re reading. I’ve been putting off starting the novel because I’ve gotten this impression of it as this overdone, tired cliche. I realize that this isn’t fair, especially since I’m thinking of the novel through the lens of everything that has been written since then instead of thinking of it as the groundbreaking work that it was (helped to make fantasy commercially successful, first paperback fantasy on the NYT bestseller list, etc.). Things are what they are, however, and it seems that it’s a) good to be upfront about my prejudices and b) interesting to see if you’re coming from a place that is at all the same. So, what about you? What are your thoughts going into this book?
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Dear Jen--
This actually is the first time I’ve ever really read a book in tandem with someone, so I’m very excited. My apologies for the late start; The Sword of Shannara is more popular than I expected. During my four months in Sweden Shannara was only available for a week, and here in southern Dublin 4 of the 5 copies are currently checked out. This certainly is a testament to Shannara’s fame, and perhaps the quality of the book, but I guess we will find out shortly!
I feel that, like you, I also should provide full disclosure of my prejudices, which in some ways are similar to yours. Specifically, I will inevitably compare Shannara with Lord of the Rings. However, I do not think of Shannara-like books to be a tired cliche. I love being transported into these fantastical settings, and so even if the writing is not exemplary I oftentimes still enjoy the book. For example, I love the Eragon series even though I know you have misgivings about the originality and style of the writing. One final prejudice that I must admit is that I already have read Brooks’ Landover and Knight of the Word series of which I found the former brilliant and the latter rather mediocre. Consequently, I think I may subconsciously hold Shannara to the standard of Landover, despite Landover being written by Brooks as a more mature author.
The first point you brought up in your letter, that the descriptions are not vivid and even rather mundane, really resonated with me. I find it quite interesting that you suggested many of the descriptions as matching non-descript small town Wisconsin. When I was reading Knight of the Word I had the exact same feeling to the point where I actually became homesick! I was interested about this at the time and so looked up Brooks’ birthplace; it turns out he was born and raised in a small Midwest town and so it makes sense that much of his imagery reflects small town Wisconsin.
Another point of interest to me was what you called “the history dump” in Chapter 2. While reading the passage I was acutely aware of a D&D campaign I ran awhile back. I wrote down approximately a one-page history brief of the world where the campaign was taking place, and the end result was five paragraphs that read very similarly to Chapter 2. The problem with this, as you pointed out, is that the reader is now confronted with a series of characters, events, and dates that have no significance and consequently are not remembered. In the end, my D&D players only were able to remember the history of the world when they began to connect the historical events to their own characters’ lives. The situation here is similar, and I have a feeling that I will be flipping back to Chapter 2 periodically; I know I have done this once already. Tolkien had a way of connecting his history in a much more fluid manor. An example that stands out in my mind is the story of Tuniviel which Strider sang to comfort the hobbits on the road to Weathertop. In all honesty, the first time I read LotR I skipped many of the songs and poems, but they lend an important depth to the book.
But enough about writing style and on to the actual story! The first question that pops into my head is why do both Shea and Flick trust Allanor enough to flee their lifelong home and loving father without even so much as a goodbye? Allanor has done nothing to gain their trust, and in fact has done quite the opposite. He accosted Flick like a highway bandit, bullied him, and forced him to provide food and lodging (did Allanor even pay?). True, he does help conceal Flick from the flying “shadow” but fails to provide any type of meaningful explanation as to what it is or why it is there. More importantly, Allanor openly admits he is being followed by forces of evil, and could very well have led minions of the Warlock Lord to both Shea and Flick. Before leaving, Allanor presses what appears to be a rather opinionated history on Shea, and chastises Shea when he brings forward legitimate points of disagreement. Allanor demonstrates no magic and no special powers beside being exceptionally large with a very short temper and having an uncanny knack for guessing what people are thinking. I do not trust Allanor, nor do I think Shea and Flick should. As for Menion, well I’m interested to see where this leads us …
Phil