The Sword of Shannara truly was one of the biggest dissapointments for a good while.
A piece of warning to all who appriciate completed style of writing and deep analysis of human mind and relationship AND fresh and new ideas concerning fantasy genre:
If you already have read The Lord of the Rings (as you should have) then beware! In The Sword of Shannara you will find the most precise copy of all the skeletal components of the Lord of the Rings right from the wise Gandalf and brave Aragorn up to safe haven of Rivendell. Al this created with a style hardly to be called a style at all.
While The Lord of the Rings is not the psychological analysis in a way todays most celebrated fantasy books are it is a jewell when it comes to skill to combine the story line itself and the archaic writing style. And this is where The Sword of Shannara fails totally: it uses the shortened form used in the Lord of the rings but all the while fails to understand the utter importance of Tolkiens unique style.
The best that can be said about The Sword of Shannara is that it has a small piece of adventure flavour to it, although this is accompliced through the proves of The Lord of the Rings and not on its own.
