About The Sword of Shannara

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About The Sword of Shannara explores the background about the writing of the novel by Terry Brooks, the themes of the book, the reception of the book and its significance on the fantasy genre of novels.

Contents

Background

Brooks began writing The Sword of Shannara in 1967,[1] when he was twenty-three years old.[2] He started to write the novel as a way to fight what he called an "increasingly rapid descent into terminal boredom" brought on by his entrance into law school,[1] and as a result of being caught up in "the J. R. R. Tolkien tradition".[3] Brooks had been a writer since high school,[4] but he had never found 'his' genre: "I tried my hand at science fiction, westerns, war stories, you name it. All those efforts [...] weren't very good."[2] He eventually found a genre that he knew was for him, when he was starting college. This is when he was given The Lord of the Rings to read for the first time. From then on, Brooks knew that he had found his "home" in "fantasy/adventure".[2] He immediately started work on The Sword of Shannara, but finishing it wasn't easy, as it took seven years;[5] the finished product was "the [...] grand result [of] retaining sanity while studying at Washington & Lee University and practicing law".[4]

Brooks initially submitted his manuscript to DAW Books, whose editor Donald A. Wollheim rejected it and recommended submission to Judy-Lynn del Rey at Ballantine Books instead.[1] Ballantine Books accepted The Sword of Shannara for publication in November 1974.[1] Brooks' editor was Lester del Rey, who used the book to launch Ballantine's new Del Rey Books imprint/subsidiary.[6] Del Rey chose it because he felt that it was "the first long epic fantasy adventure which had any chance of meeting the demands of Tolkien readers for similar pleasures".[7]

In 1977, The Sword of Shannara was simultaneously released as a trade paperback[8] by Ballantine Books and hardback[9] by Random House.[10][11] They featured illustrations by the Brothers Hildebrandt. Upon publication, the novel was a commercial success, becoming the first fantasy fiction novel to appear on The New York Times trade paperback bestseller list.[6][12][13]

The original inspiration for The Sword of Shannara was Brooks' desire to put "Tolkien's magic and fairy creatures [into] the worlds of Walter Scott and [Alexander] Dumas".[1] Later, other inspirations jumped onto Brooks' bandwagon, joining with these. In all, Brooks was inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien The Lord of the Rings and adventure fiction such as Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers, Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, Arthur Conan Doyle's The White Company and Walter Scott's Ivanhoe.[1][14]

However, Brooks decided not to use historical settings like these works.[14] He instead followed and modified Tolkien's use of a fantasy setting instead:

“ I would set my adventure story in an imaginary world, a vast, sprawling, mythical world like that of Tolkien, filled with magic that had replaced science and races that had evolved from Man. But I was not Tolkien and did not share his background in academia or his interest in cultural study. So I would eliminate the poetry and songs, the digressions on the ways and habits of types of characters, and the appendices of language and backstory that characterized and informed Tolkien's work. I would write the sort of straightforward adventure story that barreled ahead, picking up speed as it went, compelling a turning of pages until there were no more pages to be turned.[14] „

Brooks also made decisions about his novel's characterization and use of magic when composing his work, saying that the magic "couldn't be dependable or simply good or bad".[1] Also, he wanted to blur the distinctions between good and evil, "because life simply [doesn't] work that way."[1] Lastly, he wanted to ensure that readers would identify with his protagonist, Shea, which he accomplished by casting Shea as "a person simply trying to muddle through".[1]

Major themes

"Ordinary men placed in extraordinary circumstances"[15] is a prevalent theme in The Sword of Shannara. Brooks credits Tolkien with introducing this theme of mundane heroism into fantasy literature and influencing his own fiction. "[M]y protagonists are cut from the same bolt of cloth as Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. It was Tolkien's genius to reinvent the traditional epic fantasy by making the central character neither God nor hero, but a simple man in search of a way to do the right thing. [...] I was impressed enough by how it had changed the face of epic fantasy that I never gave a second thought to not using it as the cornerstone of my own writing."[15]

The Sword of Shannara is set in a post-apocalyptic Earth,[6] where chemical and nuclear holocaust devastated the land in the distant past.[16][17] Due to the numerous references in Sword to this catastrophe, Brooks was asked a question about whether he thought that his 'prediction' might come true. He answered:

“ I don't see myself as a negative person, so I don't think I've ever thought we would destroy ourselves. But it does worry me that not only are we capable of [nuclear war], but [we also] flirt with the idea periodically. One mistake, after all . . . Anyway, I used the background in [The] Sword of Shannara more in a cautionary vein than as a prophecy. Also, it was necessary to destroy civilization in order to take a look at what it would mean to have to build it back up again using magic. A civilization once destroyed by misuse of power is a bit wary the second time out about what new power can do.[18] „

Environment plays some sort of role in all of the Shannara novels. Brooks was posed this question from a fan who lives in Seattle, the same city where Brooks lives: "Over the years I have noticed how the environment plays a big role in your stories; not just a "place or setting" but almost a character all to itself. [...] Does the climate and environment here in Seattle play into the environments in the world of Shannara? [...] Now that I've seen this place I feel like I've been reading about it my whole life in your books; walking around here I almost feel like I'm in a forest you've written about."[2] Brooks responded to the fan with this: "Environment is a character in my story and almost always plays a major role in affecting the story's outcome. I have always believed that fantasy, in particular, because it takes place in an imaginary world with at least some imaginary characters, needs to make the reader feel at home in the setting. That means bringing the setting alive for the reader, which is what creating environment as a character is really all about. [...] Stories [of mine] directly address the question of what happens when the environment is thrown too far off nature's intended course."[2]

Literary significance and reception

The Sword of Shannara received mixed reviews following its publication. Choice stated that the novel was "exceptionally well-written, very readable...entrance into the genre...[that] will be accepted by most teenagers."[19][20] Marshall Tymn thought that Sword was a "problem book" due to its "close imitation of Tolkien". However, he also thought that "the book was basically well-written." Tymn cited some of the differences, such as the use of a postholocaust setting with the races that sprung from that, and the "entertaining conartist, Panamon Creel,...and...an unexpected ending springing from the nature of the sword."[17][20] Cathi Dunn MacRae assessed all of Brooks' works in her novel that was published in 1998. On The Sword of Shannara, she thought this:

“ In this postholocaust world of our future, Brooks parallels the mystic arts...with science, two powers that are not good or evil but become either by the way we use them. Evil is a corruption of truth, erupting from the selfish use of power for one's own ends. Good arises from the insistence on truth, allowing us to realize our indelible bonds with others of all races, and our connection with nature and earth. Anything unnatural is evil, such as the Warlock Lord's immortality, which recalls similar abuse of nature by Le Guin's Cob and by Barbara Hambly's wizard Suraklin. „
“ One of Brooks' strengths is his plot's momentum, maintained through cliffhangers, unexpected twists of fortune, and the dance of many characters' constant movements. This brisk pace alters when characters pause to ruminate, which draws out suspense and reveals motivation. However, first novelist Brooks as puppet master is not always in control of the strings. With no single point of view centered in one character, his focus is diffused, and the anxieties and realizations of each character beg[an] to sound the same, blurring their identities with repetition.[21] „

Similarities between Sword and The Lord of the Rings

The Sword of Shannara has drawn extensive criticism from critics who believe that Brooks derived too much of his novel from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. In 1978, the influential fantasy editor Lin Carter denounced The Sword of Shannara as "the single most cold-blooded, complete rip-off of another book that I have ever read".[22] Elaborating on his disapproval of the book, Carter wrote that "Terry Brooks wasn't trying to imitate Tolkien's prose, just steal his story line and complete cast of characters, and [Brooks] did it with such clumsiness and so heavy-handedly, that he virtually rubbed your nose in it."[22] Roger C. Schlobin was kinder in his assessment, though he still thought that The Sword of Shannara was a disappointment because of its similarities to The Lord of the Rings.[23] Brian Attebery accused The Sword of Shannara of being "undigested Tolkien".[24] He found it "especially blatant in its point-for-point correspondence"[24] to The Lord of the Rings. In an educational article on writing, the author Orson Scott Card cited The Sword of Shannara as a cautionary example of overly-derivative writing, finding the work "artistically displeasing" for this reason.[25]

Assessing The Sword of Shannara three decades after its publication, the Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey agreed with Attebery, as Shippey found that the novel was distinctive for "the dogged way in which it follow[ed] Tolkien point for point".[26] Within Brooks' novel, Shippey located "analogues" for Tolkien characters such as Sauron (Brona), Gandalf (Allanon), the Hobbits (Shea and Flick), Aragorn (Menion), Boromir (Balinor), Gimli (Hendel), Legolas (Durin and Dayel), Gollum (Orl Fane), the Barrow-wight (Mist Wraith) and the Nazgûl (Skull Bearers), among others.[26] He also found plot similarities to events in The Lord of the Rings such as the Fellowship of the Ring's formation and adventures, the journeys to Rivendell (Culhaven) and Lothlórien (Storlock), Gandalf's fall in Moria and subsequent reappearance, and the Rohirrim's arrival at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, among others.[26] Avoiding direct commentary on the book's quality, Shippey attributed the book's success to the post-Tolkienian advent of the fantasy genre: "What The Sword of Shannara seems to show is that many readers had developed the taste [...] for heroic fantasy so strongly that if they could not get the real thing they would take any substitute, no matter how diluted."[26]

Terry Brooks has stated that Tolkien's works were a major influence in his writing,[27] though he has also said that Tolkien was not the only influence upon him: other influences included the many different books he had read over his life and Lester del Rey (his editor). Also, mythology and ancient civilizations that he had learned about in school gave him a wealth of knowledge from which he drew from. Many of these influences are reflected in Brooks' works.[2]

In a 2001 Interzone essay, the author Gene Wolfe defended Brooks' derivation of material from Tolkien: "Terry Brooks has often been disparaged for imitating Tolkien, particularly by those reviewers who find his books inferior to Tolkien's own. I can say only that I wish there were more imitators -- we need them -- and that all imitations of so great an original must necessarily be inferior."[28] In a commentary for The New York Times Book Review, the author of the science fiction novel Dune, Frank Herbert, also defended Brooks, saying:

“ Don't fault Brooks for entering the world of letters through the Tolkien door. Every writer owes a similar debt to those who have come before. Some will admit it. Tolkien's debt was equally obvious. The classical myth structure is deeply embedded in Western society. „
“ That's why you should not be surprised at finding these elements in The Sword of Shannara. Yes, you will find here the young prince in search of his grail; the secret (and not always benign) powers of nature; the magician; the wise old man; the witch mother; the malignant threat from a sorcerer; the holy talisman; the virgin queen; the fool (in the ancient tarot sense of the one who asks the disturbing questions) and all of the other Arthurian trappings. „
“ What Brooks has done is to present a marvelous exposition of why the idea is not the story. Because of the popular assumption (which assumes mythic proportions of its own) that ideas form 99 percent of a story, writers are plagued by that foolish question, “Where do you get your ideas?” Brooks demonstrates that it doesn't matter where you get the idea; what matters is that you tell a rousing story.[29] „

Saying that "Brooks revert[ed] to his own style ... somewhere around Chapter 20",[29] Herbert remarked upon what Brooks did not take from Tolkien:

“ In the last chapters, you get the Brooksian innovations—the Rock Troll [Keltset], who is deep and mute and whose actions, thus, are far more important than any words could be; the Grim Druid, who really changes character in the second half of the book, becoming far more complex and devious (the name Allanon should give you a clue); Balinor, the Prince of Callahorn, whose role breaks with myth tradition; the Warlock Lord, who pretty much fills the traditional role of evil—but that's what you expect of evil and it doesn't blight a good story.[29] „

Herbert also praised the characters of evil in the book: "Ah, the monsters in this book. Brooks creates distillations of horror that hark back to childhood's shadows, when the most important thing about a fearful creature was that you didn't know its exact shape and intent. You only knew that it wanted you. The black-winged skull bearer, for instance, is more than a euphemism for death.[29] In a 2001 article for Seattle Weekly, David Massengill also commented upon Brooks' main characters, calling them "idiosyncratic adventurers."[12]

Book impact

The Sword of Shannara sold about 125,000 copies in its first month in print.[30] It was the first work of fiction to ever appear on The New York Times trade paperback bestseller list, and it was there for over five months.[4] This success provided a major boost to the fantasy genre,[31] a fact noted by many critics. Louise J. Winters wrote that, "Until Shannara, no fantasy writer except J. R. R. Tolkien had made such an impression on the general public."[32] The critic David Pringle credited Brooks for "demonstrat[ing] in 1977 that the commercial success of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings had not been a fluke, and that fantasy really did have the potential to become a mass-market genre".[33] Together with Stephen R. Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever, The Sword of Shannara ushered in "the era of the big commercial fantasy"[34] and helped to make epic fantasy the leading subgenre of fantasy.[34] Later in their life, The Sword of Shannara and its subsequent sequels were one of the inspirations for the later versions Dungeons and Dragons, a fantasy role-playing game.[35]

Sources

  • Brooks, Terry (2003). Sometimes The Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life. New York: Ballantine. ISBN 0-3454-6551-2.
  • del Rey, Lester (1980). The World of Science Fiction: 1926-1976 - The History of a Subculture. New York and London: Garland. ISBN 0-8240-1446-4.
  • MacRae, Cathi Dunn (1998). Presenting Young Adult Fantasy Fiction. New York: Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0-8057-8220-6.
  • Tymn, Marshall B; Zahorski, Kenneth J.; Boyer, Robert H. (1979). Fantasy Literature: A Core Collection and Reference Guide. New Providence, NJ: R.R. Bowker. ISBN 0-8352-1431-1.

References

  1. ^ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Template:Cite web
  2. ^ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Template:Cite web
  3. ^ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named English_Journal
  4. ^ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Template:Cite web
  5. ^ Sometimes the Magic Works, 189
  6. ^ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Template:Cite encyclopedia
  7. ^ The World of Science Fiction, 302
  8. ^ ISBN 0-345-24804-X
  9. ^ ISBN 0-394-41333-4
  10. ^ The World of Science Fiction, 302-303.
  11. ^ Sometimes the Magic Works, 13.
  12. ^ 12.0 12.1 Template:Cite web
  13. ^ Template:Cite book
  14. ^ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Sometimes the Magic Works, 188.
  15. ^ 15.0 15.1 Sometimes the Magic Works, 190.
  16. ^ Young Adult Fantasy Fiction, 81.
  17. ^ 17.0 17.1 Fantasy Literature, 55.
  18. ^ Template:Cite web
  19. ^ Choice (July-August 1977): 30.
  20. ^ 20.0 20.1 quoted from Young Adult Fantasy Fiction, 81.
  21. ^ Young Adult Fantasy Fiction, 77.
  22. ^ 22.0 22.1 Template:Cite book
  23. ^ Template:Cite book
  24. ^ 24.0 24.1 Template:Cite book
  25. ^ Template:Cite web
  26. ^ 26.0 26.1 26.2 26.3 Template:Cite book
  27. ^ Sometimes the Magic Works, 188-190.
  28. ^ Template:Cite journal
  29. ^ 29.0 29.1 29.2 29.3 Template:Cite journal
  30. ^ Template:Cite book
  31. ^ Template:Cite book
  32. ^ Template:Cite book
  33. ^ Template:Cite book
  34. ^ 34.0 34.1 Template:Cite book
  35. ^ Template:Cite book


Wikipedia This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at About The Sword of Shannara. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with The World of Shannara, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.



Major Characters in The Sword of Shannara

Allanon · Balinor · Dayel and Durin · Flick · Hendel · Keltset · Menion · Palance · Panamon Creel · Shea · Minor Characters

Novels of Terry Brooks’ Shannara universe
Book I Book II Book III Book IV
Word & Void : Running with the Demon A Knight of the Word Angel Fire East
Genesis of Shannara : Armageddon's Children The Elves of Cintra The Gypsy Morph
Legends of Shannara  : Bearers of the Black Staff The Measure of the Magic
Prequel to Shannara : First King of Shannara
Original Shannara Trilogy : The Sword of Shannara The Elfstones of Shannara The Wishsong of Shannara
The Heritage of Shannara : The Scions of Shannara The Druid of Shannara The Elf Queen of Shannara The Talismans of Shannara
The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara : Ilse Witch Antrax Morgawr
High Druid of Shannara : Jarka Ruus Tanequil Straken
Shannara in The World of Shannara
Characters — Creatures — Events — Places — Objects
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