I was not overwhelmed by the Sword of Shannara, but wanted to give the original trilogy a solid try. The first fifth of Elfstones was...clunky. Chunky. I am glad I pushed on. Once we got past the initial introduction of the quest, the book was fairly fast-paced. Still awkward in places, but a fun/quick read. ( )

I liked it and am excited to watch the t.v series now. The world building was great and i loved the characters but the battle scenes did bore me at points. But overall very good read.

I liked it and am excited to watch the t.v series now. The world building was great and i loved the characters but the battle scenes did bore me at points. But overall very good read.

If you want to read my review of the first book in the trilogy you can do that HERE . One of my biggest gripes about the last book was the lack of female representation, Brooks seems to have fixed that with the introduction of Amberle and Eretria. While Amberle was prominent throughout the book Eretria was a bit of a side character. Wil (the main character and grandson to the previous protagonist of the last book) must continue the family business and save the world from darkness. This books pacing was better, yet it still had the long winded history monologues of the first book.

I did like Wil and Amberle, although it pissed me off that no matter how many times Amberle asks Wil to keep her up to date on what was going on Wil still kept things in the dark. It is this weird cliche thing authors use about keeping the women safe and usually ends up just making things worse. Besides that I really enjoyed the book. It was faster paced and seemed to carry more emotion with the characters than the last, at least for me.

Reading this book does make me want to check out the T.V. show, I like comparing books to shows/movies. ( )

This is the 2nd book in the Shannara Series. The first book was Terry Brooks 1st published, I gave that one 4 stars for the effort and I was happy to move on to book 2 as the story line is wonderful, and I was curious to find out if his writing would improve. Not so much his writing, but his over use of descriptions. *Sigh* Not so much....this book would have come in closer to 400 pages if the Editors had done their job and IMO told him to take it easy with the adjectives.

Still his world building and characters have drawn me in. This book takes place 50 years after the WarLord was defeated. Wil Ohmsford, grandson of the holder of the Elfstones, is the hero of the tale. We find out early that Wil has been gifted the Stones, and it is clear (at least in my mind) that this gift will only lead to something bad.

The EllCrys-the Tree of Life that protects the Westlands of The Elves is dying. So of course there is a Quest, there is a story of love, there is danger and lots of battle scenes. A good old fashion fantasy.

As I said, Brooks has me hooked now-so I will continue to read the series-and hope that somewhere along the line his description of the dark woody area-will say just that.

3 1/2 stars and rounding up to 4, because it is a darn captivating world ( )

I re-read this book recently, having enjoyed it in the past when it was first published. Now, though, it feels derivative and slow. All the battle scenes just became a boring blur to me. The demons were just this evil faceless mass that was winning because of numbers, and all the fights were a variation on this theme. I liked the idea of a magical tree being responsible for protecting the land.

The characters could have been better. Wil is just stupid at times. And he's been studying healing and is called 'Healer' but we never see him actually healing anyone, except in one instance that backfires. It would have been interesting to see more of that reverence for life in his character. Amberle is the token innocent child like woman, and Eretria is the token sexual woman. These stereotypes bugged me. But at least Elfstones had two more female characters than Sword.

But, I had a lot of nostalgia for this series, back when there wasn't much in the way of original fantasy. So three stars. ( )

I enjoyed the TV series but I'm not sure I'll ever get to the story.
------------------

Q: I'm currently re-reading The Elfstones of Shannara and I was wondering whether you will ever write about the birth of the Ellcrys?

A: Now there is a suggestion I haven't heard before. I would have to go back to the time of Faerie to do that, and that would mean writing about a world that I haven't set a story in before and that would mean a whole lot of world-building. So if I do write something about it, likely I will do it as a shorter work of fiction and not a novel.

This book came as a significant surprise to me. Welcome to the world of Shannara.

The second book in Brooks' epic Shannara universe by publication, he abandoned the Tolkien imitation of his first book to really find his own vision as an author. While there is groundwork laid in the first book- the Druids, the Ohmsfords, the Leahs- it becomes its own distinct world here. Gnomes that aren't all selfish and evil introduced via the Storlock healing community. The origin of the Elves and the tie of magic to Faerie explained.

Before the Old World, with its technology and superweapons (our world), there was the time of Faerie. The King of the Silver River had his origins in this time, as did the "real" inspirations for much of human mythology. These creatures lived in magic and used it as naturally as breathing- and they went to war, those who reveled in evil and destruction against those who did not.

In the city of the Elves, there is a special tree, the Ellcrys. And she is dying. And with her dying it is revealed that she was the answer to the war in Faerie- for the Elves were one of the Faery races, and used their magic to seal the "Demon" races away in the Forbidding- the Forbidding that is maintained by the Ellcrys. She must be reborn- one of her Chosen must take her seed to the Earthfire to bathe it, so the Forbidding can be made anew.

But the Demons, the strongest, are already breaking free. Most of the Chosen are slaughtered. Allanon, last of the Druids, is needed to hold the line with the now all-but-human Elves, whose nature embraced change and evolution. So he turns to Wil Ohmsford, grandson of Shea, and inheritor by him of the blue Elfstones, the seeking stones that protect the bearer, to guard the last Chosen on her journey.

Wil may look like an Elf, as did his grandfather- but Wil is but 1/8th Elf. The Elfstones don't always work for him- and he can feel something inside him changing as they do. And he finds himself falling for the young Elfmaid, and desperate to protect her. And in the Westlands of the Elves, it is war- steel against tooth, claw, magic, and the savagery of ages imprisoned. ( )

I enjoyed parts of this book a great deal, but others just seemed rather two-dimensional retellings of Lord of the Rings. The Eco-fantasy angle was a bit heavy-handed at times. Still, if this is your first encounter with Brooks because you watched the tv show, I think you will agree that the book is still better than what you saw on telli.

( )

This is the first Shannara book I have read and I don`t think I `ll read a another one.
This is a interesting story, only the writing is good in some places and not so great in others. As in it go on longer then nessacy. ( )

Many, many years ago I read this. Then I watched season 1 of the TV series - which closely follows the book - and now I re-read it.

Wil Ohmsford, the last of the Shannara bloodline is recruited by Allanon, the last of the Druids, to escort Amberele on her misson to save the Ellcrys, a misson that will ask a lot from them.

It's not a bad story and I enjoyed it, though there are times when it got a little cliched. It's a well worn story and Terry Brooks does a good job of telling the tale. It was worth re-reading. I do intend to continue reading this series. ( )

Just really not for me. ( )

The second book in the series is what the TV series is based off of, but the TV series made some definite changes. Shea, Eretria and Amberle go together to help Eretria with her quest to save the Ellcrys and send the demons back.
( )

Another stinky book club pick. At this point I'm just going for the socialization. Anyway...

The worst thing about this book is not that it's a Tolkien rip-off; it's that it's a tedious, badly-written Tolkien rip-off. It reads as if a young writer read a few fantasy novels, maybe played a little D&D, and then proceeded to write what he thought a fantasy novel should sound like. In other words, the style is very affected and pretentious. He also repeats himself a lot. At least Stephen King will wait a few pages before reminding you of something you already read; Terry will keep going over it until he is sure that you got it the first time. Maybe the publisher asked for a longer book and Terry didn't understand that he was supposed to add more story, so he just went through and reiterated everything.

Not only does the plot feel strangely familiar, but Terry's version is terribly contrived. There's no sense of danger after a while because whenever the protagonists get into a fix they are saved by one deus ex machina after another. If it's not the book's third-rate Gandalf, it's a never-before-mentioned earth spirit that relocates them to safety, or it's the Elfstones whose power is to do whatever is needed to save the protagonists in any situation.

The characters are completely uninteresting. When one slightly interesting character shows up who might make things a bit sexier, she is left behind. (Those fools!) I think she might turn up again later, probably at just the right moment to miraculously save our protagonists, but I didn't get that far. ( )

Well...by the end of the book I enjoyed this more. A bit more a original than the first, but still very Tolkien-esque (I suppose everyone is to a certain extent that writes in the genre). Wasn't a huge fan of that narrator of this audio book, he was a bit over the top arch, and overly dramatic, kind of silly at times. But, still enough to get me to read the third book in the trilogy eventually I suppose. ( )

Già il primo è stato una fiera delle banalità, questo è riuscito a batterlo. Come Tolkien nessuno mai: il punto è sapere con chi ci si sta confrontando e come staccarsene. Non tutti ci riescono: Brooks dovrebbe darsi all'ippica. ( )

I have heard of this author but this is the first time that I have actually read any of his work. In fact, I might never have checked it out if it was not for the fact that these books had not been recently made into a television series. My husband and I recently started watching the show and I was curious to check out the books. I picked up book one and I was already a third of the way in before I put it down. I promptly ordered The Wishsong of Shannara.

All of the characters in this book were great. I had no one favorite. Although at first I was not jiving with Wil. I thought he came off as weak and I felt that Amberle was going to have to carry all of the weight for the both of them. Yet, there were a few moments where Wil really did step up when it counted. I flew through the rest of this book and I can't wait until the next one arrives in the mail so I can read it. I will also be checking out the other books by Mr. Brooks. ( )

I didn't think that there could be a more serious threat to the world after the Warlock Lord, but I was wrong. A giant demon army is more dangerous than a corrupted druid.

Wil, the grandson of Shea, is a healer. Inspired by the death of his parents by a fever, he has been studying at Storlock, and he is the first non-gnome to be taught there. He is knowledgeable about the workings of other cultures in the world, but is still gullible enough to fall for their tricks. He knows that he is good at healing, having learned from the best, but he has very little confidence in his ability to protect Amberle. Even though he doesn't trust himself to protect Amberle, Wil does take his responsibilities to her very seriously.

Amberle is sweet and innocent, and so full of fear. She was delighted and honored to be one of the Chosen, the first woman in centuries, and proud that the Ellcrys spoke to her far more than to the others, but she started to feel that the tree was stealing her identity, or sense of self. While Amberle's sacrifice was very moving, I couldn't help but think that it would have been more so if she had undertaken the quest with the knowledge of what she would be giving up. If, in her fear of losing herself, she had still been willing to go on the quest, knowing what the cost would be. She has a great deal of sweetness in her, and becomes emotional easily.

Eretria is strong, able and full of herself, yet she still manages to be somewhat vulnerable. When you learn what Cephelo has planned for her you can't help but feel bad for her, and even more so when you learn how she came to be in Cephelo's camp. I loved how protective she was of Wisp and I wish Wisp would have survived to learn to live without is strange and somewhat evil mistress. Eretria's morals weren't as strong as Amberle's or even Wil's, but given the fact that she was raised among thieves and cutthroats, it's surprising that she had as strong of morals as she did. When we were first introduced to the Rovers I was not thrilled. It was obvious, with their colorful clothes, travelling wagons and even their name--Rovers--that they were meant to be a new version of the Roma people. Haven't the Roma experienced enough stereotyping without it showing up even in a fantasy book? None the less, I still did find myself enjoying their strange culture, and the way Eretria was trying to escape from it.

Allanon, as before, was the puppet master, getting people to do what he wanted to save the world. Oh, in some ways I like Allanon, and he does seem to love the world. He will do anything to save the races,but if you are the instrument he chooses to use to save them, don't count on him trying to save you. He would sacrifice any person to save the world, though he doesn't seem to care much for the individual person.

I found the way that Eventine favored his older son to be very annoying. Why couldn't he love both his children? This one flaw made him seem far less heroic then he might have otherwise. Especially because of how obnoxious Arion is. Arion is arrogant and condescending. He begins to damage his relationship with Ander because Amberle turned more to Ander for comfort after the death of her father, rather than to Arion. From there Arion continued to try to diminish Ander's part in the kingdom, and is stupid enough to be angry at Ander for standing with Amberle when she was the best hope the world had, and she disliked that even more than any of the others. Sadly, Eventine's behavior even managed to throw a shadow over his legacy from the last book.

I was saddened to learn that Balinor had no children, though I did like Stee Jans a lot, and he probably wouldn't have come, or at the very least, he wouldn't have been so prominent a character, had Balinor had children who were willing to come to the aid of the elves. I was also somewhat disappointed that we didn't learn what happened to Panamon Creel, or what happened to Menion, especially after the big deal that the Sword of Shannara made of his instalove with Shirl Ravenlock. I was disappointed that we didn't see Durin and Dayel again. We were in their home after all. I was also somewhat taken aback when we didn't get to see Shea again, though I was delighted we got to see Flick. Poor Flick, he knew that Allanon couldn't be trusted to take care of Wil, but Wil went with him anyway. Not that he really had much of a choice since otherwise they likely would have had only a few more months or maybe a year til they were all killed by demons, but still, Flick was right when he told Wil not to trust Allanon.

I was glad to see that Keltset's sacrifice was not in vain and the trolls came to the aid of the elves, though from the looks of the trailers, the TV show probably ruined that.

The plot was more unique--or at least less obviously pulled from the Lord of the Rings then was that of the Sword, and I was glad to see some strong women for main characters, but I thought there were more points where the plot was weak in this book than in the Sword.

One thing that I forgot to mention in my review of the Sword is that I really like the way that all the races (except for the elves) are referred to as men or as mankind, even the gnomes, even when they are fighting for an evil cause and willing to wipe out everyone else, their humanity is still acknowledged.

Overall I still really like this series, though as with the last book, I don't know how a conflict could possibly be more dangerous than this one was. ( )

Fantástico 2º Volume da Trilogia Shannara.
A história passa-se 50 anos depois de Sword of Shannara e neste volume explora-se a ameaça de fuga dos Demónios aprisionados no "Forbidding" pelo poder duma árvore mágica dos Elfos. Como seria de esperar, é ao neto do Shea Ohmsford, Wil Ohmsford, que cabe a tarefa de acompanhar e proteger Amber Elessedil na busca do "Bloodfire" onde vai embeber a semente da árvore "Ellcrys". Os perigos na busca são mais que muitos enquanto os Elfos vêm a sua civilização em risco de desaparecer por terem uma ajuda muito escassa por parte dos Humanos (que acham que enquanto o perigo não for visível e concreto não se querem envolver). As analogias com o comportamente egoísta e mesquinho do ser humano são muito bem exploradas e os Demónios são mesmo aterradores.
Apesar de explorar um pouco menos os cortes de acção e passagem para outros pontos da história, inclui elementos de Fantasia muito empolgantes como as bruxas gémeas num dos pontos mais fulcrais da história e tem um final totalmente épico. Posso garantir que este escritor fica registado como um dos meus favoritos de Literatura de Fantasia. ( )

My favorite of all of Brooks' books. ( )

I have noticed that a lot of people have rated this book higher than the first simply on the basis that unlike the first book it is not a carbon copy of Lord of the Rings. This I will admit is true, it is not a carbon copy, but as far as I am concerned, it is still Lord of the Rings, and moreso, it suffers from what I call sequelitis. First, consider that the book has as its main character a young man (Wil, who is related to Flick, the hero of the first book), who has barely reached the age of majority, going off on a great adventure to save the world. This time the story is about an elven woman who is carrying the seed of a tree that has died and this seed needs to be replanted so that the tree can be reborn and the great evil banished from the world. Secondly, much of the book involves a huge battle between the armies of this great evil while Wil and his burden (the elf girl) go off and do their own thing, much in the same way that Frodo and Sam go off and do their own thing while the others fight against the forces of Mordor.
The reason that I say that this book suffers from sequelitis is because, like most sequels, it is set after the original book (and in this case, it is fifty years) and it turns out the great evil that was defeated in the original book wasn't actually all that great because there is an even greater evil out there that must be defeated so that everybody may once again live in peace. Also, despite the fact that this is listed as the second book in a trilogy, it appears that a trilogy was never actually planned but came about due to the success of the first book, so a sequel is written so as to capitalise upon that success (something that we see all too often come out of Hollywood).
What is interesting is that I have been forced to think about the idea of 'what is fantasy' recently because somebody actually asked me that question. I had to think about it, and have come to realise that modern fantasy is much different to what the original fantasy stories were. These days they are just a form of escapism and entertainment and do not come very close to what we would consider to be literature.
When considering the origins of fantasy I generally look back centuries before Lord of the Rings was written: basically to the Ancient Greeks. Here we have what could be considered two foundations, first of all that of the myth, and secondly that of the allegory. The best example of the myth would be the Odyssey and with this story the original hearers would actually look up at Odysseus as a character after which they could model their lives. He was a hero in the true sense of the word because he was in fact a role model. These days with modern fantasy, such as this book, we would not be reading it to consider the protagonist as a shining example of humanity for which we can follow. This is certainly the case here, and in Lord of the Rings.
The second form is what I would call allegory, and Plato's description of Atlantis is an example of this. Here Plato is creating an imaginary nation as an example of what he believes a good and just nation looks like. Allegory also takes a different form in that it is also satire. Lucian of Samotosa and Aristosphanes are examples of ancient writers using fantasy in that way, but then there are also modern writers, such as Jonathon Swift and C.S. Lewis. However I hesitate to consider Tolkien to be a form of allegory since he hated the idea.
Tolkien, however, is not necessarily the father of modern fantasy either, because prior to him (and Lewis) we have stories such as Barsoom and Conan which, while not morality tales or allegory, they were fantasy, but more in the sense that they were adventure stories that would appear in boys magazines. The development of fantasy here was in essence the adventure, but in a sense it was taking the unknown to a new level. As the world became smaller, and the unknown (such as darkest Africa) became known writers would expand their horizons: Conan going to the mists of history, before the waters covered Atlantis, and John Carter leaving the confines of this world to explore the countless other worlds beyond our atmosphere.
That, in the end, is what modern fantasy probably is, namely adventure stories set in the unknown, targeted at a specific set of interests. Gone are the morality tales and the allegories – they are not needed anymore in our postmodern world where everything is right, as long as it does not infringe upon the rights and health of other people – morality is no longer objective but subjective, and we see that shift as we move from the 80s fantasy of Eddings and Brooks, to the fantasy of the naughties with the likes of George R.R. Martin. ( )

This is a fantastic example of what a fantasy novel should be. I read this shortly after reading The Hobbit (for the second time) and - I know it's blasphemous - I much prefer the Elfstones of Shannara. Neither book is a literary masterpiece. However, when I think of an idea fantasy story, I think of dangerous quests, imaginative creatures and blistering action sequences. The action in Elfstones was fantastic, with elves, dwarves and trolls fighting alongside one another. There were a lot of memorable creatures, from the wooden men to Genewen the Roc, and awesome fantasy characters like Stee Jans. Thankfully, there are a couple dozen more to go after this! ( )

This old favourite has really suffered with age (mine). Characters and setting now seem flimsy/simplistic, although there's better disguise of some of the adopted tropes than in Sword of Shannara. Worst of all, I remember this as exciting for its strong female characters. Now I can see how thoroughly undermined they are, from Amberle's insistence that she's not worthy and needs Wil to make her do the right thing through to feisty Eretria's motivation being solely her insta-crush (her argument that she needs Wil to escape her father is at odds with her resourcefulness and courage. Cephelo would be more likely to catch her if she accompanied Wil, and just as likely to try. But she needs a man to get her out, apparently). Rather disappointing - I may keep my copy for old times' sake, but I doubt I'll ever read it again. One star added for nostalgia value. ( )

Nothing can compare to the Sword of Shannara, but this was really entertaining. I didn't like the ending though. A budding romance undone by a tree (pun intended)--seriously? ( )

March 2016 reread
Perhaps this fantasy epic is a bit derivative and predictable, as others have pointed out in their reviews. However, it remains a good exciting story. In this style of adventure/quest fantasy, I don't mind knowing what the end will be; how else could I have reread "The Lord of the Rings" so many times! It is the journey towards the end that I enjoy.

It has been many years since I read this and I didn't recall much about it, so this reread was almost like reading it for the first time. And I have discovered that there are some new additions to the series since I last read any -- I may just have to continue rereading and reading this series :)
----------------------
original 'review'
Better than the first book of the series... ( )