In his first book, The Sword of Shannara Terry Brooks makes the normal debut of a fantasy writer. He brings us a story that has promise, but seems to be lacking in cetain areas. If you are simply looking for a happy-go-lucky story, look elsewhere. If you are interested in charting the progress of a talented writer, the Shannara series is a great place to start. The battle scenes show promise, and are outright better then most other writers. The suspense aspect of the novel seems a bit overdone, leading to the suspision that most current works of fantasy are watered down. But the area that appears to be lacking is character development. Most characters can be described in a few words, such as the "faithful flick" or the "mysterious Allanon," which in this author's opinion means that some work could be done to expand the descriptions. Terry Brooks shows tremendous potential.
Addiction Rating: 2.5-3.0, Overall Rating: 4.0.