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The Sword of Shannara

The Shannara Trilogy, Book 1

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The Sword of Shannara

By: Terry Brooks
Narrated by: Scott Brick
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About this listen

50 million Terry Brooks copies sold around the world
The Shannara Chronicles is now a major TV series

Volume one in the classic best-selling series from one of the all-time masters of fantasy.

Long ago, the world of the Four Lands was torn apart by the wars of ancient Evil. But in the Vale, the half-human, half-elfin Shea Ohmsford now lives in peace - until the mysterious, forbidding figure of the druid Allanon appears, to reveal that the supposedly long-dead Warlock Lord lives again.

Shea must embark upon the elemental quest to find the only weapon powerful enough to keep the creatures of darkness at bay: the fabled Sword of Shannara.

©1977 Terry Brooks (P)2003 Books on Tape, Inc. Fantasy Fiction Magic Users

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Critic reviews

"A marvellous fantasy trip." (Frank Herbert)
"Confirms Terry's place at the head of the fantasy world." (Philip Pullman)

"If Harry Potter has given you a thirst for fantasy and you have not discovered the magic of Terry Brooks, you are in for a treat." (Rocky Mountain News)
All stars
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I did really enjoy it. It's a rip off of the Lord of the Rings, but if you can get past that you'll enjoy it. I have it only 4 stars for that. It was very well written though.
The only real down side is the narrators bad accents. I found them quite distracting tbh - if I wanted to listen to Dick Van Dykevs London accent I'd watch Mary Poppins. But apart from this, I thought it was very well narrated and at a good pace

well..

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If you're a fan of Tolkien or Martin then you will like this. Brooks is a great writer with a habit of using words to much but that's not really a problem.

If you are look for an enjoyable book this is it.

Epic

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Sometimes truth can set you free and sometimes it can hamper your freedom to fight. Sometimes you have to trust those you fear... and sometimes fear as all you are able to fight.

Trust and Truths

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One of my favourite books of all time killed by soulless narration that sounds like the guy is reading from a text book.

Disappointing Narration

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loved the story and narration just got fed up with the word several which was used several times.

Good story

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one of the best books on audible without a doubt! would recommend it to everyone and already have!

absolutely fantastic. narrated perfectly also! !

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it takes a while to get going but the patience pays off eventually. ending is a little meh but worth it all the same :)

slow start but worth it

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Wow this was a long book!!! I really loved the story and did not feel like it was a poor Tolkien copy like some others. My only Criticism would be that some bits were soooo long winded... I almost stopped listening sometimes until the explanations had stopped. Also why did the narrators accent sometimes go Scottish??

Good but long winded

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If you ignore the obvious Lord of the Rings parallels with most of the characters, the Sword of Shannara is an okay book. I remember reading this as a kid and fancied giving it a listen and I recall the beginning and the end and that’s about it. Listening back I can see why as the middle is full of the characters thoughts as their minds wander from one topic to the next which could have been resolved with a few lines of dialogue. Also I think the author loved the highlander character and he should have been the main character.

Not bad, not great

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I was worried that the narration will be bad as I saw in other reviews but I was pleasantly surprised to find it okay. The book was a pleasant driving companion on my long cross country trip.

Companionable

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