For The Sword of Shannara Trilogy, author Terry Brooks wrote three separate, but loosely-connected tales. In The Heritage of Shannara, he tells one large, epic tale over the space of four books. It was quite a departure from the pattern of the previous stories, and, if the first book is any indication, this seems to have worked quite well for Brooks.As the first book, The Scions of Shannara, opens, the world is a radically different place from the world that Brin and Jair Ohmsford inhabited at the end of The Wishsong of Shannara. The Federation, which was once misguided, but still democratic, has become a repressive state that has completely taken over the Southlands through conquest, and has enslaved the Dwarfs, and seem to be intent on driving them to extinction. Magic is outlawed, the elves have disappeared, and a new breed of evil, called the Shadowen, has arisen. Their very presence is causing the Four Lands to sicken and die.Amidst this situation, the shade of the Druid Allanon enlists the help of former Druid Cogline to persuade the heirs of the Elven House of Shannara to come to the Hadeshorn, where his spirit rests, and hear his requests to them. He has tried to contact these folks before, in their dreams, and they will not respond. Par Ohmsford is afraid, Wren Ohmsford is ambivalent, and Walker Boh (an Ohmsford who took the name of one of his forebears) is outright hostile. All of them, even Par who is the most idealistic about the Druids, share a suspicion of Allanon due to his manipulations of their ancestors centuries ago during the Druid's lifetime.After much persuasion from Cogline, they eventually go to the Hadeshorn to hear Allanon's spirit talk to them. The shade shows them a horrific future in which the Shadowen rule the lands and the people are mindless cattle to be fed upon and tortured for the amusement of these demonic creatures. He then gives them their tasks – ones that seem impossible to fulfill. But if they don't accomplish these tasks, the land will be plunged into darkness forever.Terry Brooks really improved his skills as an author in the time between the publication of The Sword of Shannara and Scions. The plotting is tighter, the characterization is actually somewhat in-depth and not the somewhat shallow portrayal of the first book. I love Sword, but I have to be fair on pointing out the problems from which it suffered. Of course, the romantic subplots are still rather sloppily done, with the one in the current book only working because of the length of the time they two characters are mentioned as near each other being longer. Brooks isn't good at writing romances. His attempts could be listed under tvtropes.com's “Strangled by the Red String” index, in which characters are just paired off together with no believable build-up.For me the best part of Scions was that the characters were more believable. They didn't take up the mission with no qualms, but struggled with it. They have fears, doubts, and uncertainties. In short, they were characters that one can relate to. I appreciated this aspect.That is not to say that Scions was perfect. To be sure, it had it's problems. Mainly insomuch as that the story dragged in parts. And the explanation about how the Shadowen developed was understandable, but a bit sloppily explained. It's something that you have to think through to get, and have to depend on your knowledge gained from having read the previous trilogy, because it certainly isn't put all that clearly here.This was a terrific effort by Brooks, and I am already eagerly beginning the second book of the Heritage story, The Druid of Shannara.
Il primo capitolo della seconda saga di Shannara. Per me è una rilettura, in realtà, perchè essendomi appena stato regalato il quarto libro, I Talismani di Shannara, molto tempo dopo aver letto i primi tre, avevo bisogno di rinfrescarmi la memoria.Sono passati più di trecento anni, ormai, e generazioni e generazioni di Ohmsford, dai tempi leggendari in cui mostri, elfi e magia erano la realtà del mondo. Adesso sulle Quattro Terre incombe l’ombra della Federazione, che ha riunito le terre del Sud e soffocato ogni residuo di magia e di libertà. Gli elfi sono scomparsi da tempo, caduti nell’oblio della leggenda, e nani e gnomi sono in schiavitù.Par, dai tratti elfici, discendente del mitico Shannara, possiede la Canzone che prima di lui era appartenuta a Jair Ohmsford (il protagonista de La Canzone di Shannara), e con il fratello Coll tenta di tenere in vita la memoria dei tempi antichi, cantando ed evocando negli ascoltatori le immagini delle avventure di Shea, di Wil, di Brin e di Allanon.Ma una nuova minaccia spinge l’ombra di Allanon, ritiratosi nel mondo delle Ombre circa trecento anni prima per mettere fine all’epoca magica, a chiedere nuovamente l’aiuto degli Ohmsford in cui la magia è manifesta: Par, Wren e Walker Boh ricevono in sogno la sua convocazione al Perno dell’Ade. Occorre nuovamente sconfiggere il male, un male ben peggiore della Federazione. Il primo libro mette le basi per le tre avventure parallele di Par, Wren e Walker; è di preparazione e ci presenta i diversi personaggi, ma è ben lungi dall’essere privo di avvenimenti. Assistiamo dunque al recupero di Par della Spada di Shannara, mentre dovremo attendere i successivi libri per seguire Walker nella resurrezione di Paranor e dei Druidi, e Wren nelle terre dell’Ovest alla ricerca dei perduti elfi. I loro sforzi serviranno a sconfiggere gli Ombrati, esseri originatisi dai residui di magia, che prendono possesso dei corpi degli uomini. Anche questo libro di Terry Brooks, come i suoi predecessori, sa un po’ di già visto, anche se segna il distacco dell’autore dai clichè del Signore degli anelli; ma, per chi ha apprezzato la prima trilogia (tetralogia, se si considera il recente prequel Il Primo Re di Shannara), è un già visto nostalgico. Ritroviamo parecchi nomi noti: Walker, discendente di Kimber Boh; Morgan Leah, appartenente alla casata di Menion; Padishar Creel, che discende direttamente dal Panamon che aiutò Shea nella ricerca della Spada; e altri ancora - ritroviamo Cogline e il Re del Fiume Argento. Un po’ irreale magari, ma per l’appunto nostalgico per chi non si ferma davanti a queste cose, vedere come in queste saghe i discendenti dei ‘capostipiti della saga’ si rincontrino e sviluppino nuovi legami per nuovi scopi in comune. E Brooks riesce a rendere diverso ognuno di loro dal proprio predecessore. Molto affascinante anche seguire le trasformazioni dei luoghi (in questo libro spiccano soprattutto Culhaven e Tyrsis, così diverse da come le abbiamo lette nel corso della prima saga), e i nomi dei 'grandi del passato' ormai stinti in un alone di leggenda.
What do You think about The Scions Of Shannara (2006)?
Review written after 2nd readingAlthough I'm keeping my 3 of 5 stars rating from the first time I read The Scions of Shannara, I'm mentally giving it another 1/2 star this time around. As with the main characters in The Wishsong of Shannara, the characters presented here are well-defined and given room to grow. There is steadily more diversity of character-type in the series, and I am appreciating that on my second time through. That's not to say I like or sympathize with all of the main characters; Par and Walker both have moments of being irritating. Brooks is moving away from the hero = automatic good guy model towards a model where the "hero" (in this case, heroes) are a bit ambiguous; at their core, they're probably "good," but they are flawed too. And those flaws certainly make the characters and the dilemmas they face more real to the reader.
—Claire
The Scions of Shannara takes place 300 years after the events of the previous book, and I was incredibly nervous to start it. My thoughts were something along the lines of 'The Original trilogy was fantastic that nothing could possibly live up to it.' But live up to it it did. I'll never doubt Terry Brooks again.Being incredibly attached to quite a few characters in the Original Trilogy, I had no idea what to expect meeting new ones. I needn't have worried though, because I quickly became fond of all of them. I'm blown away how the author makes me care about every single character, even the villains, and what they're future may or may not entail.Perhaps my favorite part of this book was the nostalgia. I knew I would see a few of the same locations that were introduced previously, but I had no idea the emotions it would bring up. Seeing certain places and reliving their tales? It made the story even more enjoyable than it already was.Upon finishing this book I immediately started the next one, and I'm already enjoying it. So back into this wonderful world I go!
—Danae
La reputazione di Terry Brooks oscilla enormemente.C'è chi lo colloca tra i classici del fantasy, c'è chi lo boccia con decisione relegandolo al ruolo di clone di Tolkien; e c'è da dire, in effetti, che Brooks pubblicò in tempi sospetti (La spada di Shannara fu pubblicata circa vent'anni dopo Il signore degli anelli, nel 1977), quando avvenne il rifiorire del genere.Tuttavia, personalmente, non mi sento di bocciarlo: nonostante La Spada abbia numerosi (a volte sfacciati) richiami a Tolkien, i libri successivi mostrano un progressivo allontanamento dalla scia del Maestro, sviluppando temi a sè stanti e vivificando un mondo che, nel primo libro, sembrava così simile alla Terra di Mezzo, fino a dotarlo di vita propria. http://ghettodeilettori.blogspot.com/...
—La Stamberga dei Lettori
