The Sword and Laser discussion

A little help needed from the group maybe not the best place for this topic but I am lloking to read these.

The Shannara books have been suggested to me by a few people so I looked up on the author's wiki page to check which book is the first. This just made things even more confusing:
The Sword of Shannara is book #1 but then
First King of Shannara is book #0 and a prequel to The Sword..

Then the Word & Void series 'precedes the action in Genesis of Shannara trilogy and serves as the very start of the Shannara saga'

Has anyone read all 25 books currently in the saga if so can anyone tell me what order I need to read the books in to get the whole story and it all make sense.

Thank You

Matt

I haven't read them all, maybe the first 6 way back in the day, but I always go with the order of publication, because if the backstory was that important it would have been in the first published novel.

I usually consider prequels as the author wanting to write more in his/her created world and thinking, "Hey, why don't I tell the story of that old ballad I put in book 2?" or, "Everybody seems to want more about minor character So and So, I'll write a trilogy starting with his/her childhood," and "Where the heck did this sword come from anyways?"

" I always go with the order of publication, because if the backstory was that important it would have been in the first published novel."

That's how I was looking at it at first and the most likely way I was going to go just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to get so far and read a prequel and it change how the series felt or read.

Like I said, I only read maybe 6 of the main storyline books a long time ago so I can't help with how the "feel" of the stories continues or changes. I'm sure someone else here will help with that.

I have to say though that I recently tried to re-read the first book, and the suck fairy had gotten to it. Gave up after only one chapter :/

Really ??

I was recommended the books and finally got round to looking them up didn't know the first one came out in 1977. I was hoping they had stood the test of time.

I'll likely get the first see how that is and decide if I want to continue or not. 25 books so far and 3 more coming in the next few years is a big commitment when I'm lucky to get and hour a day to read.

Eh, well, the first book has been called Tolkien-lite but I hadn't yet read Lord of the Rings, and it's just that I've read soooo many fantasy novels since the 80s, I have lost a lot of that wide-eyed obsession with elves and such. I'm also a bit burned out on the whole "Young man becomes a hero with his quest group of assorted magic wielders and warriors," type of thing.

I do think his style evolves and gets more original as the stories progress.

On Terry Brooks' page here on goodreads, if you look at where it lists series by him, it shows a list of the books in Publication Order as well as Terry's Suggested Reading Order for Revisiting readers. You could probably choose either one. I don't think it matters. I haven't read any of the Word and the Void books neither have I read all of the Shannara books, but I never felt lost because I skipped around. Voyage of the Jerle Shannara is my favorite.

This is not a wise-ass response, truly, but...

"The only winning move is not to play."

Don't start reading the Shannara books, at all. There are plenty of good, long epic fantasy sagas more worthy of your time and money.

I had been aware of the Shannara books for some time, but finally got around to reading the original trilogy a couple years ago. I purchased this collected edition: The Sword of Shannara Trilogy. The first novel of the series is a pretty shameless rip-off of Lord of The Rings. Almost to the point that I almost stopped reading it. Fortunately, the subsequent books in the rest of the first trilogy have more original ideas. Still, the books follow the same pattern - an evil force threatens the land and only the reluctant hero can use the (insert magical item here) to save the world. After reading the first three books, I haven't felt the desire to read the others. My suggestion would be to read the original trilogy first to see if you want to continue with the rest.

George wrote: "This is not a wise-ass response, truly, but...

"The only winning move is not to play."

Don't start reading the Shannara books, at all. There are plenty of good, long epic fantasy sagas more worth..."

I agree with the Burgermeister (nice avatar, George!). I read several of the Shannara books and eventually threw in the towel. The first trilogy was very formulaic, and "borrowed" heavily from Tolkien, Lloyd Alexander, etc. I also remember that for some reason I had a problem with the scale of the world. It seemed like the travel times from one area to another were much shorter than the maps indicated. I know that's a weird beef, but it took me out of the story. I was used to Tolkien's half-continent; maybe the Shannara world was written smaller and I just missed it? In any case, I read several books past the original trilogy, and just lost interest.

For what it's worth, I enjoyed Raymond Feist's endless Midkemia series much more than Brooks' endless Shannara series.

I Actually Started with The High Droid of Shannara

Then I Recently Read Elfstones of Shannara and It's Sequel The Wishsong of Shannara.

Now I Am Reading The Scions of Shannara

I LOVE The Shannara Books That I've Read So far