There is arguably no author who has done more for the fantasy genre over the last 40 years than Terry Brooks. So I was intrigued by the announcement of a Shannara TV series: The Shannara Chronicles. Until I heard MTV is behind it.
The same network that graced us with Jersey Shore had gotten their hands on a Shannara novel? I wanted to believe, but I was skeptical. The only thing that kept me from running away in terror is the fact that Mr. Brooks himself is involved.
The original Shannara novel, The Sword Of Shannara, released in 1977. For almost 40 years, Terry Brooks has been one of the standard-bearers of J.R.R. Tolkien’s legacy. Writing his own brand of swords and sorcery fantasy, Brooks draws on Tolkien, but with his own ideas, flavor, and brand of storytelling.
Every fantasy author owes a debt to The Lord of the Rings, but Brooks never seemed interested in being the “next Tolkien,” despite the constant comparisons. His unique style of prose – with a heavy emphasis on story, and less on lore and history – put distance between he and Tolkien, and it won him a devoted fan base.
His sequel to The Sword of Shannara, The Elfstones of Shannara, is considered one of the greatest fantasy novels ever written. This is the novel The Shannara Chronicles is based on.
There are elements of The Shannara Chronicles that MTV does very well. The production values are fantastic. It looks and feels like a show based off a Shannara novel should. You can tell MTV put effort into giving everything the aesthetic the books have as far as visuals. I found the flyover cinematography shots particularly impressive.
Casting John Rhys-Davies to play King Eventine was an excellent choice. He adds weight and presence to the role. Manu Bennett delivers a solid performance as the druid Allanon – he’s mysterious, quiet, and brooding, as Allanon should be. The music delivers as well. At times, it almost feels like a fairy tale, and was reminiscent of Ridley Scott’s Legend in parts.
However, when you start scratching beneath the surface of The Shannara Chronicles, things start to fall apart.
The story and writing is what does The Shannara Chronicles in. It has a promising start, but gets more and more suspect as things progress.
Light spoilers ahead:
The Elfstones Of Shannara is a story of survival. Wil Ohmsford and Amberle Elessedil are literally running for their lives. They’re on a quest they seem completely inadequate for, while being pursued by a demon called the Reaper.
Meanwhile, the elves are trying to survive the Ellcrys dying, and the Forbidding crumbling as a result. This will allow an army of demons to come through the Forbidding and destroy everything in their path.
Wil and Amberle are not lovers, there isn’t any talk of attraction between them, and there is no silly love triangle between them and a bi-sexual Rover girl. (I wish I were joking, this is in Shannara Chronicles.)
They understand that the only chance for survival for them and the elves is fulfilling their quest. The only way they will fulfill their quest is Wil’s elfstones and his emerging ability to use them, with Allanon also trying to stay one step ahead of everything.
End spoilers
There is a sense of urgency and immediacy to the book that is absent in The Shannara Chronicles as the characters argue, flirt with each other (or many times, both), or even decide to have a quick make-out or lovemaking session while the world is ending.
The first season of The Shannara Chronicles is only 10 episodes, but it only takes them about half that to start getting carried away with the story. Somewhere in Episode 8, there is something very close to a rave scene (yes, a rave scene in a fantasy story), which, to me, is a “jump the shark” moment. When you’re not even to Season 2 yet, that is a really bad sign.
I get that MTV never intended to follow the novel explicitly, but at times there is almost no talk of the Forbidding and the consequences as the Ellcrys slowly dies, which is the absolute driving force in the novel.
The Shannara Chronicles goes further off the rails as it goes on. Less and less regard is paid to the source material they’re supposed to be drawing from. The story starts to feel like MTV was making it up as they went along.
MTV spent a lot of money on special effects and production values, and it shows, but it doesn’t seem they spent much on quality writing. If they had, they could have had something special on their hands. It’s not too late. I’m hoping they can make this correction in Season 2.
You’re not going to find Sean Bean or Ian McKellen-caliber acting in The Shannara Chronicles. Nor are you going to see many characters that look like they belong in a fantasy world that is as dangerous as the characters in The Shannara Chronicles keep claiming the world of the Four Lands is. Almost everyone is very attractive and looks like a model. The women all look like they just got makeovers, with their makeup perpetually perfect no matter what is happening around them.
Many of the male characters are wearing leather jackets for some reason – not exactly the kind of garb you expect to see in a fantasy world. And don’t forget about Wil Ohmsford’s perfectly chiseled abs (yes, he does take his shirt off, ladies, more than once)!
Given that most of the characters in The Shannara Chronicles are elves, the soft, fair, and attractive look can be somewhat excused. It wouldn’t be an issue at all if the acting and writing were better. Unfortunately it isn’t, and the characters are pretty paper-thin and boring.
I found myself chuckling during a dramatic scene when one of the characters double-crosses our heroes and sends them plunging down a giant crevasse. Not just because I didn’t care about what happened to the characters, but because I knew they would live. (Spoilers: they did).
I’ve been reading Terry Brooks’s novels since 1992, and I had the privilege of meeting him in person just last year at the Jet City Comic-Con in Tacoma, Washington. It was my first comic book convention, and I had a ton of fun talking to and meeting people, and seeing all the cosplay.
Meeting Mr. Brooks and his protege Shawn Speakman made it even better. I got to chat with them, get my books signed, attend some panels to ask them questions, and listen to them talk about their passion for writing and stories.
At one of the panels, Brooks explained that the reason he decided to work with MTV on a Shannara TV series is because they made the best pitch. He said they seemed genuinely interested in making a quality series that would do justice to the spirit of his books. However, I still wasn’t sold on it. After all, this was MTV he was talking about, and after seeing the first season of The Shannara Chronicles, I had good reason to doubt.
I found enough to like about The Shannara Chronicles to soldier through the 10 episodes. The show has potential, but they must fix the writing and the acting. I’m willing to give Season 2 a chance, but I can’t see myself sticking with it if these issues aren’t addressed immediately and dramatically.
From what I understand, Terry Brooks himself played an executive producer role in the making of The Shannara Chronicles. Sadly, the show doesn’t seem like it was made for fans of his book series, but for the MTV audience, most of whom are likely oblivious to who Terry Brooks is or the impact his Shannara novels have had on the fantasy genre.
The Shannara novels deserve better. Its fans should demand better. Hopefully, MTV can make something for Shannara fans as the show moves forward into its second season.
Matthew's Blog 
I finished the first season (into the second now), and I just read your blog. First of all, on the blog itself: Well-written, well thought-out, articulate without being overly verbose. A nice read. But then again, I’ve read at least one or two of your blogs before, so I kind of expected that.
Point one: “arguably no author who has done more for the fantasy genre over the last 40 years than Terry Brooks.” R. A. Salvatore. Say what you want, “his novels were created to help sell D&D products”…whatever. Whether or not you’re a fan, you cannot deny the popularity of one Drizzt Do’Urden, the protagonist of the Dark Elf series. Terry Brooks had the Shannara series, which was popular with the “post-apocalyptic fantasy” fans, and the Landover series (which, to this day, even though I’m a lifelong fantasy fan AND a 20-year D&D player, I’ve met about two people other than myself who have actually read a Landover book).
Point two: “Brooks never seemed interested in being the ‘next Tolkien,’ despite the constant comparisons.”…kinda funny, considering “Sword of Shannara” was a blatant LOTR ripoff. Don’t try to deny it, the number of similarities between the two stories is utterly ridiculous. After that book, Brooks veered away, but that first one…ugh.
Point 3: The writing and acting. I agree with you on these two points. The acting kind of reminds me of that whole Hercules/Xena/Sinbad group of shows from the 90s. Kind of cheesy, but tolerable enough to keep me watching. The writing…I especially agree with you on. Seemed like every time I turned around the heroes were taking a break from their perilous quest (which, by the way, heroes, has to be done YESTERDAY) to get down and funky with some nekkid-time. “Yeah, I know the world’s falling apart right around our pointed ears, but…I’m kinda horny.”
The rave thing and the leather jackets and that kind of stuff…I can kind of let it pass, because the setting WAS once actually modern Earth. If it was set on another world, I’d be calling BS on all that stuff. Speaking of that…isn’t this show supposed to take place some four THOUSAND years after the war that destroyed everything? Yeah?…they should have though of the fact that 4,000 years is plenty enough time for an abandoned car left out in the weather to totally corrode and collapse into rusty dust.
Other stuff: I don’t like the look of the characters. Particularly the Elves. Mostly that has to do with my own conception of what an Elf should look like, but for me, it’s all wrong. First of all the males have facial hair. LOL who ever heard of an Elf with a beard?…also some of them are just all-together too well-built. They’re too robust, physically. That’s just something difficult to do, I guess, though; to make human actors look like Elves you’d have to starve them all for about a month. Also I find the fact that they used actors of different ethnicities to play the Elves a little absurd. I know why they did, because PC and diversity and all that SJW crap, but we’re talking about a race of people that are NOT HUMAN. Elves don’t come in all the different varieties that Humans do. Let me set that striaght so anyone reading this thinks I hate different ethnicities: I do not. I have absolutely NO issue with the show having different kinds of HUMANS.
Overall, though, I still enjoy it enough to keep watching. Mostly because I’m waiting to see the Dwarves.
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Thanks for the input Phil!
I did say ‘arguably’, meaning it is up for debate. Robert Jordan is another one as well as Salvatore.
A lot of what Shannara fans like is as much about Brooks writing style as it is the stories themselves. It’s the stories, but also how he tells them.
Yes, Sword of Shannara is very reminiscent of Lord of the Rings. Terry Brooks openly acknowledges this as well. In fact, I heard him say with my own ears that is the reason Shannara Chronicles is based on Elfstones of Shannara and not Sword of Shannara. That being said, it was, and I think still is, a great read. And like you said, after that, he definitely found his own voice.
I never thought of the facial hair with the elves. Now that I think about it, it is unusual. And now that I think about it more, John Rhys-Davies did play a dwarf in the Lord of the Rings films. I probably should’ve put that in the blog post, but oh well. I thought Davies did such a good job with the acting, I can let it pass. He was easily the best actor in Season One.
I don’t remember there being Dwarves in the book, as Elfstones was a pretty Elvish story, but they could take liberties in the show. IIRC, Wishsong of Shannara has more Dwarves. In fact, I think Shannara Chronicles could really benefit from elements of Wishsong of Shannara with Garet Jax and the Kraken. I remember the end of that book being pretty spectacular.
I think with Brooks, a lot of it came down to seeing George Martin enjoying so much success with Game of Thrones on TV, plus the other stuff he’s doing with TV. I think Brooks wanted in on that. But that has come at a cost to Martin, as that guy STILL has not released a new Game of Thrones book. Meanwhile, Brooks is cranking out Shannara novels at a steady clip. He’s writing a new Shannara quadrilogy right now that’s supposed to mark the “end” of the series. And he just released a new sci-fi novel called Street Freaks. So while Brooks is not nearly as “mainstream” as Martin has become, he’s put together quite the body of work over the last 40 years.
P.S. I’ve read the Landover books more than once lol. 🙂
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