Oh crap. I failed the challenge already. With the title... OK I PROMISE ONLY ONE SYLLABLE FROM NOW ON!!!
One of the best books I read as a child was Terry Brook's The Sword of Shannara. The Sword of Shannara is the first in a HUGE group of books, all tied in some way to the first book; The Sword of Shannara. There are more than 20 books tied to Sword of Shannara in print right now. Most of them are more than 500 page(s FU) long. I've read 11 or 12 of them, but let's just talk on Sword of Shannara for now.
Sword of Shannara is set in a small town called Shady Vale, where Flick Ohmsford lives. When Flick was young, his dad took in a half-elf boy named Shea. Though Shea is not Flick's blood kin, they are close friends.
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OK, wow. This little bit has taken me a VERY long time to write. ONE MORE PARAGRAPH. And then I shall finish this post with many long, beautiful, syllables.
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One day, a man named Allanon comes to Shady Vale. He warns Shea that the "Warlock Lord" is on his way south to find Shea. It turns out Shea is the last of a long line of elves. His great-great-great-great grand-dad (there's a dash, FU) was Jerle Shannara, an elf king.
OK crap. That's a paragraph. So basically, the Warlock Lord was defeated thousands of years ago by Jerle Shannara with the Sword of Shannara, but he's back. Only descendants of Jerle Shannara can wield the sword, and Shea is the only living descendant. So basically Shea has to find the sword, take out the Warlock Lord, and be home for dinner. OK well, maybe not the last part. Sorry. I couldn't resist.
The Sword of Shannara is an amazing book that I would recommend to any reader above the age of ~10. Terry Brooks wrote The Sword of Shannara in 1977 (that's a freaking long time ago), and he hasn't slowed down since. The other series related to The Sword of Shannara are usually series of three or four books with descendants/ancestors of Shea and Flick as the main characters. They are super fun and entertaining. In fact, if it manages to resurface from the depths of my cluttered bookcase, I plan on re-reading The Sword of Shannara tonight!
I started reading this book once, and I got a couple chapters in and then I lost it. I was very sad. Now I'm even more sad, because you make it seem like I'm missing out on a lot.
ReplyDeleteI'll do my best to find it. :)
Great post! (And nice try with the one syllables -- you did pretty good. :P)
I'm actually pretty impressed. It's hard to give a good description of something with only one syllable, as seen in my futile attempt. great job!
ReplyDeleteGood post! This sounds like an interesting book. It amazes me how an author can continue to write in one world for so long; I feel like I would want a change after awhile. Also, good job on the whole "single syllable challenge"
ReplyDeleteGood post conrad. You did a great job on the one syllable challenge, much better than I could have done. The book sounds interesting, but not quite my type. I can't believe you have so many books you can review you clearly read much more than I do.
ReplyDeleteConrad: good job with the one-syllable challenge. It's pretty hard with a book review - how can you avoid the word "pages"? Sounds like another interesting read.
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